Almost six months before COP 16 of the United Nations Convention on Combating Violence takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. desertification (CNULCD or UNCCD), its secretariat is openly considering the situation hard pasture plants. These areas intended for feeding livestock or wild animals, whether grasslands, savannahs or plains, cover approximately 54% Earth surface. And according to international experts from the UNCCD secretariat, their level of degradation has so far been underestimated.
Previous estimates of global rangeland degradation, around 25%, significantly underestimate the actual loss of rangeland health and productivity and could be as high as 50%.the authors of the report confirm (1) . The problem is largely caused by the conversion of pasture to arable land and other land-use changes resulting from population growth and urban sprawl, but also from rapidly increasing demand for food, fiber and fuel, overgrazing and policies that encourage overexploitation. As far as Europe is concerned, they condemn, for example, the policy that favors industrial agriculture to its detriment cattle breeding.
and UNCCD Secretariat to recall, moreover, that only 12% of grasslands are protected in the world, although they contribute a sixth of the world’s food supply, make up a third of the planet’s carbon sinks and that 33% represent sensitive areas of biodiversity. In order to reverse the observed trend, he suggests a change of management model at all levels starting with engaging in cross-border cooperation to achieve the goal of neutrality with respect to land degradation. It also recommends taking better care of real economic contribution of pastures and livestockoften underestimated. When we cut down a forest, when we see a hundred-year-old tree fall, it rightly causes an emotional reaction in many of us; while the conversion of former pastures happens quietly and causes little reaction from the publiclaments UNCCD Executive Secretary, Ibrahim Thiaw.
Article published on May 22, 2024