By Andrew Slaughter
A growing human population and runaway consumption are putting on the natural resources we depend on for survival. Our misuse and abuse of land and water is changing fertile land into deserts.
The word “desertification” conjures up images of the spread of existing deserts, with tall dunes spilling into villages and farmer’s fields. But it is actually by climate variation and human activities, including deforestation, overgrazing (which causes erosion), the cultivation of unsuitable land and other poor land-use management decisions.
We see this now in southern Africa, which has already lost at least of its soil fertility.
But not only developing countries are at risk. is lost every year because of erosion resulting from poor land management in Europe alone.
Desertification is one of the biggest environmental problems facing humanity, and has already affected of the world’s population — 3.2 billion people.
Given that climate change could cause and that population growth puts more pressure on natural resources, land degradation is an increasing global threat to food security, a contributor to poverty and a .
It is clear that desertification is a problem of global proportions, requiring a unified strategy among all countries. If action is not taken now, desertification will accelerate, resulting in further migration and conflict.
Seeing the threat
Not all areas are equally at risk of desertification. Drylands, like those in the Karoo of South Africa and the prairies of Canada, are regions where evapotranspiration (the transfer of water from land and plants to the atmosphere) far exceeds precipitation.
Under natural conditions, drylands are characterised by slow cycles of changing climate and vegetation, moving from one stable state to another. More frequent and severe droughts and human disturbances, such as agriculture, grazing and fire, cause more that can be irreversible.
The threat of land degradation is so widely recognized that the UN established the (UNCCD) nearly 25 years ago, in 1994. It is a legally binding agreement between the partner nations to work together to achieve sustainable land management.
All member countries of the UNCCD recently agreed to and by 2030. On June 17, Ecuador hosted the World Day to Combat Desertification, under the slogan “,” and used the occasion to showcase the use of sustainable land management in developing the country’s bio-economy.
A tentative pledge
Despite its initial commitment to combat desertification, . The reasons were unclear, but it may have been because membership was seen as too costly, without obvious benefits for the environment. The departure left Canada as the only country not party to the agreement.
However, , acknowledging the link between desertification and many of Canada’s development priorities. The factors driving land degradation are interconnected and include population growth and migration, climate change and biodiversity loss.
Current rates of global land degradation are in the order of . And yet . Current land-management practices are clearly unsustainable.
The threatened area is so large that halting land degradation and — from farms and villages to watersheds and continents — requires globally coordinated solutions. By rejoining the UNCCD, Canada can take its rightful place within a coordinated global effort to combat desertification — and strengthen its own efforts nationally.
Why Canada should care
Canada has already cooperated on a regional level with other countries to combat drought and minimize the impacts of reduced agricultural productivity, wildfires and water shortages.
In 2016, for example, when droughts hounded North America, Fort McMurray, Alta. and adding to , Canada cooperated with the to minimize their impacts. The resulting North American Climate Services Partnership (NACSP) facilitated an early drought forecasting system and drought impact assessments.
In addition, Canada faces its own land degradation challenges. Most people associate dryland regions with a hot and dry climate. However, large parts of the Canadian Prairie provinces — Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba — . They are also enormously important agricultural areas, accounting for 60 per cent of the cropland and 80 per cent of the rangeland in Canada.
The Prairies expect to see with future climate change. And although North America is one of five regions identified by the UN as compared to the countries most at risk, the region does face significant water stress challenges.
Way forward
The Paris Agreement recognized “” as an important priority for climate change adaptation, which goes hand-in-hand with combating desertification.
The agricultural sector will play an important role in mitigating the impacts of climate change — and fighting land degradation. It can protect against drought, flooding, landslides and erosion, while maintaining natural vegetation, which helps store carbon in the soil.
But agricultural production will also . It will need to adapt to periods of lower water availability and take measures to preserve fertile soil.
We must also look to how we manage our water resources to help agriculture adapt to climate change and stop desertification.
The that can be used by government and in research to predict and manage the water flow and water quality of Canada’s large river basins. This will allow water to be managed at the scale of entire river basins and help determine how industry, agriculture and mining can fairly share this limited resource.
Canada has, for now, recognized the link between desertification and many of its development priorities, including agriculture, security, water and renewable energy. But we need to ensure the Canadian government remains committed to combating drought and desertification here — and in the rest of the world.
