Land Degradation and Restoration

Abstract

Presently, land degradation is a global concern discussed by numerous institutions and its management is of utmost important for ensuring environmental sustainability. As per ISRO (2019), approx. 97.85 M ha of land is degraded and 3.32 M ha of degradation was reported between 2005 and 2019 (last five years) in India. Almost 30% of the country's geographical areas are under desertification, which is a major environmental problem. Thirty percent of 71 M ha forest land, 20% of agricultural and 10% of grass land are under land degradation severity due to anthropogenic activities. Similarly, land degradation and desertification affect 2.6 billion people in a hundred countries which cover approximately 33% of global land surface. These figures are enough to express a global scenario of land degradation in the world. Land degradation, climate change and biodiversity losses are strongly linked to poor environmental health and services. Poor environmental health, services and its sustainability are further amplified by land degradation including deforestation and intensive land use practices. Land degradation vulnerability (LDV) is also observed due to poor vegetations and soil quality under climate change that jeopardize ecosystem health and environmental sustainability. In this context, land degradation can be reversed by practicing sustainable forest management including better restoration and rehabilitation. Moreover, UNCCD also introduced the term LDN (land degradation neutrality) which represents land management for enhancing ecosystem services including soil-food quality and its sustainability. Therefore, sustainable land use and management is a key step towards better environmental sustainability which can be possible through managing forests in sustainable ways. Constructive policy and institutional supports are required to sustainable land and environmental management through better forestry practices.