Protecting soil and land – securing livelihoods
The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is hosting this year’s Desertification and Drought Day on 17 June. On this occasion, the BMZ and its partners are highlighting the key importance of soil and land and the sustainable use of these finite resources. This year’s Desertification and Drought Day focuses on current and future generations. State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth reflects on the importance of healthy soils for our future.
Soils form the basis of more than 95 per cent of our food production. They are therefore crucial for providing the world’s growing population with sufficient food. However, one third of the world’s land is already severely degraded. As a result, soils are losing their productivity and (agricultural) ecosystems are being destroyed – in some cases irreversibly. Unhealthy soils are also more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. They lack the capacity to store water and nutrients and are therefore less resilient to extreme weather events such as droughts. At the same time, unsustainable land use has a significant impact on the climate: the release of carbon bound in the soil contributes to the acceleration of climate change and the loss of soil fertility.
The enormous impact of the loss of healthy soil is already directly affecting 3.2 billion people, particularly in rural areas. Those whose livelihoods rely to a large extent on agriculture are being deprived of one of the most important foundations for income and economic development. The protection of soil and land resources is therefore a global challenge. Sustainable land management and the restoration of degraded land are the most important responses to climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation.
To safeguard the livelihoods of future generations, we must take action today – together.
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the most important international agreement on soil protection. The fact that Germany is hosting this year’s Desertification and Drought Day in Bonn – which also marks the 30th anniversary of the UNCCD – sends a clear signal in support of protecting soils and land resources.
With the theme “United for Land: Our Legacy. Our Future.”, the focus of the event is on intergenerational soil protection. As a strong supporter, the German government is not only a strategic partner of the UNCCD, but is also striving to achieve land degradation neutrality through concrete projects in partner countries. The UNCCD is often referred to as the “Desertification Convention” – but it is about much more than that. It is the only binding agreement that promotes the conservation of fertile soil and sustainable land management.
It is about protecting our terrestrial ecosystems and safeguarding their long-term function and productivity worldwide.
The UNCCD unites environmental and development issues under a common theme: sustainable land management for the benefit of all. None of the climate and biodiversity goals can be achieved without taking soil protection and sustainable land management into account. Only through the combination of the three Rio Conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification can the Sustainable Development Goals be achieved.