Restoration. Land. Recovery

 The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) established “Restoration – Land – Recovery” as a theme for 2021, focusing on the transformation of degraded lands into healthy lands, and within the framework of the United Nations Decade on the Restoration of Ecosystems 2021-2030.

On this occasion, the host country is Costa Rica, and it will develop an agenda with various activities with the purpose of helping to restore our lands. The official event to be held on the occasion of this World Day will be broadcast on June 17, at 9:15 am (CEST). At this event, a special report on the drought and its impact on achieving a more sustainable world will be released.

The fragility of dry zone ecosystems, which cover a third of the planet’s surface, is the origin of desertification, due to overexploitation and inappropriate land use. Poverty, deforestation, overgrazing and poor irrigation practices negatively affect soil productivity.

Three-quarters of the land not covered by ice on the planet has been seriously affected by human beings, seeking to cover the increasing amount of food that the world population needs, as well as the production of raw materials, and the development of roads. communication and housing developments. That is why we must avoid, slow down and reverse the growing loss of productive land and natural ecosystems. Advancing in a rapid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will depend largely on these urgent and vital actions and will ensure the long-term survival of the planet and those of us who live on it.

The UNCCD urges all members of the world community to treat the earth as a precious and limited natural capital, giving priority to maintaining healthy soils during the recovery phase of the pandemic, seeking to make the maximum effort to restore the earth. . For this, according to the maximum entity, we must comply with:

  • Economic resilience.
  • Generation of sources of employment.
  • Increase in income.
  • Achieve greater food security.
  • Recover biodiversity and green areas.
  • Reduce the effect of climate change by capturing atmospheric carbon that warms the Earth.
  • Prevent and reduce the loss of productive land and natural ecosystems due to the effects of climate change, natural phenomena and forced interventions by human beings.
  • Support a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, restore natural landscapes, reduce direct contact between wildlife and human settlements, creating a natural barrier against zoonoses.

Permanent actions must be taken to preserve the lands and that in the future we do not all affect each other.

Aixa Chacin

Sources:

United Nations. World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, June 17. Recovered from https://www.un.org/es/observances/desertification-day

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2021. Retrieved from https://www.unccd.int/actions17-june-desertification-and-drought-day/2021-desertification-and-drought-day

SGK-PLANET Suggested Reading Regarding Desertification and Drought