About:
Land degradation is caused by multiple forces, including extreme weather conditions, particularly drought. It is also caused by human activities that pollute or degrade the quality of soils and land utility.
Impact:
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- Desertification is a consequence of severe land degradation and is defined as a process that creates arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas.
- It accelerates climate change and biodiversity loss, and contributes to droughts, wildfires, involuntary migration and the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases.
Global Efforts to Check Land Degradation:
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- United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD): It was established in 1994, the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The Delhi Declaration of 2019, signed by 14th CoP of the UNCCD, called for better access and stewardship over land, and emphasised gender-sensitive transformative projects.
- The Bonn Challenge: To bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.
- Great Green Wall: Initiative by Global Environment Facility (GEF), where eleven countries in Sahel-Saharan Africa have focused efforts to fight against land degradation and revive native plant life to the landscape.
India’s Efforts to Check Land Degradation:
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- India is focusing on sustainable land and resource management for livelihood generation at community level for making the local lands healthier and productive for providing a better homeland and a better future for its inhabitants.
- The National Action Programme for combating desertification was prepared in 2001 to take appropriate action in addressing the problems of desertification.
- Some of the major programmes which address issues related to land degradation and desertification, being implemented currently are as follows:
- Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana)
- National Afforestation Programme (NAP),
- National Mission for Green India (GIM),
- The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS),
- Soil Conservation in the Catchment of River Valley Project,
- National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA),
- Fodder and Feed Development Scheme-component of Grassland Development including Grass Reserves.
- Command Area Development and Water Management (CADWM) programme,
- Soil Health Card Scheme, etc.
- ‘Green wall’ of India
Context: The Centre is mulling an ambitious plan to create a green wall on North- Western part of India.
About the proposed wall:
- It will be a 1,400km long and 5km wide green belt from Gujarat to the Delhi-Haryana border, on the lines of the “Great Green Wall” running through the width of Africa, from Dakar (Senegal) to Djibouti, to combat climate change and desertification.
If approved, this may turn out to be a legacy programme in India’s efforts to deal with land degradation and the eastward march of the Thar desert. - India seeks replicate the idea as a national priority under its goal to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.
- The green belt may not be contiguous, but would roughly cover the entire degraded Aravali range through a massive afforestation exercise.
The need for and significance of the wall:
- A legacy programme like converting such a huge tract of land as a green belt in high-intensive land-degraded states will be great boost towards meeting India’s target.
- The idea of forming a green belt from Porbandar to Panipat will not only help in restoring degraded land through afforestation along the Aravali hill range that spans across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, but also act as a barrier for dust coming from the deserts in western India and Pakistan.
- The Aravalli range, which separates western India’s Thar desert from the relatively green plains to its east, has lost so much green cover that it is losing its ability to act as a natural barrier against the heat and dust that blows in from the west. The greener it remains, say ecologists, the less likely that the desert will expand into the rest of the Indian landmass.
Background:
India has, at present, 96.4 mha of degraded land which is 29.3% of the country’s total geographical area (328.7 mha).
The desertification and land degradation atlas of India, brought out by the ISRO in 2016, revealed that Gujarat, Rajasthan and Delhi were among states/UT where more than 50% of the total area was degraded land and those under the threat of desertification.
About UNCCD:
Established in 1994.
It is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management.
- It is the only convention stemming from a direct recommendation of the Rio Conference’s Agenda 21.
- To help publicise the Convention, 2006 was declared “International Year of Deserts and Desertification”.
- Focus areas: The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.
- Aim: Its 197 Parties aim, through partnerships, to implement the Convention and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The end goal is to protect land from over-use and drought, so it can continue to provide food, water and energy.
- The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the nodal Ministry for this Convention.
