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Land degradation
Gradual destruction of land / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Land degradation is a process in which the value of the or biophysical or biochemical environment is affected by a combination of natural or human-induced processes acting upon the land.[1][2] It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be deleterious or undesirable.[3] Natural hazards are excluded as a cause; however human activities can indirectly affect phenomena such as floods and bush fires.
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Expert projections suggest that land degradation will be an important theme of the 21st century, impacting agricultural productivity, biodiversity loss, environmental change, and its effects on food security.[4] It is estimated that up to 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.[5]
According to the Special Report on Climate Change and Land of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "About a quarter of the Earth's ice-free land area is subject to human-induced degradation (medium confidence). Soil erosion from agricultural fields is estimated to be currently 11 to 20 times (no-tillage) to more than 100 times (conventional tillage) higher than the soil formation rate (medium confidence)."[6]
The United Nations estimate that about 30% of land is degraded worldwide, and about 3.2 billion people reside in these degrading areas, giving a high rate of environmental pollution.[7] About 12 million hectares of productive land—which roughly equals the size of Greece—is degraded every year. This happens because people exploit the land without protecting it.[8][9] The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15 has a target to restore degraded land and soil and achieve a land degradation-neutral world by 2030.[10]