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A third of world’s arable land affected by degradation
The UN estimates that humans are producing 23 hectares of desert every minute - an area equivalent to about 30 football pitches. The most common cause is the improper cultivation of soils, which is becoming a serious problem because soils are a non-renewable source of our livelihoods. They are used as the source of 90 percent of our food and, increasingly, to produce renewable raw materials for the manufacture of textiles, bioplastics and biofuels. As world population rises so will the pressure on soils as the attendant urbanisation often destroys fertile soil. “We have neglected our soil for too long. It is high time to provide better protection and gain better control of the growing pressure exerted on soil by meeting our food and fuel needs. In a globalized market, this will require national and international coordination of efforts with explicit and binding rules”, said Thomas Holzmann, Vice-President of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), at the World Soil Day on 5 December 2011. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies IASS in Potsdam, adds, “World population is growing as are our demands on nature’s performance. The result is loss of fertile soils if they are not managed sustainably. This in turn results in more hunger, water scarcity and global poverty. Aid shipments and protective treatment of our soil will be needed to combat all this.” read more
