More importantly, land degradation has seriously taken a toll on the economic prosperity of many parts of the world. Africa and Asia continue to be the worst affected regions. Plenty of research has gone into how to overcome land degradation. Some involve simple management practices, while other methods involve use of sophisticated technologies. These 10 measures can effectively control and prevent land degradation.
With political commitment backing the strong economic incentive to protect our lands, this a good time to be working toward overcoming land degradation. Usually found sitting with a good book, nibbling on a piece of dark chocolate. Always ready for a good story. View all posts by Saurab Babu. You are commenting using your WordPress.
You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Small dams now trap rainwater for livestock and provide water, passed along irrigation channels, for cash crops.
Economic development activities connect communities with input suppliers, markets and finance so they benefit economically from the recovering landscape. Flourishing trees can support honey production, and grass production can support livestock and poultry raising.
The project formed producer and marketing groups and linked them to the markets to increase their profits. Because his degraded land could not support his growing family, Alem Desta Gebre sought a better life in Saudi Arabia. There he experienced the harsh realities of being an exploited labourer in a foreign country.
I have no need to go back there. To prevent land degradation, treat the land like it matters. Land degradation is costly. In areas where desertification processes are at the early stages or are relatively minor, it is possible to stop the process and restore key services in the degraded areas. Prevention is a lot more cost-effective than rehabilitation, and this should be taken into account in policy decisions.
Addressing desertification is critical and essential to meeting the Millennium Development Goals which aim to eradicate extreme poverty and ensuring environmental sustainability amongst other objectives. On average, human populations in drylands have a lower quality of life than people in other areas. Worldwide, approximately half of the people living below the poverty line live in drylands and their societies are particularly vulnerable as a result of dryland ecosystem conditions and poverty.
Addressing desertification would therefore contribute to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. The creation of a "culture of prevention" can go a long way toward protecting drylands when desertification is just beginning and even when it is ongoing. It has been shown that dryland populations , building on long-term experience and active innovation, can stay ahead of desertification by improving agricultural and grazing practices in a sustainable way.
Silvia Pressel, a Museum researcher in the Algae, Fungi and Plants Division, says, 'Soil is full of millions of living organisms that interact with one another. These organisms have a major influence on soil, such as its formation, structure and productivity. Soil degradation describes what happens when the quality of soil declines and diminishes its capacity to support animals and plants.
Soil can lose certain physical, chemical or biological qualities that underpin the web of life within it. Soil erosion is a part of soil degradation. It's when the topsoil and nutrients are lost either naturally, such as via wind erosion, or due to human actions, such as poor land management.
There are many types of soil around the world. The UK alone has over varieties, such as clay, sand, silt, loam and peat. These soils have different characteristics which can be useful for humans. Healthy soil has a good combination of soil structure, chemistry, organic matter content, biology and water permeation for its type.
A typically healthy soil will be teeming with biodiversity and may include a variety of earthworms, types of small arachnids, species of insects, hundreds of different fungi and thousands of bacteria species. Nowhere else in the world is nature so densely packed.
A teaspoon of soil can contain more organisms than there are humans living on Earth. A type of mycorrhizal fungi forming a symbiotic relationship with a plant root. These fungi help plants absorb hard-to-get soil nutrients, such as phosphorus in exchange for sugar. Mycorrhizal fungi are ubiquitous on land, but are being destroyed by farming practices such as tilling and use of chemicals. Research on mycorrhizal fungi is increasingly important and could be a viable solution for sustainable agriculture.
Brown earth has a deep top layer where most of the nutrients are and biological activities take place. At around 20 centimetres deep, it provides a lot of space and encouragement for roots to grow comfortably. Brown earth also drains water at a moderate rate, which allows plants to absorb enough water without drying out or flooding. These qualities make brown earth well-suited for agriculture, and most British farms depend on it. The millions of organisms that live within soil interact with one another and contribute to a number of cycles that make all life on Earth possible.
These include carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. Soil plays a vital role in cleaning water. Minerals and microbes filter and buffer potential pollutants, some of which are absorbed by soil particles. This is promoted by the thousands of organisms that live in soil, including earthworms, ants and termites, which create channels and routes for water and air to flow through. Soil also regulates the movement of water and prevents floods by controlling whether rainfall, snowfall and irrigation water will flow over land or through it.
Healthy soil contains high biodiversity, which helps fight off pests and allows fresh, nutritious plants to grow. Soil also contains organisms that can kill harmful bacteria. A variety of medicines have been made from organisms that live in soil, such as penicillin - a group of antibiotics widely used to fight off bacterial infections.
Soil provides physical stability for plants by allowing the roots to anchor to something. This in turn helps create oxygen and clean water for all life on Earth. Soil also provides support for manmade structures, including treasured but fragile archaeological sites. Finally, soil plays a very important role in mitigating climate change. It is the second-largest carbon sink after the ocean, constantly storing and releasing carbon, which regulates atmospheric CO 2 concentrations and, ultimately, the greenhouse effect.
Peatland landscapes vary from frozen, open spaces in Scotland to swamp forests in Indonesia. Peatlands are the largest natural form of carbon storage on land and are vital for reducing global carbon emission.
Due to lack of awareness, many peatlands have been overexploited and damaged by draining, burning and mining.
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