A new scientific report has charted an urgent course correction for how the world grows food and uses land to avoid compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental well-being irretrievably.

The report, ‘Stepping back from the Precipice: Transforming Land Management to stay within planetary boundaries’, was launched at the ongoing United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Delegates from 196 countries, out of 200 UNCCD member-states, are attending the summit from 2-13 December under the theme ‘Our Land, Our Future’. UNCCD, the global voice for land, is one of the three major UN treaties, known as the Rio Conventions, alongside climate and biodiversity that recently concluded their COP meetings in Baku, Azerbaijan and Cali, Colombia, respectively.

Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the UNCCD, also a Conference of Parties or COP16, is the largest UN land conference to date and the first UNCCD COP held in the Middle East and North Africa, regions which know first-hand the impacts of desertification, land degradation and drought.

Land is the foundation of Earth’s stability, underlines the report. It regulates climate, preserves biodiversity, maintains freshwater systems and provides life-giving resources including food, water and raw materials.

Drawing on roughly 350 sources, the report examines land degradation and opportunities to act from a planetary boundaries’ perspective. Deforestation, urbanisation and unsuitable farming, however, are causing global land degradation at an unprecedented scale. “If we fail to acknowledge the pivotal role of land and take appropriate action, the consequences will ripple through every aspect of life and extend well into the future, intensifying difficulties for future generations,” UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw warned.

Already, land degradation disrupts food security, drives migration and fuels conflicts. The global area impacted by land degradation – approximately 15 million square kilometres, or land more than the entire continent of Antarctica or nearly the size of Russia – is expanding by about a million square kilometres.

The report situates both problems and potential solutions related to land use within the scientific framework of the planetary boundaries, which has rapidly gained policy relevance since its unveiling 15 years ago. The planetary boundaries define nine critical thresholds essential to maintaining Earth’s stability.

How humanity uses or abuses land directly impacts seven of these, including climate change, species loss and ecosystem viability, freshwater systems, and the circulation of naturally-occurring elements nitrogen and phosphorous. Change in land use is also a planetary boundary.

Alarmingly, six boundaries have already been breached and two more are close to their thresholds: ocean acidification and the concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere.

Only stratospheric ozone – the object of a 1989 treaty to reduce ozone-depleting chemicals – is firmly within its “safe operating space”. “The aim of the planetary boundaries framework is to provide a measure for achieving human well-being within Earth’s ecological limits,” said Johan Rockström, lead author of the seminal study introducing the concept in 2009.

Governance challenge

Benchmarking land use is the extent of the world’s forests before significant human impact. Anything above 75 per cent keeps us with safe bounds, but forest cover has already been reduced to only 60 percent of its original area, according to the recent update of the planetary boundaries’ framework by Katherine Richardson and others.

Until recently, land ecosystems absorbed nearly one-third of human caused carbon dioxide, pollution, even as those emissions increased by half. Over the last decade, however, deforestation and climate change have reduced, by 20 per cent, the capacity of trees and soil to absorb excess carbon dioxide.

Conventional agriculture is the leading culprit in land degradation, contributing to deforestation, soil erosion and pollution. Unsustainable irrigation practices deplete freshwater resources, while excessive use of nitrogen- and phosphorous-based fertilisers destabilise ecosystems.

Climate change, which has long since breached its own planetary boundary, accelerates land degradation through extreme weather events, prolonged droughts and intensified floods. Melting mountain glaciers and altered water cycles heighten vulnerabilities, especially in arid regions.

Rapid urbanisation intensifies these challenges, contributing to habitat destruction, pollution and biodiversity loss. The impacts of land degradation disproportionately hit tropical and low-income countries.

Disproportionately, because they have less resilience and because impacts are concentrated in tropical and arid regions. Women, youth, Indigenous peoples and local communities also bear the brunt of environmental decline.

Weak governance and corruption exacerbate these challenges. Corruption fosters illegal deforestation and resource exploitation, perpetuating cycles of degradation and inequality.

According to the Prindex initiative, nearly a billion people lack secure land tenure, with the highest concentration in North Africa (28 per cent), sub-Saharan Africa (26 per cent) and South and Southeast Asia. The fear of losing one’s home or land undermines efforts to promote sustainable practices.

Agricultural subsidies often incentivise harmful practices, fuelling overuse of water and biogeochemical imbalances. Aligning these subsidies with sustainability goals is critical for effective land management. From 2013 to 2018, more than half-a-trillion dollars was spent on such subsidies across 88 countries, a report by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), UNDP and UNEP found in 2021. Nearly 90 per cent of this went to inefficient, unfair practices that harms the environment.

Transformative action to combat land degradation is needed to ensure a return to the safe operating space for the land-based planetary boundaries. Just as the planetary boundaries are interconnected, so must be the actions to prevent or slow their transgression.

Agriculture reform, soul protection, water resource management, digital solutions, sustainable or “green supply chains, equitable land governance along with the protection and restoration of forests, grasslands, savannas and peatlands are crucial for halting and reversing land and soil degradation.

Regenerative agriculture is primarily defined by its outcomes, including improved soil health, carbon sequestration and biodiversity enhancement. Agro-ecology emphasises holistic land management, including the integration of forestry, crops and livestock management.

Savannah threat

Woodland regeneration, no-till farming, nutrient management, improved grazing, water conservation and harvesting, efficient irrigation, inter-cropping, organic fertiliser, improved use of compost and biochar, can all enhance soil carbon and boost yields.

Savannahs are under severe threat from human-induced land degradation, yet are essential for ecological and human well-being. A major store of biodiversity and carbon, they cover 20 per cent of the Earth’s land surface but are increasingly being lost to cropland expansion and misguided afforestation.

The current rate of groundwater extraction exceeds replenishment in 47 per cent of global aquifers, so more efficient irrigation is crucial to reduce agricultural freshwater use. Globally, the water sector must continue to shift from “grey” infrastructure (dams, reservoirs, channels, treatment plants) to “green” such as reforestation, floodplain restoration, forest conservation or recharging aquifers.

More efficient delivery of chemical fertiliser is likewise essential: currently, only 46 per cent of nitrogen and 66 per cent of phosphorous applied as fertiliser is taken up by crop.  The rest runs off into freshwater bodies, and coastal areas with dire consequences for the environment.

New technologies coupled with big data and artificial intelligence have made possible innovations such as precision farming, remote sensing and drones that detect and combat land degradation in real time.

Numerous multilateral agreements on land-system change exist but have largely failed to deliver.  The Glasgow Declaration to halt deforestation and land degradation by 2030 was signed by 145 countries at the Glasgow climate summit (COP26), but deforestation has increased since.