The World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought is observed on 17 June each year to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat desertification. This year, the theme of the International Day Against Desertification, and Drought "Rising up from drought together", emphasises the need of an early action to avoid disastrous consequences for humanity and the planetary ecosystems.
An estimated 55 million people globally are directly affected by droughts every year.
Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. It is caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations. Desertification does not refer to the expansion of existing deserts. It occurs because dryland ecosystems, which cover over one third of the world's land area, are extremely vulnerable to overexploitation and inappropriate land use. Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing and bad irrigation practices can all undermine the productivity of the land.
By 2050, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population
When the land degrades and stops being productive, natural spaces deteriorate and transform. Thus, greenhouse gas emissions increase and biodiversity decreases. It also means there are fewer wild spaces to buffer zoonoses, such as COVID-19, and protect us from extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, and sand and dust storms.
Between 1900 and 2019, droughts impacted 2.7 billion people in the world, and caused 11.7 million deaths.
The UNCCD is therefore calling on all members of the global community to treat the land as a limited and precious natural capital, prioritize its health in the pandemic recovery and push hard to restore the land during the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Everyone has a role to play because everyone has a stake in the future.
Source: un.org
LET'S FIGHT TO SAVE WORLD ECOSYSTEMS
VAKOVAKO will soon fight to save world ecosystems. 100 % of all donations given via our app to „WORLD ECOSYSTEMS“ area will by transfered to related NGOs. Let’s help them expand their activities together.