* In Sub-Saharan Africa, land degradation poses a risk to human security.
* Desertification is "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas".
* A substantial improvement in land management practices is necessary to reduce the risk of land degradation.
Around 85 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans live in rural areas and are fully dependent on the land for their livelihoods. Most are small scale farming communities reliant on rainfall.
Land degradation, and desertification, a specific type of degradation common in Africa, presents risks to human security by reducing the productivity and resilience of croplands, rangelands and woodlands, as well as the useful life of infrastructure such as reservoirs and canals. It reduces the availability of food, fodder and fuel wood, and compromises critical life-sustaining functions including water filtering, flood control, drought resistance and carbon storage in soil and vegetation. In worst-case scenarios, land degradation also has the potential to trigger conflict over natural resources. When these factors are taken together, land degradation places an unnecessary drag on economic growth.
See full Press Release.
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