Land degradation to cost global economy $23 tn: UN

The global economy will lose $23 trillion by 2050 through land degradation, a UN review has said.

To take urgent action now and halt these alarming trends would cost $4.6 trillion - only a fraction of the predicted losses, said the review by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) issued here.

The "Land Degradation Neutrality Country Profiles", aimed to help guide policy decisions on land use management, said average losses for 21 countries are equivalent to 9 per cent of GDP.

This figure is even higher for some of the planet's worst affected countries, including Central Africa, where the total losses are estimated at a staggering 40 per cent.

Asia and Africa bear the highest costs, estimated at $84 billion and $65 billion per year respectively.

"Healthy land is the primary asset that supports livelihoods around the globe - from food to jobs and decent incomes.

"Today, we face a crisis of unseen proportions: 1.5 billion people - mainly in the world's most impoverished countries - are trapped on degrading agricultural land," Juan Carlos Mendoza, Managing Director of the UNCCD Global Mechanism, said in a statement.

"This reality is fuelling extreme poverty, particularly in areas such as the Sahel and South Asia, where extreme and erratic weather events are on the rise due to the impacts of climate change."

--IANS

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