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PLANET EARTH:OUR LOVING HOME
Saving Drylands: COP10 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification - P2/3
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Concerned viewers,
welcome to Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
From October 10 to 21,
2011, the 10th Session
of the Conference
of the Parties
to the United Nations
Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD)
was held in Changwon,
South Korea.
One of three major
United Nations
environmental agreements,
the Convention
was adopted at the 1992
United Nations Conference
on Environment
and Development,
and established in 1994
to address the issues
of desertification,
land degradation and
drought and to promote
sustainable development
in the world’s drylands.
During the Conference,
approximately 6,400
scientists, experts,
government officials
and non-governmental
organization staff members
from 156 countries
discussed strategies
to halt desertification.
The term desertification
refers to the degradation
of land in arid, semi-arid
and dry sub-humid regions
due to climatic variations,
human activity
and other factors.
Over 100 countries
and 1.2-billion people
are affected
by the phenomenon.
Today, we’ll present
part two of a three-part
series featuring
Supreme Master
Television’s interviews with
Conference participants.
Topsoil is the uppermost
layer of soil
containing nutrient-rich
organic matter
and micro-organisms.
When this invaluable
layer erodes, it results
in enormous declines
in general crop-growing
capacity.
Around the world,
the rate of erosion
far exceeds that of
soil replenishment, with
soil being swept away
10 times faster
than it is restored
in the United States,
and 50 times faster
in China and India.
The cause is mainly
bad management
of the land cover.
We are cutting the forest
without renewing,
without putting new trees.
The cities are growing
very fast and they are not
taking into account
the environment
as an issue in their
development plans.
When you open the land
for agriculture,
they’re using a lot of
agricultural chemicals.
So basically after
a couple of years,
we lose the topsoil
and we lose fertility
because we are only
using chemicals
to produce (crops).
The Great Plains region
in the midwestern
United States
experienced extreme
soil erosion during
the Dust Bowl period
of the 1930s.
Massive amounts of
topsoil were blown from
degraded fields
and transported away
in storm clouds.
Soil ecosphere is
complex with countless
species interacting to
generate organic matter.
Soil forms over
a long period of time,
playing a role
as the groundwork
of civilizations.
But, Professor
David Montgomery
of the University of
Washington, USA
warns in his book,
“Dirt: The Erosion
of Civilization” that
“it only takes one good
rainstorm when the soil
is bare to lose
a century's worth of dirt.”
When the soil is degraded,
in fact, we cannot
make the recovery
of the organic matter
in these soils.
So, we come to have
completely barren soils
which are difficult
to recover within
a few years.
It takes a very long time
to recover these lands.
With the influence of
tropical storms
and hurricanes, we are
losing a lot of fertile soil,
therefore the
desertification issue
becomes more important
for the country.
When desertification
intensifies, it will cause
the arable and productive
lands to recede.
In one of our research studies
in one region in Iran,
within 40 years
the arable land receded
1,000 meters
and turned into deserts.
The so-called
“slash-and-burn”
farming method,
a key driver of
desertification, involves
felling vegetation and
setting fires on the land
to create cropland
or pasture for livestock.
Globally, an estimated
250-500-million farmers
worldwide employ
this technique.
In addition,
the use of firewood
for cooking and heating
by two-billion people
is increasing the rate
of forest clearing.
The main causes of
deforestation are poor
agricultural practices;
that is, the slash-and-
burn method.
Farmers cut down trees
to expand their
production area.
Another cause could be
we have some experiences
of rampant bushfires.
During the dry season,
a lot of forests get burned
and this has also
contributed to the loss
of biodiversity.
Slash-and-burn agriculture?
This is a traditional
practice which was used
by local communities
in the days long ago
when resources
were still abundant.
The use of wood as
a source of energy by
98% of the population
of the country (Niger),
and the fact that there is
an increasing population,
are also important.
These are all factors
which together exacerbate
the degrading situation of
the environment in which
these communities live.
The most important
causes are mainly
related to bushfires,
to overgrazing, but also
to the problems linked
to salinization and
to the exploitation of
timber-forest resources.
So, as a result, many
lands are degraded.
If you see that nearly
90% of the population
uses wood for cooking
in a Sahelian country,
this really pushes
the forest back.
And this will
bring desertification
because without trees
we have wind erosion
and rain erosion,
which will come
and affect the land.
Desertification and
land degradation destroy
the natural ecosystem
of drylands, eventually
altering the structure of
the biological community
and accelerating
biodiversity loss,
with associated plants
and animals becoming
endangered or extinct.
Soil scientist
Elaine Ingham of Oregon
State University, USA,
says that, “Just one gram
of healthy agricultural
soil contains around
100 yards of
threadlike fungal material,
100 million bacteria,
tens of thousands of
one-celled organisms
called protozoa, and
up to 2,000 tiny worms
called nematodes.”
There is a link between
biodiversity and
the production of the land,
the soil fertility.
Basically the soil fertility
is due to the biodiversity
in the soil.
We are very rapidly
losing our biodiversity.
And at same time
we are growing very fast
and we are losing our
natural resources very fast.
We are having a high
rate of losing species,
and ecosystems.
It’s a microcosm of
what’s happening
all over our planet.
Its biodiversity is impacted.
And I think one of
the take-home messages
for me at a conference
like this is that we’re still
dealing with the effects
of climate change,
but we need to deal
with the root causes.
And I think that all the time,
all of those impacts
are squeezing,
and constricting
our natural areas,
our ecosystems
and biodiversity.
The United Nations states
that global income loss
from desertification and
degradation is estimated
to be a staggering
US$42-billion annually.
Italy sees the problems
of land degradation
and desertification
as related issues from
a very close perspective,
not as somebody else’s
problem. It surely affects
landscape and economics
in my country, where
the tourism industry
is very significant
in contributing
to its economics.
Water shortages are
an especially significant
matter in drylands due to
decreased rainfall and
higher evaporation rates.
To maintain basic
well-being,
an individual needs
at least 2,000 cubic meters
of water a year,
but dryland residents
have only 1,300
cubic meters available.
Dry and semi-dry areas
have serious droughts
because
the land degradation
gets worse in all areas.
We have less rain, more
use of natural resources.
Land grabbing by
the private sector
or other companies,
deforestation, and
all these things together
make the situation
very bad, in particular,
for the indigenous peoples,
and rural communities’
livelihood.
There is a big threat
for those communities
and their livelihoods.
Overgrazing
is a main driver of
land degradation
and desertification.
Grazing and trampling
by livestock severely
devastates the soil
in rangeland areas.
The livestock sector
is a Mongolian
traditional industry.
But nowadays,
overgrazing by livestock
has sharply increased.
The livestock sector
inefficiently drains
our grassland resources
and plants are being
destroyed rapidly.
They disappear
because of overgrazing.
Thus, you can conclude
that overgrazing
leads to desertification.
That is the largest
single source of impact.
We also have degraded
lands due to overgrazing,
especially
in Northern Senegal
where intensive
livestock farming is really
extremely overdone.
Livestock severely
impacts soils
because the animals
are grazing everywhere
and there is no kind of
concentration
for organic materials and
obviously that doesn’t
help soil to be fertilized.
We have been
experiencing the problem
of overgrazing,
especially in dry areas.
With the high population
of the livestock,
they make a compaction
of the soil.
And then trees
cannot grow as well.
Then the process of
degradation happens.
Only 30% of the Earth’s
surface is covered
by land, and 30% of
that area is used
for livestock grazing
or growing grain
for animal feed.
Clearing land for these
purposes has created
tremendous ecological
instability and grave
soil degradation
around the world.
May humanity quickly
stop all livestock raising
to prevent further
desertification and
restore dryland ecosystems.
In closing,
we’d like to convey
our appreciation to
the Conference attendees
for speaking to us
about desertification
and providing insights
on how this phenomenon
affects their
respective nations.
For more information
on the 10th Session
of the Conference
of the Parties
to the United Nations
Convention to Combat
Desertification,
please visit
www.UNCCD.int
Please join us again
next Wednesday
on Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
for the conclusion
of our feature
on the Conference.
Eco-wise viewers,
thank you for watching
today’s program.
May we all receive
Heaven’s everlasting
grace and abundant love.
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