UN experts call for rights-based approach to combat desertification, land degradation and drought

GENEVA (16 June 2023) – The world must do more to combat desertification and land degradation, which have enormous human rights consequences, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, David Boyd, said in a policy brief presented today. Ahead of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, a group of UN experts issued the following statement:

“The world’s drylands, which are home to three billion people in 169 States and cover almost half of the Earth’s land, are under severe threat from drought, land degradation and desertification. Drylands provide food, fuel, building materials and numerous ecosystem services including water filtration and retention and carbon sequestration.

While desertification is not a new phenomenon, due to climate change and specific human actions, including intensive agricultural practices, deforestation and poor water and land management, it is happening at approximately 30 times the historical rate.

Between 2015 and 2019, the world lost at least 100 million hectares of healthy and productive land every year, affecting the right to water, right to food, cultural rights, the rights of the child and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

Even more daunting is an estimate that 95 percent of the planet’s land area could be degraded by 2050 unless preventive and remedial steps are implemented, beginning immediately. This is a silent, invisible crisis that is destabilising communities on a global scale. The people most impacted by desertification and land degradation are often the poorest peoples in the poorest countries in the world, deepening the global inequality gap.

We now understand that global environmental crises are also human rights crises. And while the climate and biodiversity crises have received massive media, public, academic and political attention, desertification and its human rights consequences have been largely overlooked and underfinanced. The low profile and lack of financial support reflect the systemic marginalisation of people of colour and low-income States whose people are embroiled in extreme poverty.

Developing and implementing systemic, integrated and human rights-based approaches is imperative.

Rights-based approaches impose an obligation to act, are a catalyst for accelerated action, and without a doubt are the most effective, efficient, and equitable way forward. A rights-based approach emphasises States’ obligation to address the underlying causes of desertification and land degradation, which are the same actions driving the other elements of the planetary environmental crisis.”