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UNIT 1: WHERE DO WE STAND? THE STATE OF THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
023
Change on forest extent, 1990-1995
difference 1995-1990
in million hectares
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-18.7
Africa
Asia and
the Pacific
4.7
-17 -29 -0.1
Europe and
Central Asia
Latin America
and the
Caribbean
3.8
North
America
West Asia
Between 1990
and 1995, 56
million hectares
of forests were
lost, a net loss of
65 million
hectares in
developing
countries being
partially offset
by an increase of
nearly 9 million
hectares in the
developed world
S
E
C
T
I
O
N
1
Source: compiled by UNEP GRID Geneva from UNSTAT 1997/Published in
Global Environment Outlook 2000, UNEP
Facts and Figures on Land Degradation
• One third of the world’s land area is dry land;
• 18% of all land in Southeast Asia is affected by desertification. About
25% of soil degradation is directly caused by farming;
• In China, over 10% of desertified land has been rehabilitated and a
further 12% is being reforested;
• More than three-quarters of West Asia is desert, with new
land continuously coming into production by reclamation. But the
productivity of reclaimed lands is only a fraction of the old;
• In Africa, over 500 million hectares have been degraded, i.e. one third
of the continent’s cropland and permanent pasture;
• About 80 million hectares of European dry lands suffer from some
degree of desertification;
• The priority concerns in North America are land pollution and
water contamination. Additional programmes are in place to improve
agricultural practices, in order to reduce erosion and losses in land
productivity;
• In South America, 73% of dry land used for agriculture suffers from
moderate to extreme degradation, while 47% of permanent pastures
have lost much of their original fertility;
• Owing to the degradation of vast areas of land, at least 63 countries
can grow food for only half their people;
• The area of rain-fed cropland across the world could shrink by as much
as 544 million hectares by 2005. This is more than the entire potential
cropland of Southeast Asia. 30% of Central America’s rain-fed cropland,
and 36% of Southeast Asia’s, could be lost;
• The entire potentially cultivable land of the 117 developing countries
would be sufficient to support only 1.6 times the expected population
of 2000, even if it were used only for food crops or as grassland
supporting livestock. This potential area is at least three times greater
than the present cultivated area.