The UN’s recently released ‘Global Land Outlook’ report lists Pakistan among the 23 countries which have faced drought emergencies between 2020-2022.
The ‘Global Land Outlook’ report is released by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as the UN Desertification and Drought Day (June 17) approaches.
The report identifies Asia as the place having the highest number of drought affected countries over the past century.
Apart from Pakistan, the 23 listed countries include Afghanistan, Brazil, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Somalia, Zambia, and the United States.
The report states that by the year 2050, an additional area equivalent to four million square kilometers of natural areas would need to be restored.
The report also reveals that 40 percent of the earth’s land is degraded, and is a threat to half of humanity and roughly half of global gross domestic product worth $44 trillion.
An alarming prediction by the report is that if activities continue as usual, an additional area, almost the size of South America, would be degraded by 2050.
The report further says that in order to restore one billion hectares of degraded land by 2030, $1.6 trillion would be required in this decade.
Moreover, this is the highest number of familiar and unfamiliar risks and hazards faced by humanity in modern history.
The report warns that if land continues to be degraded as it is, it would result in food supply disruptions, forced migration, biodiversity loss, extinction, along with a greater threat of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, deterioration in human health and land resource conflicts.
