Did You Know?

Drought has become an existential threat for many vulnerable communities around the world and is inextricably linked to the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity and nature loss and pollution and waste.
Since 1970, droughts have claimed the lives of 650,000 people and it is estimated that by 2030, drought, land degradation and desertification could cause 135 million people to migrate as the climate crisis worsens.
Every year, an estimated 12 million hectares of land are lost to degradation, roughly three times the size of the Netherlands, costing more than 10 per cent of annual global GDP in lost ecosystem services.
Between 2015 and 2019, the world lost at least 100 million hectares of healthy and productive land every year, adding up to twice the size of Greenland, affecting food and water security globally.
In total, more than 2 billion hectares of land are degraded, a footprint larger than South America, effecting 3.2 billion people – 40 per cent of the world’s population – disproportionately harming those who are least equipped to cope: rural communities, smallholder farmers and the extremely poor.

Land restoration and sustainable land use are key to building resilience to drought and every dollar invested in restoration can bring up to US$30 in ecosystem services.
Restoration boosts livelihoods, lowers poverty and builds resilience to extreme weather. Restoration increases carbon storage and slows climate change.
Restoring just 15 per cent of land and halting further conversion could avoid up to 60 per cent of expected species extinctions.

Forests alone absorb carbon from the atmosphere at a rate equivalent to about one-third the amount released annually by burning fossil fuels.
Peatlands store nearly 30 per cent of global soil carbon despite covering only 3 per cent of the world’s land area.
Ecosystem conservation and restoration could close emissions gap by 25 per cent.
Soils represent around 25 per cent of the nature-based solutions required for climate change mitigation by 2030.

There are more soil microorganisms in a teaspoonful of soil than there are people on Earth. Soils contain billions of microscopic organisms, including bacteria, algae and microscopic insects, as well as earthworms, beetles, ants, mites, and fungi.
The persistent usage of dangerous, non-selective insecticides is causing plant and insect populations to dwindle around the globe.
Soil pollution is a major threat to soil health and affects the soil’s ability to provide ecosystem services, including the production of safe and sufficient food, compromising global food security.
Excess nitrogen in the environment which comes from the use of synthetic fertilizers, the discharge of wastewater or the combustion of fossil fuels pollutes land, water and air.
An estimated 33 per cent of the world's soils are moderately to highly degraded due to erosion, nutrient depletion chemical contamination and physical degradation.
Around 24 billion tons of fertile soil are lost each year due to erosion, reducing the global potential to grow food and contributing to food insecurity especially in the developing world.
Globally, 75 billion tonnes of soil are lost from arable land each year, costing estimated US$ 400 billion in agricultural production loss and posing a serious threat to food security.

World Environment Day on 5 June is the biggest international day for the environment. Led by UNEP and held annually since 1973, the event has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach, with millions of people from across the world engaging to protect the planet.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host the 2024 World Environment Day global celebrations, with a focus on and restoration, desertification and drought resilience under the slogan “Our land. Our future. We are #GenerationRestoration.”
Over 150 countries are participating, and the UN will engage governments, businesses, civil society, schools, celebrities, cities and communities to raise awareness and celebrate environmental action.