ABSTRACT
In the broadest sense, conserving land and water equates to securing our common future. Desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) threaten human security by depriving people of their means of life – by taking away food, access to water, the means for economic activities and even their homes. In worst-case scenarios, they undermine national and regional security, force people to leave their homes and can trigger low or high-level intensity conflicts. Threats to soil security unleashed by desertification, land degradation and the effects of drought constitute a peril to securing our common future. The multidimensional security challenges for biodiversity posed by DLDD
operating at different scales may negatively reinforce each other threatening the survival of billions of people, particularly in the drylands of our world. In the past century, the world population tripled and water consumption increased six times. There is a high probability that: climate change impacts; growing water stress; biodiversity loss; and increasing DLDD1 may all contribute to future food crises, unless extraordinary and innovative strategies, policies and measures are launched now. As such, the land degradation issue can be treated as cumulative – and representing a fundamental biodiversity security challenge. In most cases management and catastrophic natural phenomena drive this degradation. DLDD can be characterized as a human-induced, natural continuum having negative effects on ecosystem functions such as storage and cycling of water and soil resources. DLDD occurs not only in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid zones but also has adverse effects on other ecosystems. Land degradation can be considered in terms of the loss of actual or
potential productivity or utility as a result of natural or anthropogenic factors.
