#Generation Restoration #Our land Our future As the world grapples with environmental challenges, World Environment Day serves as a poignant reminder of the urgent need for collective action. This year the theme, “Restoring Degraded Land into Productive Assets, Our land Our future” calls attention to one of the most pressing issues of our time – land degradation driven by factors such as deforestation, unsustainable agriculture, urbanization, and climate change is posing a grave threat to ecosystems and livelihoods worldwide. Land degradation by itself or in combination with climate change, can have profound implications for natural resource-based livelihood systems, food security, economies, biodiversity, and the overall well-being of communities worldwide.
It is a cause of concern and calls for concerted efforts to address the same. Land restoration is a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world. Land degradation is also a part of Sustainable Development Goal 15 which calls for reversing the same.
2024 will mark the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) adopted in 1994. India, being a party to the Convention has committed to attain land neutrality and restore 26 lakh hectares of degraded land by 2030. From 2015-2019, 30.
51 million hectares of India’s total reported land was degraded, according to the United Nations Convention to.