Srinagar:

The United Nations General Assembly established WorldEnvironment Day in 1972 on the first day of the Stockholm Conference on theHuman environment. The Stockholm conference adopted resolution A/RES/2994 tomark June 05 as the World Environment Day. The resolution was adopted urgingthe government and the organization in the United Nations to undertake on thatday every year worldwide activities reflecting their concern for thepreservation ad enhancement of the environment with a view of deepening environmentalawareness. Two years later in 1974 the first world environment day was heldwith the theme ‘Only One Earth’. Every year the day is celebrated with aspecific theme which highlights the major issues confronting the environmentand which require immediate action. In 1974, it was celebrated with the theme‘Only One Earth’. Since then various host countries have been celebrating itand idea for rotating the centres of these activities started. This year’sWorld Environment Day theme is ‘land restoration, desertification and droughtresilience’. The theme will be celebrated under the slogan ‘Our land, ourfuture. We are #GenerationRestoration.’ At present the planet is witnessing anintensification of the triple planetary crisis i. e the crisis of climate change,the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss, and the crisis of pollution andwaste. This crisis is placing the world’s ecosystems under assault. Billions ofhectares of land are degraded, affecting almost half of the world’s populationand threatening half of global GDP. Rural communities, smallholder farmers andthe extremely poor are hit hardest. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host WorldEnvironment Day 2024.
‘Desertification’ refers to ‘the process of persistent degradation of dry landecosystems by climatic variations and human activities. Desertification occursas a result of a long-term failure to balance human demand for ecosystemservices and the amount the ecosystem can supply. As a result ofDesertification, fertile areas become increasingly arid the biologicalproductivity is lost. It is in other words, the spread of arid areas caused bya variety of factors, such as climate change (particularly the current globalwarming) and overexploitation of soil as a result of human activity. Desertificationand Drought have a bearing on each other.
With less vegetation there is less transpiration and evaporation from the soil,causing less rainfall which ultimately leads to Drought like situation. Droughttriggers the desertification and also the desertification can influence thedrought by reducing the water soil content. No matter where we live, theconsequences of desertification and drought concern all of us. According to theUNCCD (UN Convention to Combat Desertification), 25% of the world’s land areais either highly degraded or undergoing high rates of degradation and is nolonger productive. 75 per cent has been transformed from its natural state,mostly for agriculture. This transformation in land use is happening at afaster rate than at any other time in human history, and has accelerated overthe last 50 years. Scientists say the evolution from one state to the next isso rapid and the process is only observable over very short periods. Everyoneneeds to know that desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) havedirect affect on their daily lives, and that everyone’s daily actions caneither contribute to, or help fight DLDD.
Land restoration is a key pillar of the United Nations Decade on EcosystemRestoration (2021-2030), a rallying call for the protection and revival ofecosystems all around the world, which is critical to achieve the SustainableDevelopment Goals. Restoring terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems is a crucialstep in the transformation of global agri-food systems to be more efficient,inclusive, resilient and sustainable. Ecosystem restoration also offers a longterm solution in the fight to eradicate poverty, hunger and malnutrition, as weface population growth and increased need for foods and ecosystem goods and services.Land that is healthy and resilient is the first point of defense againstdisasters such as droughts and flashfloods, which are becoming more frequent,long and severe. The loss of more and more productive land is thus a concernfor all of us. Given the speed with which the process is going on, the next fewdecades will be the most critical in restoring land for sustainable future.