New Delhi: India will aim to restore 21 to 26 million hectares of land by 2030, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday at the ongoing 14th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 14) in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
The PM was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the convention’s high-level segment.
He also added how “it has now been widely accepted that the world is facing negative effects of climate change”.
Going forward, India would be happy to propose initiatives for greater cooperation between developing countries to address issues concerning climate change, biodiversity and land degradation, the PM added.
He later mentioned India’s intent to go plastic-free, and called upon other countries to follow the example of banning single use plastics.
Setting new targets
Days before the UN convention, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had said that India would set the target of restoring 50 lakh hectares, over and above the pledge to restore 13 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020 as part of the ‘Bonn Challenge’.
The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.
On Monday, Modi also noted that the current COP has a record number of registrations, reflecting the global commitment to combat land degradation. UNCCD executive secretary Ibrahim Thiaw had earlier said that close to 8,000 delegates had registered for the event.
The COP 14 — being held from 2 to 13 September — is reviewing the progress made in the last two years to control land desertification and degradation, as well as drought. It is expected to agree on about 30 decisions to ensure that the convention’s goals for 2030 are achieved.
At the end of this meet, the parties are expected to announce the Delhi Declaration that will represent a global resolve to fight climate change.
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Extinction threat
“You will be shocked to know that desertification affects over two-thirds of countries in the world,” Modi said.
UN had earlier stated that land transformation — though important — has been putting species at risk of extinction.
“Over 70 per cent of the world’s land area has been transformed from its natural state to produce food, fibre and energy. Some of this conversion is essential, but what is alarming is the pace of land transformation that is putting one million species at risk of extinction,” the statement read.
Also, 1 out of 4 hectares of this converted land is no longer usable due to unsustainable land management practices, it further stated.
An analysis of remotely sensed data by ISRO in 2016 had revealed that 96.40 million hectares or 29.32 per cent of the Total Geographic Area (TGA) of India faces the threat of degradation.
Anuradha Singh, director, desertification cell, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, had also said that the economic costs of land degradation in India constitutes about 2.5 per cent of its GDP. Economical costs are associated with lost crop production, lesser availability of grasslands and degradation of forests, among others.
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