19 Jun 2016

Land degradation has implications for biodiversity, poverty eradication, socio-economic stability and sustainable development.

Bangwato regent, Kgosi Sediegeng Kgamane, said this during commemoration of the World Day to Combat Desertification in Kalamare recently

Kgosi Kgamane said desertification along with climate change was turning the once fertile soils into unproductive and barren patches of land.

He said arable land was shrinking throughout the world threatening food security, particularly in poor rural areas, because the poor often farmed degraded land that was increasingly unable to meet their needs. 

He said desertification was both a cause and consequence of poverty.

He said it was worth noting that billions of people worldwide were affected by hunger and 80 per cent of small farmers in rural areas were landless due to the impacts of desertification, land degradation ad drought.

Kgosi Kgamane said continued land degradation over the next 25 years could reduce global food production as the population grows, rising incomes and changing consumptions patters are expected to increase food demand significantly.

He noted that desertification has immediate consequences on the capacity of vegetation to maintain or reconstruct itself as animal species depend on this vegetation, would then have to migrate to other areas to find sufficient resources or they risk disappearing altogether.

Kgosi Kgamane said this year's theme for commemorating this day, which was 'Inclusive cooperation for achieving land degradation neutrality', advocates for the importance of inclusive cooperation to restore and rehabilitate degraded land and contribute towards achieving the overall Sustainable Development Goals.

He explained that it emphasizes the need to collectively and boldly halt and prevent further degradation of land. ENDS