WRI - Roots of prosperity
World Resource Institute released the report “Roots of prosperity” in 2017. With the SDGs in their initial implementation phase and the always-growing debate about missing financial resources and climate change impacts, the report looks into the importance of paying attention to the issue of land degradation and its impact on economic and sustainable development.
Degradation of world's land area
Almost a quarter of the world’s land area has been degraded over the past 50 years. This is due to the growing pressure from the food production industry to intensify production and the missing investments in sustainable agricultural practices. The process of land degradation costs more than US$ 6,3 trillion a year and is already altering the livelihoods of the most vulnerable people living in rural areas and depending on agriculture. The decreased productivity undermines the economic and sustainable development, threatens food security and causes migration and even conflicts.
Missing investments in restoration
The report states that although the return for every invested dollar in land restauration is estimated at 7-30 dollars, there are many barriers that hinder investments or make them inadequate. At first, there are the system barriers – the little to now market value of environmental and social benefits as well as the growing incentive to degrade rather than restore. Secondly, there are several barriers to public finance, like the difficulty to assess climate finance and the fact the restoration funding is often part of already limited environmental budgets. Finally yet importantly, the barriers to private finances – restoration projects are too small to attract private finance, they require long term investment and are perceived as risky.
The authors of the report recommend removing agricultural subsidies, re-directing climate finance resource towards restoration and integrating restoration actions in economic, agricultural, energy and financial plans. Additionally the report concludes that governments need to explore the many opportunities to invest in restoration in collaboration with banks, private sector and foundations.
Links
To read and full report and learn more about the barriers and the recommendations follow this link.