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Australia Leads in War on Desertification
Desertification is playing a key role in accelerating global climate change – and Australia may have some answers, scientists at the Desert Knowledge CRC said today.
“The World Resources Institute has estimated that as much as 300 million tonnes of carbon are lost to the atmosphere from drylands as a result of desertification each year – about 4 percent of global emissions,” DKCRC’s Dr Mark Stafford Smith says. “It also undermines the livelihoods of up to 250 million vulnerable people, creating conflict, humanitarian crises and environmental refugees. This makes desertification a major concern for everyone.”
“However in Australia we have seen recent evidence that desert vegetation cover – and hence carbon storage – may actually be improving. This underlines the importance, first of understanding what is really going on and second, of taking the right management approaches.”
“Looking after our deserts better will not only help to curb greenhouse emissions, it will also protect our native species and landscapes and make pastoralism more sustainable. You could say it is a no regrets policy,” Dr Stafford Smith says.
His comments come on the eve of the United Nations’ World Day to Combat Desertification, which is observed every year on June 17. Drylands occupy nearly a third of the world’s land area and support two billion people. Estimates suggest as much as 20 percent of the world’s drylands are degraded or desertified – meaning that humans are taking more from them than these regions can renewably provide. This has caused long-term loss of productivity.
Globally, 20,000 to 50,000 square kilometres are lost annually through land degradation, chiefly soil erosion, due to unsustainable land management and climate change. Losses in Africa, Latin America and Asia are 2-6 times higher than in the developed regions. China is experiencing severe desertification over a vast area, roughly equivalent to 35 percent of the country’s territory, according to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.
Among Australia’s leading contributions to the global battle against desertification is ACRIS, the Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System, which is being looked at internationally as a model for how to monitor desertification, in the lead-up to the UN Convention on Desertification conference in Buenos Aires in September this year.
ACRIS – a joint program involving state and Federal Government agencies – has pioneered a collaborative system for recording and reporting on environmental, economic and social changes in the rangelands.
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