12 June 2012
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Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
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‘Without Healthy Soil, Life on Earth is Unsustainable,’ Says Secretary-General, Urging States to Ensure Sustainable Land Management Part of Rio+20 Legacy
Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message on the World Day to Combat Desertification, which is observed 17 June:
The World Day to Combat Desertification falls this year on the eve of the
United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development. Global efforts to halt and reverse land degradation are
integral to creating the future we want. Sustainable land use is a
prerequisite for lifting billions from poverty, enabling food and
nutrition security, and safeguarding water supplies. It is a
cornerstone of sustainable development.
The people who live in the
world’s arid lands, which occupy more than 40 per cent of our planet’s
land area, are among the poorest and most vulnerable to hunger. We will
not achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 without preserving
the soils on which their subsistence depends.
Nor will we be able to
guarantee our freshwater resources, 70 per cent of which are already
used for agriculture. By 2030, the demand for water is projected to
rise by 35 per cent. Unless we change our land-use practices, we face
the prospect of diminishing and inadequate water supplies, as well as
more frequent and intense droughts.
Further, by 2050, we will
need sufficient productive land to feed an estimated 9 billion people
with per capita consumption levels greater than those of today. This
will be impossible if soil loss continues at its current pace — an
annual loss of 75 billion tons. Important land-use decisions need to be
made, as well as critical investments ranging from extension services
for small farmers to the latest technology to support environmentally
sustainable mass food production.
Rio+20 is our opportunity
to showcase the many smart and effective land management systems and
options that exist or are in the pipeline. Twenty years on from the
adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, let
us ensure that a commitment to sustainable land management features
prominently in the official outcome at Rio and in the wider mobilization
for sustainability that will also be part of Rio’s legacy. Without
healthy soil, life on Earth is unsustainable.
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For information media • not an official record
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