Land degradation means reduction or loss, in arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas, of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated cropland or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns such as: soil erosion caused by wind and/or water; deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of soil; and long-term loss of natural vegetation (UNCCD, 1993).
"},"editorialNote":{"en":["source:IPCC Glossary AR6","source:UNDRR HIPS"]},"scopeNote":{"en":["In the soil conservation arena, the terms soil degradation and land degradation are sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably, with soil erosion regarded as synonymous to both. However, there is more to soil degradation than just soil erosion, and land represents a broader concept than simply soil. As with its use in the context of land evaluation (FAO, 1976), the term land refers to all-natural resources which contribute to agricultural production, including livestock production and forestry. Land thus covers climate, landforms, water resources, soils and vegetation (including both grassland and forests) (FAO, 1999). There are a number of interrelated land degradation components, all of which may contribute to a decline in agricultural production. The most important according to Douglas (1994) cited by FAO (1999): Land degradation has both on-site and off-site effects. On-site effects are the lowering of the productive capacity of the land, causing either reduced outputs (crop yields, livestock yields) or the need for increased inputs. Off-site effects of water erosion occur through changes in the water regime, including decline in river water quality, and sedimentation of river beds and reservoirs. The main off-site effect of wind erosion is overblowing, or sand deposition (FAO, 1994). Examples of causes of different types of land degradation include water erosion, wind erosion, soil fertility decline, waterlogging, salinisation, lowering of the water table, deforestation, forest degradation and rangeland degradation (FAO, 1994). In their 2019 review on land degradation for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Olsson et al. (2019) reported that land degradation adversely affects people’s livelihoods (very high confidence) and occurs over a quarter of the Earth’s ice-free land area (medium confidence). The majority of the 1.3 to 3.2 billion affected people (low confidence) are living in poverty in developing countries (medium confidence). Land-use changes and unsustainable land management are direct human causes of land degradation (very high confidence), with agriculture being a dominant sector driving degradation (very high confidence). Soil loss from conventionally tilled land exceeds the rate of soil formation by more than 2 orders of magnitude (medium confidence). Land degradation affects humans in multiple ways, interacting with social, political, cultural and economic aspects, including markets, technology, inequality and demographic change (very high confidence). Land degradation impacts extend beyond the land surface itself, affecting marine and freshwater systems, as well as people and ecosystems far from the local sites of degradation (very high confidence) (Olsson et al., 2019). Studies indicate that land degradation directly affects 1.5 billion people worldwide, with a disproportionate impact on women, children and the poor, and it reduced the productivity of the world’s terrestrial surface by about 25% between 1981 and 2003 (FAO, 2020).","Soil degradation consists of biological, chemical and physical degradation. Currently, about 33% of world soils are moderately to highly degraded. Forty percent of these degraded soils are located in Africa and most of the rest are in areas that are afflicted by poverty and food insecurity. The strong relationship between soil health and food security calls for strategic and immediate actions, especially at the local level, to reverse soil degradation in order to increase food production and alleviate food insecurity in the areas where it is most needed and in the context of climate change (FAO, 2015). Soil is an essential component of ‘land’ and ‘ecosystems’ that both are broader concepts encompassing vegetation, water and climate in the case of land, and in addition to those three aspects, also social and economic considerations in the case of ecosystems. Degraded soils have a health status such that they do not provide the normal goods and services of the particular soil in its ecosystem (FAO, 2020a). Soil degradation is the decline in soil condition caused by its improper use or poor management, usually for agricultural, industrial or urban purposes. It is a serious environmental issue. Soils are a fundamental natural resource and are the basis for all terrestrial life. Avoiding soil degradation is crucial to our well-being (NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, 2019). Soil degradation is the physical, chemical and biological decline in soil quality. It can be the loss of organic matter, decline in soil fertility, and structural condition, erosion, adverse changes in salinity, acidity or alkalinity, and the effects of toxic chemicals, pollutants or excessive flooding. Soil degradation can involve: water erosion (includes sheet, rill and gully erosion); wind erosion; salinity (includes dryland, irrigation and urban salinity); loss of organic matter; fertility decline; soil acidity or alkalinity; structure decline (includes soil compaction and surface sealing); mass movement; and soil contamination (NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, 2019)."]},"narrower":[{"id":"http://connectivity-hub.com/terms/3d5e1330-f23d-430f-af05-3ec87a1513fb","prefLabel":{"en":"Forest degradation"}}],"inScheme":[{"id":"http://connectivity-hub.com/terms/","title":{"en":"Climate Connectivity Taxonomy"}}],"inSchemeAll":[{"id":"http://connectivity-hub.com/terms/"}],"@context":{"@version":1.1,"id":"@id","type":"@type","@vocab":"http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#","xsd":"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#","dct":"http://purl.org/dc/terms/","dc":"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/","schema":"https://schema.org/","vann":"http://purl.org/vocab/vann/","ldp":"http://www.w3.org/ns/ldp#","owl":"http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#","title":{"@id":"dct:title","@container":"@language"},"dc:title":{"@id":"dc:title","@container":"@language"},"dc:description":{"@id":"dc:description","@container":"@language"},"description":{"@id":"dct:description","@container":"@language"},"license":{"@id":"dct:license","@container":"@language"},"issued":{"@id":"dct:issued","@type":"xsd:date"},"created":{"@id":"dct:created","@type":"xsd:date"},"modified":{"@id":"dct:modified","@type":"xsd:date"},"creator":"dct:creator","publisher":"dct:publisher","preferredNamespacePrefix":"vann:preferredNamespacePrefix","preferredNamespaceUri":"vann:preferredNamespaceUri","isBasedOn":"schema:isBasedOn","source":"dct:source","prefLabel":{"@container":"@language"},"altLabel":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"hiddenLabel":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"definition":{"@container":"@language"},"note":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"changeNote":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"editorialNote":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"historyNote":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"scopeNote":{"@container":["@language","@set"]},"notation":{"@container":"@set"},"example":{"@container":"@language"},"narrower":{"@container":"@set"},"related":{"@container":"@set"},"relatedMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"narrowerTransitive":{"@container":"@set"},"broaderTransitive":{"@container":"@set"},"broadMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"narrowMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"closeMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"exactMatch":{"@container":"@set"},"hasTopConcept":{"@container":"@set"},"inScheme":{"@container":"@set"},"topConceptOf":{"@container":"@set"},"deprecated":{"@id":"owl:deprecated","@type":"xsd:boolean"},"isReplacedBy":{"@id":"dct:isReplacedBy","@container":"@set"}}}