Two billion LIFE ON LAND: hectares of land on Earth WHY IT MATTERS are degraded, affecting some What’s the goal here? terrestrial species of ani- mals, plants and insects. To sustainably manage 3.2 billion However, biodiversity is forests, combat deserti- declining faster than at any people, fication, halt and reverse other time in human history. land degradation, and driving species halt biodiversity loss. Globally, one fifth of the Earth’s land area (more to extinction and Why? than 2 billion hectares) are intensifying degraded, an area nearly Forests cover nearly 31 the size of India and the climate change per cent of our planet’s Russian Federation com- land area. From the air bined. Land degradation is we breathe, to the water undermining the well-be- we drink, to the food we ing of some 3.2 billion eat–forests sustain us. people, driving species Forests are home to more to extinction and inten- than 80 per cent of all sifying climate change. Biodiversity and the extinction, many within cost of the COVID-19 pan- ecosystem services it decades, more than ever demic, which is expected underpins can also be the before in human history. to reach $9 trillion over basis for climate change the next few years. adaptation and disaster How does it affect risk reduction strategies our health? What can we do? as they can deliver bene- Increased demand for Some things we can do fits that will increase the animal protein, a rise in to help include recycling, resilience of people to the intense and unsustainable eating a locally-based impacts of climate change. farming, the increased use diet that is sustainably sourced, and consum- What does loss of and exploitation of wildlife, and the climate crisis are ing only what we need. forests mean? all driving the increased We must be respectful Lost forests mean the emergence of zoonotic toward wildlife and only disappearance of liveli- diseases – diseases trans- take part in ecotourism hoods in rural commu- mitted from wildlife to opportunities that are nities, increased carbon people – like COVID-19. responsibly and ethically emissions, diminished run in order to prevent Every year, some two biodiversity and the deg- wildlife disturbance. Well- million people, mostly radation of land. While managed protected areas in low- and middle-in- forest loss remains high, support healthy ecosys- come countries, die from 2020 data show that the tems, which in turn keep neglected zoonotic dis- proportion of forests people healthy. It is there- eases. The same outbreaks in protected areas and fore critical to secure the can cause severe illness, under long-term manage- involvement of the local deaths, and productivity ment plans increased or communities in the devel- losses among livestock remained stable at the opment and management populations in the devel- global level and in most of these protected areas. oping world, a major prob- regions of the world. lem that keeps hundreds To find out more An irreversible effect of of millions of small-scale about Goal #15 and human activity on the farmers in severe poverty. the other Sustainable environment is species In the last two decades Development Goals, visit: extinction, which upsets alone, zoonotic diseases http://www.un.org/ the balance of nature and have caused economic sustainabledevelopment makes ecosystems more losses of more than $100 fragile and less resistant billion, not including the to disruptions. A recent UN report on biodiversity found that around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with