Land Degradation
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SPM4 Land degradation Coordinating Lead Authors: Lennart Olsson (Sweden), Humberto Barbosa (Brazil) Lead Authors: Suruchi Bhadwal (India), Annette Cowie (Australia), Kenel Delusca (Haiti), Dulce Flores-Renteria (Mexico), Kathleen Hermans (Germany), Esteban Jobbagy (Argentina), Werner Kurz (Canada), Diqiang Li (China), Denis Jean Sonwa (Cameroon), Lindsay Stringer (United Kingdom) Contributing Authors: Timothy Crews (The United States of America), Martin Dallimer (United Kingdom), Joris Eekhout (The Netherlands), Karlheinz Erb (Italy), Eamon Haughey (Ireland), Richard Houghton (The United States of America), Muhammad Mohsin Iqbal (Pakistan), Francis X. Johnson (The United States of America), Woo-Kyun Lee (The Republic of Korea), John Morton (United Kingdom), Felipe Garcia Oliva (Mexico), Jan Petzold (Germany), Mohammad Rahimi (Iran), Florence Renou-Wilson (Ireland), Anna Tengberg (Sweden), Louis Verchot (Colombia/ The United States of America), Katharine Vincent (South Africa) Review Editors: José Manuel Moreno (Spain), Carolina Vera (Argentina) Chapter Scientist: Aliyu Salisu Barau (Nigeria) This chapter should be cited as: Olsson, L., H. Barbosa, S. Bhadwal, A. Cowie, K. Delusca, D. Flores-Renteria, K. Hermans, E. Jobbagy, W. Kurz, D. Li, D.J. Sonwa, L. Stringer, 2019: Land Degradation. In: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia, V. Masson-Delmotte, H.-O. Pörtner, D. C. Roberts, P. Zhai, R. Slade, S. Connors, R. van Diemen, M. Ferrat, E. Haughey, S. Luz, S. Neogi, M. Pathak, J. Petzold, J. Portugal Pereira, P. Vyas, E. Huntley, K. Kissick, M. Belkacemi, J. Malley, (eds.)]. In press. 345 Chapter 4 Land degradation Table of contents Executive summary ..................................................................................... 347 4.7.1 Relationships between land degradation, climate change and poverty ........................................ 378 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 349 4.7.2 Impacts of climate-related land degradation on food security ....................................... 379 4.1.1 Scope of the chapter .............................................................. 349 4.7.3 Impacts of climate-related land 4.1.2 Perspectives of land degradation ............................... 349 degradation on migration and conflict ................... 380 4.1.3 Definition of land degradation ................................... 349 4.1.4 Land degradation in previous IPCC reports ....... 350 4.8 Addressing land degradation 4.1.5 Sustainable land management (SLM) in the context of climate change ........................................ 381 and sustainable forest management (SFM) ........ 351 4.8.1 Actions on the ground to address 4.1.6 The human dimension of land land degradation .................................................................. 381 degradation and forest degradation ...................... 353 4.8.2 Local and indigenous knowledge for addressing land degradation ........................................ 384 4.2 Land degradation in the context 4.8.3 Reducing deforestation and forest of climate change ............................................................................. 353 degradation and increasing afforestation ........... 385 4.2.1 Processes of land degradation ..................................... 354 4.8.4 Sustainable forest management (SFM) 4.2.2 Drivers of land degradation ........................................... 359 and CO2 removal (CDR) technologies .................... 386 4.2.3 Attribution in the case of land degradation ........ 360 4.8.5 Policy responses to land degradation ..................... 387 4.2.4 Approaches to assessing land degradation ......... 363 4.8.6 Resilience and thresholds ............................................... 388 4.8.7 Barriers to implementation of sustainable 4.3 Status and current trends of land degradation ....... 365 land management (SLM) ................................................. 389 4.3.1 Land degradation ............................................................... 365 4.9 Case studies ......................................................................................... 391 4 4.3.2 Forest degradation ............................................................. 367 4.9.1 Urban green infrastructure ........................................... 391 4.4 Projections of land degradation 4.9.2 Perennial grains and soil organic .................................................................... in a changing climate 369 carbon (SOC) ......................................................................... 393 4.4.1 Direct impacts on land degradation ....................... 369 4.9.3 Reversing land degradation 4.4.2 Indirect impacts on land degradation ..................... 373 through reforestation ....................................................... 395 4.9.4 Degradation and management of peat soils ...... 397 4.5 Impacts of bioenergy and technologies for 4.9.5 Biochar ...................................................................................... 398 CO removal (CDR) on land degradation ..................... 373 2 4.9.6 Management of land degradation induced 4.5.1 Potential scale of bioenergy by tropical cyclones ............................................................. 400 and land-based CDR ............................................................. 373 4.9.7 Saltwater intrusion ............................................................. 401 4.5.2 Risks of land degradation from expansion 4.9.8 Avoiding coastal maladaptation ................................ 402 of bioenergy and land-based CDR ........................... 373 4.5.3 Potential contributions of land-based CDR 4.10 Knowledge gaps and key uncertainties ....................... 403 to reducing and reversing land degradation ...... 374 4.5.4 Traditional biomass provision Frequently Asked Questions ............................................................... 404 and land degradation ........................................................ 375 FAQ 4.1: How do climate change and land degradation interact with land use? .................................. 404 4.6 Impacts of land degradation on climate ....................... 375 FAQ 4.2: How does climate change 4.6.1 Impact on greenhouse gases (GHGs) ...................... 376 affect land-related ecosystem 4.6.2 Physical impacts ................................................................... 377 services and biodiversity? ......................................................... 404 4.7 Impacts of climate-related land degradation on poverty and livelihoods ..................................................... 377 References .............................................................................................................. 405 346 Land degradation Chapter 4 Executive summary confidence). The number of people whose livelihood depends on degraded lands has been estimated to be about 1.5 billion worldwide Land degradation affects people and ecosystems throughout (very low confidence). People in degraded areas who directly depend the planet and is both affected by climate change and on natural resources for subsistence, food security and income, contributes to it. In this report, land degradation is defined as including women and youth with limited adaptation options, are a negative trend in land condition, caused by direct or indirect especially vulnerable to land degradation and climate change human-induced processes including anthropogenic climate change, (high confidence). Land degradation reduces land productivity and expressed as long-term reduction or loss of at least one of the increases the workload of managing the land, affecting women following: biological productivity, ecological integrity, or value to disproportionally in some regions. Land degradation and climate humans. Forest degradation is land degradation that occurs in forest change act as threat multipliers for already precarious livelihoods land. Deforestation is the conversion of forest to non-forest land and (very high confidence), leaving them highly sensitive to extreme can result in land degradation. {4.1.3} climatic events, with consequences such as poverty and food insecurity (high confidence) and, in some cases, migration, conflict Land degradation adversely affects people’s livelihoods (very and loss of cultural heritage (low confidence). Changes in vegetation high confidence) and occurs over a quarter of the Earth’s cover and distribution due to climate change increase the risk of land ice-free land area (medium confidence). The majority of degradation in some areas (medium confidence). Climate change will the 1.3 to 3.2 billion affected people (low confidence) are have detrimental effects on livelihoods, habitats and infrastructure living in poverty in developing countries (medium confidence). through increased rates of land degradation (high confidence) and Land-use changes and unsustainable land management are direct from new degradation patterns (low evidence, high agreement). human causes of land degradation (very high confidence), with {4.1.6, 4.2.1, 4.7} agriculture being a dominant sector driving degradation (very high confidence). Soil loss from conventionally tilled land exceeds the rate Land degradation is a driver of climate change through