Humanity has a critical need for healthy soil to feed and carry out economic activities. When the planet loses 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil per year, it is urgent to better assess the quality and uses of the land that could become scarce, warning the United Nations Environment Programme.
As the global population expands, climate change intensifies and more people move to urban areas, it will become increasingly difficult to sustainably produce enough food, fuel and fibre to meet demand without further depleting the world's finite land resources.
The International Resource Panel (IRP) working group on Land and soil latest report says that evaluating the long-term potential of land will help the world sustainably meet this demand.
"A better matching of production systems with land potential on existing agricultural lands, and increased innovation supported by carefully developed policies and strong institutions, will not by themselves allow us to live within our means - but they can make it easier," the IRP says.
To learn more : http://unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=27076&ArticleID=36219&l=en
Dernière mise à jour le 27.06.2016
