Planetary boundaries: Confronting the global crisis of land degradation
1 December 2024 | Press release | Sustainable land management & restoration

• Land degradation undermining Earth’s capacity to sustain humanity;
• Failure to reverse it will pose challenges for generations;
• Seven of nine planetary boundaries are negatively impacted by unsustainable land use,
• highlighting land’s central role in Earth systems;
• Agriculture accounts for 23% of greenhouse gas emissions, 80% of deforestation, 70% of freshwater use;
• Forest loss and impoverished soils drive hunger, migration and conflicts;
• Transformation of land use critical for humanity to thrive within environmental limits

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – A major new scientific report charts an urgent course correction for how the world grows food and uses land in order to avoid irretrievably compromising Earth’s capacity to support human and environmental well-being.

Produced under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Johan Rockström at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in collaboration with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the report is launched as nearly 200 UNCCD member states begin their COP16 summit on Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Land is the foundation of Earth’s stability, the report underlines. It regulates climate, preserves biodiversity, maintains freshwater systems and provides life-giving resources including food, water and raw materials. The report, Stepping back from the precipice: Transforming land management to stay within planetary boundaries, draws on roughly 350 information sources(*) to examine land degradation and opportunities to act from a planetary boundaries perspective.

Deforestation, urbanization and unsustainable farming, however, are causing global land degradation at an unprecedented scale, threatening not only different Earth system components but human survival itself.

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