EGM on SDG 2: Jean Luc Chotte Statement

Jean-Luc Chotte

Research Director, IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), France 

Session 9: Planet

Land provides many ecosystem services. Land and its natural resources (Soil, water, vegetation, animals) are critical assets for rural communities and indigenous peoples.

Land can be viewed as a public good which provides

• food, water, fuelwood and medicinal plants;
• and which regulates bio-physical cycles (such as carbon);
• while at the same time providing security, status, social identity and a safety space for its inhabitants.

Land is also about dignity, culture and identity. Human communities are embedded in their nearby ecosystems, which shape the land into a mosaic of diverse landscapes.

But land is not in a good shape

The proportion of degraded land in the total land reported by country Parties to UNCCD have increased from 14.7% to 18.9% in the recent years, with a total area of degraded land equal to more than 11.8 million km2 in 2019. (CRIC21) Committee for the Review of the Implementation of UNCCD.

If land degradation continues at a similar rate, there will be nearly one billion hectares (9,750,000 km2) of degraded land by 2030, equivalent to the global total of countries' restoration commitments, estimated at one billion hectares (CRIC).

• how can we hope to reach SDG by 2030, without combating land degradation;
• How can we see transformation food system towards more sustainability and providing food access to all without combating land degradation.

Food system transformation needs to break silo when addressing land

• Land has been a focus of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) since its adoption in 1994; The UNCCD COP 15 saw the launch of the report on the contributions of integrated land-use planning and integrated landscape management to achieve land-degradation neutrality (target 15.3);
• The CBD KMGBF (Dec. 2022) highlights the role of land for biodiversity, with Target 1 stressing that ‘reducing threats to biodiversity’ requires ‘ensuring that all land and marine areas are subject to integrated spatial planning’.
• For the UNFCCC, the interdependence between climate change and land use was officially adopted with the launch of the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture in 2017 (COP24). The COP27 adopted a decision in November 2022 to keep land and agriculture at the forefront of the climate agenda (Sharm el-Sheikh Initiative).

This call for breaking silos between the 3 Rio Conventions.

 Moreover, several scientific publications demonstrate that a coordinated approach between climate, biodiversity, and land increases the effectiveness and efficiency of the implementation of the land-related activities of the LDN, National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and NDC and reduces the overall costs of implementation.

This involves:

• Common spatial mapping of land for conservation, sustainable land management and restoration under the Rio conventions;
• A common system for monitoring and evaluating the achievement of NBSAP, LDN and NDC land objectives as part of the assessment of food system sustainability;
• Harmonised national action plans for the sustainable management and restoration of land embedded in food systems transformation pathways.

Connect consumers and producers

As much as 35% of all land is used for agricultural purposes and the rate of land conversion for the provision of food products and materials for biofuels is accelerating (IPCC, 2019). The concept of Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production (HANPP) has been suggested as an integrated socio-ecological indicator of human intervention of natural ecosystems

However, this indicator does not grasp in the imported products that are consumed by the population.

One estimates that 23% of the ecological footprint of agriculture results from the consumption of imported products.

Consumption of imported products may lead to economic benefits through exports, but it also effectively displaces land degradation towards the countries that become suppliers of products that are imported.

In today’s telecoupled world, human-environment interactions need to be documented to support sustainable development.

This will require an integration of

• our efforts towards the sustainable resource use in and among countries (SDG target 12.2);
• our efforts to ensure no further harm (in net terms) to land in each country (SDG target 15.3).

This refers to land degradation neutrality (LDN), which is defined as “a state whereby the amount and quality of land resources necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security remain stable or increase within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems” (UNCCD, 2016).

It is a no-net loss approach that seeks to maintain or enhance the natural capital of land, emphasizing the multiple benefits which can be derived from land while fully recognizing that land is a limited resource.

Linking consumption and production (measured as flows) to land degradation (measured in area) requires embedding information about the sustainable use and management of land into what consumers can learn about the products at the point of purchase.

However, information on the land use and management practices associated with imported products is not typically accessible to consumers who may wish to know the impact their diet has on land quality, biodiversity, ecosystem health in production areas, far from home.

My recommendation

Innovative blockchain solutions make ’farm-to-table’ food traceability of this kind possible Encouraging such innovations can support the full emergence of what is currently a niche market for producers and retailers that aim not to degrade land. Integrating sustainable consumption with sustainable land management will associate the quality of food with the quality of land where the food has been produced.

Working to reduce “displaced” land degradation with more informed consumer choices combined with more informed land use planning decisions will reduce the pressure on Land .