Swift action must be taken to address human-caused land-system change and land degradation, which is now having wide ranging impacts on planetary health and human health, according to a first of its kind report linking the way land is being managed to negative impacts on seven of nine planetary boundaries. Crucially, sustainable land management could prove pivotal in reversing an increasingly concerning trend that is pushing the Earth beyond it’s “safe operating space for humanity,” says the scientific report. Unsustainable agriculture, urbanization and deforestation are key driving forces behind climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, the authors state. Those activities have already led to approximately 15 million km² of degraded land globally — an area larger in size than Antarctica. That figure is expanding by around one million km2 annually, according to the report. The researchers reviewed 350 scientific papers and data sources to assess how land use change and land degradation impacts and interacts with seven “land-based” planetary boundaries. The planetary boundaries framework sets “safe operating limits” crucial to Earth system functioning and human wellbeing. “The aim of the planetary boundaries framework is to provide a measure for achieving human wellbeing within Earth’s ecological limits,” said Johan Rockström, an author of the report and director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He led the development of the framework in 2009. “We stand at a precipice and must decide whether to step back and take transformative action, or continue on a path of irreversible environmental change.” Forest abutting…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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