More than 75 percent of Earth’s landmass is substantially degraded, affecting the well-being of 3.2 billion people, according to the world’s first comprehensive, evidence-based assessment. These lands that have either become deserts, are polluted, or have been exploitate in the form of deforestation and converted to agricultural lands which have also become the main causes of species extinctions.

In this way, 95 percent of the Earth’s landmass would be degraded by 2050. That would potentially lead to mass exodus of people to migrate, which shall also lead to reduction in food production.

Land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change are three different faces of the same major challenge we all follow. Rapid urbanization and unsustainable management of croplands and grazing lands is the main driver of land degradation, causing significant loss of biodiversity and impacting food security, water purification, the provision of energy, and other contributions of nature essential to people. This has reached “critical levels” in many parts of the world affecting a large population of people especially in developing and under developed countries.

Wetlands is been the most affected, with 87 percent lost globally in the last 300 years. Some 54 percent have been lost since 1900. Wetlands continue to be destroyed in Southeast Asia and the Congo region of Africa, mainly to plant oil palm. Land degradation is rarely considered an urgent issue by most governments, even though many have signed an international agreement to reach land degradation neutrality by 2030.