Felling and Clearing
Introduction
Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting on the land. However, human activities can indirectly affect phenomena such as floods and forest fires.
This is considered an important issue of the century due to the implications that land degradation has on agricultural productivity, the environment and its effects on food security.[3][4] It is estimated that up to 40% of the world's agricultural land is severely degraded.[5].
According to the Special Report on Climate Change and Land of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15 aims to restore degraded land and soil and achieve a land degradation neutral world by 2030.[7].
Context
Over the past 500 years, human activity (mainly agriculture) has caused the degradation of almost 2 billion hectares of land. About 40% of the planet's land (5 billion hectares) is used for agriculture. A third of that amount is used for crops and the rest for livestock grazing.[8].
Characteristics
There are four main ways to look at land degradation and its impact on the surrounding environment:.
One problem with the definition of land degradation is that what one group of people may see as degradation, others may see as a benefit or opportunity. For example, planting crops "Cultivation (agriculture)") in a location with heavy rainfall and steep slopes would create scientific and environmental concerns regarding the risk of soil erosion by water, however, farmers could view the location as favorable for high crop yields.[9].
Different types
In addition to the usual types of land degradation that have been known for centuries (water, wind and mechanical erosion, physical, chemical and biological degradation), four other types have emerged in the last 50 years:[10].
In general, more than 36 types of land degradation can be evaluated. They are all induced or aggravated by human activities, for example, soil erosion, soil pollution, soil acidification, sheet erosion, sedimentation, aridification, salinization, urbanization, etc.