Every second, an equivalent of four football fields of healthy land becomes degraded, adding up to 100 million hectares every year. 

Engaging present and future generations is more important than ever to halt and reverse these alarming trends and meet global commitments to restore 1 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030.  

The theme chosen for this year's Desertification and Drought Day – United for Land: Our Legacy. Our Future – seeks to mobilize society in support of sustainable land stewardship. Taking place on June 17, also the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – the sole legally binding international treaty on land management and drought; one of the three Rio Conventions alongside climate change and biodiversity. 

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Desertification is one of the biggest environmental threats of our time. It refers to land drying up due to reduced rainfall, the expansion of agriculture, poor irrigation practices, deforestation and overgrazing.  

Climate change is exacerbating desertification: right now, around 2 billion people live on drylands vulnerable to desertification, which could displace an estimated 50 million people by 2030. 

If people cannot grow food, they will need to move to an area where they can, increasing the risk of desertification, and having negative effects on landscapes, wildlife and human health.  

Read more about desertification here. 

Today, 2.4 billion people live in water-stressed countries, defined as nations that withdraw 25 per cent or more of their renewable freshwater resources to meet water demand. 

Hard hit regions include Southern and Central Asia, and North Africa, where the situation is considered critical. Even countries with highly developed infrastructure, like the United States, are seeing water levels drop to record lows. 

Along with climate change, the crisis is being fed by unchecked urbanization, rapid population growth, pollution and land development. Water shortfalls already affect everything from food security to biodiversity and in the coming years, they are poised to become more common. 

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Mauritania’s battle against encroaching desertification, which has damaged ecosystems and endangered species, has received a timely boost with the news that 200,000 hectares will be turned into a protected area to support biodiversity in the country. 

The project, implemented by UNEP and supported by the Global Environment Facility, will create a new protected area in the district of Adrar, a former crossroads for medieval salt and date traders, known for its striking desert landscapes and UNESCO-listed fortified towns of Chinguetti and Oudane. 

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To tackle the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss, the countries of Africa’s Sahel region are mounting an epic response: a “wall” of restored forests and lands stretching more than 8,000 kilometers across the continent. 

The Great Green Wall is a spectacular initiative designed to help people and nature cope with the growing impact of the climate emergency and the degradation of vital ecosystems, and to keep the Sahara Desert from spreading deeper into one of the world’s poorest regions. 

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The Republic of Korea will host World Environment Day 2025, with the focus on ending plastic pollution.  

The Korean city of Busan will host the Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee on plastic pollution in November 2024. The aim of the process is to finalize a global plastics treaty which ends plastic pollution.  

The world produces more than 430 million tonnes of plastic annually, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that soon become waste, filling the ocean and, often, working their way into the human food chain.

As Riziki Bwanake walks along the Tana River Delta, the dry, dusty earth crunches beneath her feet. This part of eastern Kenya was once lush, home to a rich expanse of mangroves and an abundance of fish. 

But the sheer weight of the human demands on this fragile ecosystem, exacerbated by a devastating drought, has left the delta parched. Bwanake, and others in her community are trying to change that, working with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to plant 100,000 native trees. Their goal: stem the tide of desertification and turn the land from brown into green. 

These challenges aren’t limited to the Tana River Delta. Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia are currently grappling with some of the worst heat and driest weather since satellite record keeping began. 

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Yacouba Sawadogo, 76, has been a farmer for much of his life, tending a plot of land in a semi-arid stretch of central Burkina Faso. But in the 1980s, that way of life almost came to an end.

Severe droughts triggered soil erosion and land degradation, crippling farms across Burkina Faso and much of Western Africa.

“People were leaving, and the animals and trees were dying,” Sawadogo recalled. “We had to look at a new way to farm.”

Amid the crisis, Sawadogo developed a modified version of a traditional farming practice known as Zai that helps crops survive on minimal rainfall.

The technique has revolutionized farming in much of Africa. Sawadogo – a UNEP Champion of the Earth – is part of a global effort to slow the process of desertification taking place everywhere from Chile to China. 

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It was something many in the village of Wada’a, Sudan, had never seen before. A couple of months earlier, workers had begun channeling water from a small dam-like structure into the parched farmland surrounding the community of 17,000, in the state of North Darfur.  

In another place or at another time, this simple act of irrigation might not have seemed remarkable. But the dam’s completion came as Sudan tipped into armed conflict, with fighting erupting across several parts of the country, including El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State. The dam project – led by UNEP – has buoyed Wada’a residents, who have long struggled with drought. 

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The splash was so loud that environmental advocate Lewis Pugh thought someone had jumped off the bridge he was swimming under. But then Pugh, in the midst of a month-long swim down the United States’ Hudson River, saw what had joined him in the water: a bald eagle.

“This majestic creature spread its wings and lifted up right in front of us. I will never forget the sight of it,” says Pugh.

The British-South African, who is a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Patron of the Ocean, has completed a 507 kilometers swim down the Hudson. 

The journey cast a spotlight on the river’s resurgence – and the need to protect the world’s waterways from pollution, climate change and a range of other threats. 

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