Syllabus: GS- III, Subject: Environment and ecology and Disaster Management, Topic: Land degradation, Issue: Land Management Practices
Land management:
- Land is central to all human activities yet its multidimensional character is ignored in land management practices.
- This leads excessive stress, land degradation, and environmental draw down.
Challenge of land management in India
- High population density (2.4% of the world’s area 17% of the global population)
- Large degraded land (around 30 %) (Arable land-55%, forestland -22%).
- Access to agricultural land is an important livelihood issue.
- Pressure on land due to–
- Land demand of growing population,
- infrastructure,
- rapid urbanization,
- social, cultural, and environmental aspects
- Competition and conflicts over land use – increase in land prices and changing land rights.
- Challenges in adopting good land management practice –
- Knowledge gaps,
- a short-term planning bias,
- a fragmented approach,
- lack of action for unforeseen events, and regulatory barriers.
Suggestions:
- Establishment of multi-stakeholder platforms at district and sub-district levels (by using constitutional provision under Article 243ZD)
- A landscape approach:
- to assess the potential of land
- the scope of allocation
- reallocation of land for appropriate uses.
- Follow global approach-
- European Landscape Convention– landscape is a key element of individual and social well-being
- K. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology- highlighted the importance of sustainable land management in its brief.
+1 Advantage:
| ·  Globally, the annual losses of ecosystem services due to land degradation is estimated at $6 trillion.
·   The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP14) (New Delhi in 2019) Ø Discussed the problem of land degradation experienced by different countries and the ways of achieving land degradation neutrality. ·  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s special report on ‘Climate Change and Land’ (2019) Ø Suggested country-level stocktaking of land management practices. Ø Proposed several near- and long-term actions that reduce competition for land with co-benefits and minimum negative impacts on key ecosystem services. ·  The Food and Agriculture Organization report, ‘State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture: The System at Breaking Point’ (2021), Ø A sense of urgency needs to prevail over a hitherto neglected area of public policy and human welfare— that of caring for the long-term future of land, soil, and water. |
