Soils

ISSUES

Soil degradation

Soil provides living things with food, fibres and fuel. It supports wildlife and rural and urban activities. From the end of the 1940s to the beginning of the 1990s, over 90% of the degradation of productive land was due to overgrazing, deforestation and inappropriate agricultural practices. These changes in the soil affect over 2 billion people, most of the 852 million people suffering from hunger in particular.
Soil can therefore not be ignored in ecosystem mechanisms.

NEWS

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DEBATES

Rebuilding Afghanistan’s irrigation network

FAO

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is boosting its technical support for rehabilitation of Afghanistan's dilapidated...

Desertification costs US$ 42 billions per year

This year, the UNCDD launchs the UN Decade for Deserts and...

An ecosystem approach to drylands : building support for new development policies

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FOCUS

Ramparts against the desert

The sky darkens and fills with a reddish dust; the horizon turns an orange colour and visibility lowers to a few dozen metres: Beijing, capital of one of the world’s leading powers, is paralysed by a sandstorm. These storms can strike over several regions, covering an...

VIDEOS

04/11/2011	n this beautifully animated clip from Dirt! The Movie, Wangari Maathai...	13/10/2011	Desertification means hunger and poverty. It could affect more than a...
27/09/2010	With planning permission for Britain's biggest dairy at Nocton about to be...	20/09/2010	China's coal-fired power plants dump enough toxic coal ash to fill an...

GREEN TIPS

Un nouveau bitume végétal, moins polluant

Le Végécol est le premier composant végétal pouvant se substituer au bitume ne contenant aucun dérivé...

INDICATORS

Arable land
Desertification risks
Degraded soils
Ecological footprint

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