Chapter 11 Economics of Land Degradation in Argentina

MARIANA E. BOUZA; , ADRIANA ARANDA-RICKERT,; BRIZUELA, M M

Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement ? A Global Assessment for Sustainable Development Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement ? A Global Assessment for Sustainable Development

springer International Publishing

Año: 2015; p. 291 - 326

Abstract Land degradation is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes andagro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries. However its impact isespecially severe on the livelihoods of the poor who heavily depend on naturalresources. Despite the severe impact of land degradation on the poor and the crucialrole that land plays in human welfare and development, investments in sustainableland management (SLM) are low, especially in developing countries. This chaptersummarizes the results from global and regional levels as well as 12 case studycountries. The chapter also draws conclusions and implications for taking actionagainst land degradation. Land degradation stretches to about 30 % of the totalglobal land area and about three billion people reside in degraded lands. The annualglobal cost of land degradation due to land use/cover change (LUCC) and usingland degrading management practices on static cropland and grazing land is about300 billion USD. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for the largest share (22 %) ofthe total global cost of land degradation. Only about 46 % of the cost of landdegradation due to LUCC?which accounts for 78 % of the US$300 billion loss?is borne by land users and the remaining share (54 %) is borne by consumers ofecosystem services off the farm. This further illustrates that land degradation is aglobal problem even though its impact is much greater on poor land users. The costof taking action against land degradation is much lower than the cost of inactionand the returns to taking action are high. On average, one US dollar investment intorestoration of degraded land returns five US dollars. This provides a strongincentive for taking action against land degradation. This study shows that simul-E. Nkonya (&)International Food Policy Research Institute, 2033 K Street NW, Washington,DC 20006, USAe-mail: e.nkonya@cgiar.orgA. Mirzabaev J. von BraunCenter for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Walter Flex Str 3,Bonn 53113, Germanye-mail: almir@uni-bonn.deJ. von Braune-mail: jvonbraun@uni-bonn.de© The Author(s) 2016E. Nkonya et al. (eds.), Economics of Land Degradationand Improvement ? A Global Assessment for Sustainable Development,DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-19168-3_11taneously enhancing local and national level governments, land tenure security, andimproving market access is the most effective strategy for addressing land degradation.Given that LUCC accounts for the largest share of cost of land degradation,there is a need for developing land use planning that will ensure that forests andother high value biomes are effectively protected. Empirical evidence has shownthat involvement of local communities in managing forests and other high valuebiomes and creating mechanisms for them to directly benefit from their conservationefforts lead to more effective protection than is the case with centralized protection.The assessment in this volume is being conducted at a time when there is anelevated interest in private land investments and when global efforts to achievesustainable development objectives have intensified. This means, results of thisvolume will contribute significantly to the ongoing policy debate and efforts todesign strategies for achieving sustainable development goals and other efforts toaddress land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.