empowering women, indigenous peoples, family farmers and pastoralists to ensure that those groups have secure access to land resources, fertilizers and other inputs, knowledge, extension services, financial services, markets, opportunities for adding value and non-farm employment can facilitate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and reduce environmental impact (established but incomplete), increase agricultural productivity and contribute to reducing poverty and hunger (well established). {8.6, 8.5.3}


Land degradation and desertification have increased (established but incomplete), with land degradation hotspots covering approximately 29 per cent of global land, where some 3.2 billion people reside (well established). Investing in avoiding land degradation and restoring degraded land makes sound economic sense and the benefits generally far exceed the costs. {8.4.2}


Whilst the pace of deforestation has slowed, it continues globally. Furthermore, although many countries are now taking steps to increase their forest cover, it is primarily being done through plantations and reforestation (well established), which may not provide the same range of ecosystem services as natural forests. {8.4.1}


Urban clusters – meaning urban centres and their suburbs – have grown by a factor of approximately 2.5 since 1975 (well established), and in 2015 accounted for 7.6 per cent of global land, affecting, among other things, the hydrological cycle and soil functions, causing urban heat islands. {8.4.1}


Achieving the land-related Sustainable Development Goals requires adequate land and water resource management (well established). Innovative technologies, sustainable land management strategies, nature-based solutions and land‐ resource stewardship (such as sustainable forest management, agro-silvo-pastoral production systems, conservation agriculture, integrated crop production and agroforestry) can contribute to making agriculture sustainable. Payment for ecosystem services, land restoration and land titling need to be more effectively promoted and adopted. When compatible with local culture, such strategies contribute to better management and conservation of land resources (well established) and are integral for the reduction of hunger (Sustainable Development Goal 2). Economic incentives for agriculture, including distortive agricultural production subsidies, contribute to land degradation, and their reduction and removal will be important for the achievement of sustainable agriculture. {8.5.1}


Sustainable land-use planning and management can protect high-quality, fertile agricultural soil from competing interests, thus maintaining land-based ecosystem services such as food production, and preventing land from flooding and disaster. Frameworks targeting land degradation, such as the Land Degradation Neutrality initiative under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, may also contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience (well established). Yet the policy framework on land management remains complex and incomplete. {8.4.1, 8.5.3, 8.5.4}


2.2.5 Fresh water


Population growth, urbanization, water pollution and unsustainable development are all increasing pressure on water resources across the world, and that pressure is further exacerbated by climate change. In most regions, slow-onset disasters, such as water scarcity, drought and famine, lead to increased migration (well established). Increasing numbers of people are also being affected by severe storms and floods. Increasing glacial and snowpack melt as a result of global warming will affect regional and seasonal water availability, especially in Asian and Latin American rivers, which provide water for some 20 per cent of the global population (well established). Changes to the global water cycle, including extreme events, are contributing to water quantity and quality problems, with impact distributed unequally across the world. {9.1, 9.1.2, 9.2}


In most regions, water quality has worsened significantly since 1990, owing to organic and chemical pollution, such as pathogens, nutrients, pesticides, sediments, heavy metals, plastic and microplastic waste, persistent organic pollutants and salinity. Some 2.3 billion people (approximately 1 in 3 of the global population) still lack access to safe sanitation (likely). Approximately 1.4 million people die annually from preventable diseases, such as diarrhoea and intestinal parasites, that are associated with pathogen-polluted drinking water and inadequate sanitation (well-established). {9.5, 9.5.7, 9.5.2}


Without effective counter-measures, human illnesses due to antimicrobial-resistant infections may become a major cause of death from infectious diseases worldwide by 2050 (established but incomplete). Water plays a key role in this, as antimicrobial‐ resistant bacteria are now found in sources of treated drinking water worldwide (well‐established), stemming from antibiotics entering the water cycle through domestic sewage and industrial wastewater disposal, agriculture, intensive livestock rearing and aquaculture. In addition, various endocrine-disrupting chemicals are now widely distributed through the freshwater system on all continents (well established), with long-term impact on foetal underdevelopment and male infertility (established but incomplete). {9.5.1, 9.5.7}


On the positive side, 1.5 billion people gained access to basic drinking water services over the 15-year period from 2000 to 2015. However, women and girls still carry most of the physical burden of transporting water in many developing countries, reducing the time available for them to participate in productive activities and education. The positive impact of women being able to spend time on other activities should be widely acknowledged, since economic surveys indicate that they typically reinvest up to 90 per cent of their income in their families, improving family health and nutrition, and increasing access to schooling for their children. {9.7.1}


Worldwide, agriculture uses an average of 70 per cent of all fresh water withdrawals, rising to 90 per cent in many poorer countries. The competition for more water from cities and industry creates an imperative to improve the efficiency of agricultural water use while at the same time producing more food and using fewer and less harmful inputs (well established).


12


Summary for Policymakers: Sixth Global Environment Outlook


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