Economics of land degradation. The costs of action versus inaction

In October 2011, the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification and Land Degradation took place in Korea. Land degradation is a real threat to long-term food security. This brief is a presentation of a book entitled: "The Economics of Land Degradation: Toward an Integrated Global Assessment" In recent years, prices of agricultural land have increased quickly, actually doubling and tripling in many parts of the world. This land value reassessment has been prompted by rising crop prices and perceived land scarcity. Even as the value of land rises, land degradation continues and investments to prevent it are lagging. Similarly, awareness of environmental risks has moved to the forefront of global consciousness during the past 25 years. However, this awareness has not translated into comprehensive action to address the problem of land degradation, which poses a serious threat to long-term food security. This inaction is primarily the result of limited knowledge of the costs related to land degradation and of insufficient institutional support. Policy action and research are needed to resolve this paradox of high-value land and low levels of investment. The authors propose a framework to implement the costs-of-action-versus-costs-of-inaction approach and emphasize the need to take into account direct and indirect costs and benefits of terrestrial ecosystem services in the process. They identify a number of immediate and underlying causes of land degradation and propose prevention methods. The book also highlights why it is more cost effective to implement prevention methods now than to attempt to treat severely degraded land in the future and provides salient examples. The authors also propose that sustainable land use becomes a key global initiative at the upcoming Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and other forums in 2012.