Comprehensive land management strategy
Degradation of Land:
- Numerous factors contribute to land deterioration, including harsh weather, especially drought.
- It is brought on by human activities that contaminate or worsen the state of the land’s fertility and usefulness.
Desertification:
- “Desertification” is the term used to describe land deterioration in dry land regions, which include arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid zones.
- The process of drylands losing biological productivity as a result of natural or artificial influences is known as desertification. It doesn’t imply that already-existing deserts will get bigger.
Combating Desertification: A United Nations Convention (UNCCD):
- India ratified the UNCCD in 1996 after signing on in 1994.
- By 2030, India hopes to repair 26 million hectares of damaged land.
- Target 15.3 of the Sustainable Development Goal is Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), which India is striving to attain at the national level.
- In a state known as land distribution equilibrium (LDN), the quantity and quality of land resources required to sustain ecosystem services and functions and improve food security either stay the same or grow within predetermined temporal and geographical scales and ecosystems.
Reports pertaining to degradation of land:
- At the 2019 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP14) in New Delhi, India, the issue of land degradation that many nations face was explicitly covered, as was the necessity of figuring out how to achieve land degradation neutrality.
- A national inventory of land management techniques was recommended in the 2019 special report on “Climate Change and Land” by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
- Additionally, a number of short- and long-term measures were suggested, with an emphasis on land management strategies that lessen competition for land while having co-benefits and less detrimental effects on important ecosystem services.
- The Food and Agriculture Organization’s report, “State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture: The System at Breaking Point” (2021), made the case that protecting the long-term future of land, soil, and water—a topic of public policy and human welfare that has previously received little attention—needs to become urgent.
The difficulties faced by India:
- In India, arable land makes up about 55% of the country’s total land area, with 22% being covered by forests.
- All that’s left are mountains, deserts, etc.
- Roughly thirty percent of the land area is deteriorated.
- Development goals and the need for more land to support the expanding population, infrastructure, fast urbanisation, and environmental, social, and cultural factors are putting the land under unheard-of strain.
- increasing rivalry between farmers and between the agricultural industry and other land-resource-based industries
Land use disputes:
- An increase in land prices
- altering the rights to land.
- Natural spaces are being reduced in size and ecological services are disappearing nationwide.
- It has a negative impact on the prospects for those whose livelihoods directly depend on environmental resources.
- The ability of natural ecosystems to act as buffers against natural disasters like droughts and floods, as well as climate change and pollutants are seriously weakened.
- A new set of difficulties has been brought about by climate change.
India’s approach to land management:
- Sector-specific procedures are currently used in land management, with each department using a unique strategy.
- State governments are in charge of land management.
- Cultural land is privately owned, and the owner has the constitutional right to decide how to use the area.
The difficulties in deciding on and putting into effect suitable land management techniques:
- gaps in knowledge
- bias in short-term planning
- splintered strategy
- inaction in response to unanticipated developments
- regulatory obstacles.
What actions are necessary to manage land?
- To provide a shared platform for farmers, other land managers, policymakers, civil society organisations, corporate leaders, and investors, a multi-stakeholder platform should be established at the district and sub-district levels.
- The Constitution’s Article 243ZD (1) allows district planning bodies to combine municipal and panchayat plans.
- In order to prepare a land management plan that addresses both the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, this committee may be activated.
- A landscape approach will be helpful since it will offer in-depth understanding for evaluating a piece of land’s potential as well as the extent of its allocation and reallocation for suitable purposes.
- It will support decision-making, assessment, bargaining, and trade-offs.
- A climate-smart landscape strategy will support biodiversity conservation, enhanced agricultural output, improved local livelihoods, and climate targets.
The Way Ahead:
- Encouraging integrated landscape management: This strategy has a lot of practical experience behind it, but there isn’t much institutional backing in place.
- According to the European Landscape Convention, landscape is essential to people’s social and personal well-being.
- in 2021, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology in the United Kingdom noted that “actions for addressing and adapting to climate change, achieving food security, and tackling the biodiversity crisis are all embedded in and depend on how land is managed.” Sustainable land management is the better management of land for environmental benefits.
- By incorporating all stakeholders at all scales—horizontal and vertical—India’s legislators may start a conversation about the new issues surrounding integrated land management techniques and contribute to the creation of sustainable long-term policy.
