Investment in sustainable land and water management is ‘essential’ for tackling costs related to drought, which total more than $307 billion annually, according to a report launched at the UNCCD COP16, taking place in Riyadh.
According to the report, Economics of drought: Investing in nature-based solutions for drought resilience – proaction pays, droughts resulting from human destruction of the environment are likely to affect three in four people by 2050.
The report seeks to make an economic and business case for nature-based solutions to drought – in order words, investing in practices that restore ecosystem functions and soil health, such as reforestation, grazing management, and the management, restoration and conservation of watersheds.
Such solutions can generate substantial economic returns, with each dollar invested yielding up to $27 in benefits, it notes.
‘Unlock economic growth’
“Managing our land and water sustainably is essential to unlock economic growth and build resilience for communities that are becoming locked into cycles of drought around the world,” commented UNCCD deputy executive secretary Andrea Meza.
“As talks for a landmark COP decision on drought are underway, the report calls on world leaders to recognise the outsized, and preventable, costs of drought, and to leverage proactive and nature-based solutions to secure human development within planetary boundaries.”
Business opportunity
Sustainable practices could generate up to $10.1 trillion annually in business value and create nearly 395 million jobs by 2030, the report states, calling for greater embedding of nature-based solutions into national environment plans, ensuring land and water rights, strengthening local governance, and repurposing harmful subsidies.
“The economic cost of drought extends beyond immediate agricultural losses,” added Kaveh Madani, director of UNU-INWEH and one of the lead authors of the report. “It affects entire supply chains, reduces GDP, impacts livelihoods, and leads to hunger, unemployment, migration, and long-term human security challenges; effective management and investment in nature are crucial to mitigate these effects.”
The report was co-authored by the Economics of Land Degradation Initiative (ELD), the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and financially supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA) and the European Union. Read more here.
