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MONIQUE BARBUT, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, UNITED NATIONS
CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION
The number of migrants taking dangerous risks to cross borders is a signal of an emerging challenge. But if
the number of Europe-directed migrants is significant, their origin is even more so. The main countries of
origin are Afghanistan, Eritrea, Gambia, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan and Syria. Civil war
or terrorism may explain the outflow of migrants in many of these countries, but what about Gambia and
Senegal? If you look below the surface, you can trace the origins of migration, even in these war-torn countries,
to deepening poverty in regions where naturally fragile lands are experiencing sharply declining fertility, and
infertility creates unemployment, hunger, lack of opportunity and, eventually, political breakdown.
Migration isn’t just a European problem. Every year, 700,000 people migrate from Mexico’s drylands
to other regions. But the greatest injustice is faced by the communities forced to migrate. For many
rural people in the developing world, the land and its natural resources are still the primary sources of
livelihood — from employment to meeting such basic needs as food, water, energy and medicine. More
than 2 billion people live in the driest regions of the world and are already touched by the effects of
climate change. Droughts and floods are more frequent and extreme. In the last 10 years, the number of
natural disasters globally has doubled from 200 to 400 per year. The push to migrate will only grow if we
do not act to address its root causes.
Living Land
tells inspiring stories about tackling the challenges of land degradation and climate change,
and doing so affordably. These stories show how land degradation occurs, and that it is now a threat
beyond the Sahel and other dryland regions. They explain what we can do, and what is already being done.
Investors, policymakers and activists who have longed to do something about land degradation but have
found the subject daunting and incomprehensible will find this publication highly useful. This is a book by
experts for everyone who cares about our planet’s future.
Less than a decade ago, Professor Norman Myers from Oxford University projected that by 2050 at least 200
million people would migrate due to the impacts of climate change. Myers’ estimates were highly contested —
and still are. However, the political uproar in Europe over the influx of just 300,000 migrants in 18 months
shows how the future could unfold if we continue to ignore land degradation and drought elsewhere. The
political consequences are far-reaching and global.
Living Land
shows that to stem the flows of migration,
we must create solutions for its environmental push factors. Inaction is by far the more costly option, and as
Living Land
shows, the solutions are cost-effective and produce real change in the first few years.
Monique Barbut
Executive Secretary,
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
Foreword