Latin America is one of the areas most affected by land degradation. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) describes<\/a> the region as being caught in a \u201cvicious circle of land overexploitation, degradation, increased demands on production, greater poverty, food insecurity and migration\u201d.<\/p>\n Despite this, restoration technologies and strategies exist, which aim to prevent the erosion of still-productive areas, and even recover what has been lost. A number of governments and organisations across Latin America are already testing and pursuing such initiatives, including governance plans for the restoration of millions of hectares of land, campaigns for agriculture that is less dependent on chemical inputs, and the promotion of regenerative land management practices.<\/p>\n Land degradation is a change in the health of the soil that results in a decrease in its productive capacity, commonly caused by bad practices. According to the UNCCD<\/a>, there are more than 2 billion hectares of degraded land in the world, of which 14% is in Latin America.<\/p>\n Most of the degraded land in the region is affected by deforestation<\/a> and overgrazing. The main areas of cropland under pressure are in northeastern Brazil, the Gran Chaco \u2013 the biome that spans northern Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia \u2013 and central Chile, among others, according to the UNCCD.<\/p>\n We have a very serious problem, with millions of hectares degraded \u2013 an immense loss of natural capital<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Walter Vergara leads Initiative 20×20<\/a>, a regional project that aims to restore 50 million hectares by 2030, bringing together governments, private investors and technical organisations, and covering most Latin American countries. It was launched in 2014 and is already working on more than 100 projects on 23 million hectares across the region, in both restoration and soil conservation.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the regional level we have a very serious problem, with millions of hectares degraded \u2013 an immense loss of natural capital,\u201d said Vergara, explaining that this is due to bad agricultural and forestry practices, surface mining and \u201cpoorly thought-out infrastructure construction\u201d.<\/p>\n To address this, the initiative pursues six strategies: natural or assisted reforestation; agroforestry; grassland restoration through sustainable livestock management; silvopasture \u2013 the integration of trees, forage and grazing animals; low-carbon agriculture through sustainable practices; and conservation of what has not yet been degraded.<\/p>\n In 2015, the UNCCD agreed<\/a> to combat desertification and restore land with national targets based on the level of erosion in each country, aiming to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by 2030.<\/p>\n Chile, a country that has been hit by drought<\/a> for over a decade, is one that is moving forward with a national strategy for the restoration of degraded lands. This was created by a participatory and federal process, as Emilia Undurraga, an agronomist and the country\u2019s Minister of Agriculture until March, explained to Di\u00e1logo Chino.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem of erosion in Chile is profound: about 80% of the country has some degree of risk of degradation and about 20% is at high or very high risk of desertification,\u201d she explained, adding that the country\u2019s midland Central Zone is the most affected by both drought and fires, having seen significant changes in land use due to human activities.<\/p>\n In this context, Chile developed its national plan for landscape restoration<\/a> between the ministries of agriculture and environment, and published in late 2021. The plan, Undurruga said, \u201chas very concrete goals\u201d, such as the restoration of 1 million hectares by 2030.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not only about restoring what has been lost, but also about finding a way to protect the land with better governance, increased state capacities, specific financing and strategies for prevention, and reduction of degradation factors, with the participation of public, private, civil society and university actors,\u201d said Undurraga.<\/p>\n After decades of intensive agriculture, livestock farming and changes in land use, degradation is all too evident in Argentina. According to its environment ministry\u2019s 2020 report<\/a> on the state of the environment, of Argentina\u2019s total land area of 270 million hectares, 100 million hectares are affected by erosion, with an estimated rate of increase of about 2 million hectares per year. The planting of one or two crops without rotation \u2013 notably soybeans<\/a> \u2013 overgrazing and the advance of the agricultural frontier are among the factors that have contributed to this.<\/p>\n Beatriz Bonel, an agronomist specialising in soil sciences at the National University of Rosario, explained that the three basic aspects of soil \u2013 its physical, chemical and biological condition \u2013 have been impacted in Argentina, with land suffering from a shortage of nutrients, compaction and loss of organic matter.<\/p>\n What is agroecology?<\/p>\n \u201cThere are technologies to slow down some processes and reverse others, and there is also a generational change with new actors. Young people are coming in with a different mentality that incorporates environmental variables,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n One of these new actors Bonel refers to is the Network of Municipalities for Agroecology (RENAMA<\/a>), a group created in 2016 and that now brings together 40 Argentine localities and 200 producers who work across more than 100,000 hectares, all with an agroecological approach. Agronomist Eduardo Cerd\u00e1, one of its founders, stressed the importance of promoting a shift towards an \u201cemancipatory\u201d production model that decouples producers from the dollarised costs of agrochemicals and seeds. \u201cAgroecology is a paradigm where balance and health take precedence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must not forget that in the last 20 years, 100,000 small and medium-sized producers have been lost in Argentina,\u201d he said, indicating that many have been unable to compete with industrial-scale agribusiness, and some have seen their land become unproductive.<\/p>\n The Adapta Sert\u00e3o initiative is a coalition of organisations promoting environmental regeneration strategies for small farmers in the semi-arid Sert\u00e3o region, Brazil\u2019s northeastern \u201coutback\u201d and one of the driest areas of the country.<\/p>\n Daniele Cesano, director of the Adapta Group, explained that soil erosion is a serious problem in several areas of Brazil, and is mostly caused by the extensive agricultural model. \u201cWe are facing a very accelerated process of erosion and desertification. Our response is regenerative agriculture, which avoids monoculture and seeks to diversify,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The menu of tools they use with small producers includes agroforestry systems and improvements in soil fertility through cover crops and biological fertilisers. Added to this are management, knowledge and financing: \u201cWe want to professionalise the work, we want producers to be informed and trained. We want to move from input agriculture to management and process-led agriculture. This is the best way to take care of the soil,\u201d Cesano added.<\/p>\n The Gran Chaco<\/a> is one of the largest and most threatened forest regions in Latin America. A project managed by the Argentine conservation-focused ProYungas Foundation, in alliance with the Argentine Association of Direct-Seeding Producers (AAPRESID) and the Bertoni Foundation of Paraguay, seeks to promote a sustainable, deforestation-free soybean supply chain based on two axes: good agricultural practices and the conservation and restoration of native vegetation.<\/p>\n Alejandro Brown, president of ProYungas, said that it is necessary to establish \u201cbetter land planning\u201d to improve livestock farming practices that integrate grazing and production with forest cover, known as silvopasture.<\/p>\n \u201cWe start from the concept of a protected productive landscape, a model of land management on a landscape scale that integrates production with conservation and ecosystem services, in a context of environmental and social sustainability,\u201d Brown explained.<\/p>\n Given its experience with in-field experimentation, AAPRESID is contributing to the project\u2019s methodology, helping producers to collaborate with scientists on sustainable production models. The actions will be carried out in five pilot sites in the Gran Chaco, covering an area of some 50,000 hectares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a region hard hit by land degradation, initiatives by governments and environmental organisations seek to halt and reverse the damage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3882,"featured_media":50055103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[764],"tags":[537,50040317,50040326],"hashtags":[],"country":[50000020,50000021,50000024],"class_list":["post-50055131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-ecosystems","tag-farming","tag-soil","country-argentina","country-brazil","country-chile"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLand degradation in Latin America<\/h2>\n
Restoration in Chile<\/h2>\n
![\"chile](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/chile-drought-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Agroecology in Argentina<\/h2>\n
\nAn approach that applies ecological principles to agricultural production, aiming to reduce its environmental impacts. Practices include crop diversification, use of biological over chemical inputs, and conservation tillage, among many others
\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\nRegenerative agriculture in Brazil<\/h2>\n
![\"cows](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/DAD430-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Projects in the Gran Chaco<\/h2>\n
![\"aerial](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Deforestacio\u0301n_Chaco_Cre\u0301dito_Marti\u0301n_Katz_Greenpeace_2-scaled.jpeg\")
<\/a>