Editing Test:SRCCL/Chapter-1 (section)

== 1.2.1.2 Land degradation ==

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As discussed in Chapter 4, the concept of land degradation, including its definition, has been used in different ways in different communities and in previous assessments (such as the IPBES Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment). In the SRCCL, land degradation is defined as a ''negative trend in land condition, caused by direct or indirect human-induced processes including anthropogenic climate change, expressed as long-term reduction or loss of at least one of the following: biological productivity, ecological integrity or value to humans.'' This definition applies to forest and non-forest land (Chapter 4 and Glossary).

Land degradation is a critical issue for ecosystems around the world due to the loss of actual or potential productivity or utility (Ravi et al. 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r291|291]]</sup> ; Mirzabaev et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r292|292]]</sup> ; FAO and ITPS 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r293|293]]</sup> ; Cerretelli et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r294|294]]</sup> ). Land degradation is driven to a large degree by unsustainable agriculture and forestry, socio-economic pressures, such as rapid urbanisation and population growth, and unsustainable production practices in combination with climatic factors (Field et al. 2014b <sup>[[#fn:r295|295]]</sup> ; Lal 2009 <sup>[[#fn:r296|296]]</sup> ; Beinroth et al. 1994 <sup>[[#fn:r297|297]]</sup> ; Abu Hammad and Tumeizi 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r298|298]]</sup> ; Ferreira et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r299|299]]</sup> ; Franco and Giannini 2005 <sup>[[#fn:r300|300]]</sup> ; Abahussain et al. 2002 <sup>[[#fn:r301|301]]</sup> ).

Global estimates of the total degraded area vary from less than 10 million km <sup>2</sup> to over 60 million km <sup>2</sup> , with additionally large disagreement regarding the spatial distribution (Gibbs and Salmon 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r302|302]]</sup> ) (Section 4.3). The annual increase in the degraded land area has been estimated as 50,000–100,000 million km <sup>2</sup> yr <sup>–1</sup> (Stavi and Lal 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r303|303]]</sup> ), and the loss of total ecosystem services equivalent to about 10% of the world’s GDP in the year 2010 (Sutton et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r304|304]]</sup> ). Although land degradation is a common risk across the globe, poor countries remain most vulnerable to its impacts. Soil degradation is of particular concern, due to the long period necessary to restore soils (Lal 2009; Stockmann et al. 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r305|305]]</sup> ; Lal 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r306|306]]</sup> ), as well as the rapid degradation of primary forests through fragmentation (Haddad et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r307|307]]</sup> ). Among the most vulnerable ecosystems to degradation are high-carbon- stock wetlands (including peatlands). Drainage of natural wetlands for use in agriculture leads to high CO <sub>2</sub> emissions and degradation ( ''high confidence'' ) (Strack 2008 <sup>[[#fn:r308|308]]</sup> ; Limpens et al. 2008 <sup>[[#fn:r309|309]]</sup> ; Aich et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r310|310]]</sup> ; Murdiyarso et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r311|311]]</sup> ; Kauffman et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r312|312]]</sup> ; Dohong et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r313|313]]</sup> ; Arifanti et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r314|314]]</sup> ; Evans et al. 2019 <sup>[[#fn:r315|315]]</sup> ). Land degradation is an important factor contributing to uncertainties in the mitigation potential of land-based ecosystems (Smith et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r316|316]]</sup> ). Furthermore, degradation that reduces forest (and agricultural) biomass and soil organic carbon leads to higher rates of runoff ( ''high confidence'' ) (Molina et al. 2007 <sup>[[#fn:r317|317]]</sup> ; Valentin et al. 2008 <sup>[[#fn:r318|318]]</sup> ; Mateos et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r319|319]]</sup> ; Noordwijk et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r320|320]]</sup> ) and hence to increasing flood risk ( ''low confidence'' ) (Bradshaw et al. 2007 <sup>[[#fn:r321|321]]</sup> ; Laurance 2007 <sup>[[#fn:r322|322]]</sup> ; van Dijk et al. 2009 <sup>[[#fn:r323|323]]</sup> ).

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