A total of 2 billion people live in drylands
globally says the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports NaijaAgroNet.
The new study from the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) helps to fill a significant knowledge gap on the presence
and extent of forests and trees in the world's drylands, where the food
security and livelihoods of millions of people, already precarious, are
increasingly being threatened by climate change.
The study's preliminary findings made
available to NaijaAgroNet Tuesday showed the full report will be launched later
this year, showed that trees are present with hugely varying densities on
almost one-third of the world's 6.1 billion hectares of drylands, which cover
an area more than twice the size of Africa. Almost 18 percent of this area
contains forests.
In addition to an estimated 2 billion people, FAO
said, 90 percent of whom are in developing countries, live in drylands. Recent
studies have indicated the need to restore these areas to cope with the effects
of drought, desertification and land degradation.
In particular, water availability in drylands
is expected to decline further due to changes in climate and land use.
Poor people living in remote rural areas will be most vulnerable to food
shortages, which combined with violence and social upheaval, are already
leading to forced migration in dryland regions in Africa and western Asia.
NaijaAgroNet gathered that until now, there
has been little statistically based knowledge on dryland trees - particularly
those growing outside forests - despite their vital importance to humans and
the environment.
FAO further said that the leaves and fruit of
trees are sources of food for people and fodder for animals; their wood
provides fuel for cooking and heating and can be a source of income for poor
households; trees protect soils, crops and animals from the sun and winds,
while forests are often rich in biodiversity.
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