Context: Positive feedback loop is a process where changing one quantity changes the second one, and the change in the second quantity, in turn, changes the first. Scientists fear a positive feedback loop may spiral the climate crisis out of control.

Desertification is an example of a positive feedback loop, just as the melting of the Arctic ice cap, thawing of the Siberian permafrost, and the large-scale release of methane from methane hydrate lying on the sea and ocean floors. The climate crisis is causing desertification and, in turn, desertification is exacerbating the crisis. The cycle continues.

• Soil is one of the largest repositories of carbon on our planet. In fact, there is three times more carbon in the soil than in the atmosphere. Carbon loss from soil has been happening since the beginning of settled agriculture, but this is now being exacerbated by desertification. The emission of soil carbon to the atmosphere is contributing to global warming.
• Latest data indicates that land degradation is responsible for annual global emissions of 3.6- 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) or 10 to 12 per cent of the total emissions. Just to contextualise, CO2 emissions from land degradation is about 50 per cent higher than the total CO2 emissions of India, the third-largest emitter in the world. So, land degradation is a significant contributor to the climate crisis.
• The climate crisis, on the other hand, is further speeding up desertification by increasing the frequency and intensity of droughts, floods and forest fires, and also by the changing the patterns of temperature, solar radiations and wind. Climate crisis and desertification, thus, are reinforcing each other.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (ipcc) Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C makes it clear that we cannot meet the target of 1.5°C without large-scale “carbon removal” from the atmosphere.
• The best way to remove carbon is by sequestering it in its natural sinks—forests, grasslands and soil. Meeting the 1.5°C target, therefore, requires rapid enhancement in the capacity of natural carbon sinks to suck atmospheric carbon. This is also required to combat desertification.

To curb desertification, we need to restore degraded soil via forestry, improving vegetative cover, enhancing water use efficiency, reducing soil erosion and adopting better farming systems. All these will help enhance biomass production and organic carbon content in the soil. Combating desertification and climate change, thus, have the same solutions—enhance natural sinks.

• In 2007, redd+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) was formalised to incentivise forest conservation in tropical developing countries by providing them funds and allowing them to sell carbon credits to the developed countries. So far, more than 300 redd+ initiatives have taken off across the world.
• A decade later, however, there is no convincing evidence to establish its contribution to halting or reversing deforestation trends.
• The developed countries’ funding commitments for redd+ have also been much lower than expected.

What can be done?

• Studies show that indigenous people and local communities are capable of achieving excellent forest conservation outcomes by investing only a fraction of the total money spent on conservation by all agencies.
• The Sink Mechanism will work if millions of forest dwellers and farmers work to reverse land and forest degradation, and enhance carbon stock in forests and lands.
• Second, it has to be a carbon sequestration plus approach. In other words, improved sustainable forest and farm management practices have to be the basis of this mechanism.
• Third, land and forest-based mechanisms cannot be sustained on carbon credits. These cannot be left to the mercy of the markets, and a non-market approach is needed to finance them. We, therefore, need to design a nonmarket mechanism where funds are mobilised to build the capacity of communities and local governments.

Lastly, any global mechanism cannot depend solely on international funding. redd+ experience shows that once foreign funding ceases, projects become unsustainable. So, funds for the Sink Mechanism have to be a combination of domestic and international resources to build domestic ownership.

By: Shubham Tiwari