Around one-fifth of land in Central Asia is currently classified as degraded, according to the Global Environment Outlook 7 (GEO-7) report published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The situation in the region has remained largely unchanged in recent years, pointing to the structural nature of the challenge.
UN assessments show that degraded land accounted for 20.2% of Central Asia’s total land area in 2015 and 20.3% in 2019. These figures are significantly higher than the global average, which increased from 11.3% to 15.5% over the same period, highlighting the vulnerability of arid and semi-arid regions.
Globally, land degradation is driven by anthropogenic pressures, including unsustainable land use, intensive agriculture, pollution, deforestation and land cover change. Between 24% and 40% of the world’s land surface is affected, with impacts extending to more than 3.2 billion people. From 2015 to 2019, at least 100 million hectares of fertile and productive land were lost each year worldwide, an area equivalent to twice the size of Greenland.
In Central Asia, key degradation processes include increasing aridity, loss of vegetation cover, water and wind erosion, soil salinization and declining levels of organic carbon. These trends undermine agricultural productivity, weaken rangeland resilience and reduce the capacity of ecosystems to deliver essential services, such as carbon storage and water regulation.
The report emphasizes that land degradation, in combination with climate change, intensifies socio-economic risks, including threats to food security and livelihoods. Globally, the economic costs of land degradation are substantial, ranging from tens of billions to trillions of US dollars annually, while water-driven soil erosion already contributes to significant global GDP losses.
UNEP stresses that reversing land degradation is achievable through sustainable land management, large-scale ecosystem restoration and progress toward Sustainable Development Goal target 15.3 on land degradation neutrality. Although such measures require considerable investment, they are expected to deliver long-term environmental and economic benefits, strengthening food systems and supporting biodiversity conservation.
📌 Source: UNEP Report “Global Environment Outlook 7”
