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Scientist Propose Bold Plan to Spare Area Larger than Africa
Reducing food waste by 75% and shifting diets to sustainable seafood could spare land equal to Africa’s size and cut 13 gigatons of CO2 emissions annually by 2050, scientists say.
- On August 13, 2025, 21 leading scientists published a paper in Nature presenting strategies aimed at stopping and restoring damaged land worldwide.
- They recognized that continued land degradation is a major factor driving challenges such as food and water shortages, displacement of populations, societal conflicts, and widening economic disparities.
- The paper calls for halting land conversion, restoring 50% of degraded lands by 2050, reducing food waste by 75%, shifting diets toward sustainable seafood, and supporting smallholder farmers.
- These combined measures could spare or restore roughly 43.8 million km²—an area about the size of Africa—and reduce emissions by approximately 13 gigatons of CO₂-equivalent annually through 2050.
- The authors urge coordinated multilateral action among the UN’s Rio conventions and emphasize involving Indigenous Peoples, smallholders, women, and vulnerable communities in land restoration efforts.
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11 Articles
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Bending the curve of land degradation to achieve global environmental goals
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Overhaul global food systems to avert worsening land crisis: Scientists
In Nature, 21 leading scientists today prescribe ways to use food systems to halt and reverse land degradation, underlining that doing so must become a top global priority to mitigate climate change and stop biodiversity loss. The article breaks new ground by quantifying the impact by 2050 of reducing food waste by 75% and maximising sustainable ocean-based food production, measures that alone could spare an area larger than Africa.
Bending the Curve: Overhaul Global Food Systems to Avert Worsening Land Crisis
Scientists say replacing just 10 percent of global vegetable intake with seaweed-derived products could free up large portions of land. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPSBy Joyce ChimbiNAIROBI, Aug 13 2025 (IPS) Current rates of land degradation pose a major environmental and socioeconomic threat, driving climate change, biodiversity loss, and social crises. Food production to feed more than 8 billion people is the dominant land use on Earth. Yet, this in…
Overhaul global food systems to avert worsening land crisis, scientists urge
In the journal Nature, 21 leading scientists prescribe ways to use food systems to halt and reverse land degradation, underlining that doing so must become a top global priority to mitigate climate change and stop biodiversity loss.
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