Over 3 billion people around the world grapple with the consequences of land degradation. Damaged forests, farms, grasslands and mangroves lead to less water and food, declining rural incomes and creeping deserts.
In 2019, the world lost 11.9 million hectares of tree cover in the tropics, the rough equivalent of 4 billion trees — an area the size of Honduras or the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. This situation is growing ever more dire, as 100 million people risk falling into extreme poverty in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.