UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged all governments to eliminate legal barriers to women owning land, and to involve them in policymaking.
"Support women and girls to play their part in protecting our most precious resource. And together, let's stop land degradation by 2030," he said in a message marking the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought that falls on June 17.
The UN chief said unsustainable farming is eroding soil 100 times faster than natural process can restore them. "We depend on land for our survival. Yet we treat it like dirt."
And, he said, up to 40 per cent of our planet's land is now degraded: imperiling food production; threatening biodiversity; and compounding the climate crisis.
"This hits women and girls the hardest. They suffer disproportionately from the lack of food, water scarcity, and forced migration that result from our mistreatment of land. Yet they have the least control," said the UN chief.
In many countries, he said, laws and practices block women and girls from owning land. "But where they do, they restore and protect it: increasing productivity; building resilience to drought and investing in health, education and nutrition."
Guterres said equal land rights both protect land and advance gender equality; and that is why this Desertification and Drought Day puts the focus on "her land, her rights".
