§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate she has made of the loss of agricultural land since 1980. [45895]
§ Mr. FoulkesThe Department has made no such estimate.
We are advised that the Food and Agriculture Organisation—FAO—does not gather such data.
The United Nations Environment Programme—UNEP—has estimated that 70 per cent. of the world's drylands are suffering some degree of desertification with an estimated 900 million people worldwide at risk from problems of degradation. The 1997 United Nations Development Programme—UNDP—Human Development Report estimated that half of the world's poorest live in marginal lands.
My Department supports projects bilaterally and multilaterally to combat land degradation, desertification and drought and the implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification.