On certain issues of rational land use and prevention of their degradation

Land degradation is the process of decline in land quality as a result of harmful anthropogenic and/or natural impacts.

Land degradation occurs as a result of long-term loss or severe disruption of natural vegetation cover. It is also associated with the deterioration of physical, chemical, biological, and agronomic soil properties.

Natural factors of land degradation include climatic conditions, natural salt reserves in parent rocks, atmospheric transport of salts, dust, and sand, deflation, soil erosion, mudflows, and others.

The main causes of anthropogenic soil degradation worldwide are: irrational agricultural practices; overgrazing; wind and water erosion; technogenic pollution, salinization, and waterlogging of soils; land alienation for industrial and civil construction; deforestation; desertification, and others.

In relation to the natural and territorial conditions and specificities of economic land use in Belarus, land/soil degradation manifests in the following main forms:

- water and wind erosion of soils;

- chemical, including radioactive, contamination of land/soils;

- degradation and deterioration of soil properties, especially peat soils, during agricultural use;

- land degradation as a result of peat extraction, construction materials, construction work, road and other types of construction, as well as their flooding and inundation;

- degradation of peat soils in drained peatland areas as a result of peat fires;

- degradation of forest land as a result of irrational forest management and forest fires;

- land degradation due to excessive recreational, technical, and other anthropogenic pressures on land/soils.

The conservation of land (including soils) and their rational (sustainable) use are among the priority areas of sustainable development policy and ensuring the ecological security of the state.

The relevance of land degradation issues is also noted in the National Strategy for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development of the Republic of Belarus for the period up to 2030, approved by the Presidium of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus on February 10, 2015.

Land degradation and drought are pressing issues for all regions of the world. To facilitate joint actions by the international community in addressing these challenges, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa, was signed in Paris on June 17, 1994.

In accordance with Decree No. 393 of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated July 17, 2001, "On the Accession of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa," the Republic of Belarus acceded to the Convention.

To implement the Convention, the National Action Plan for the Prevention of Land (Soil) Degradation for 2025-2030 has been approved in the Republic of Belarus. This plan envisages the implementation of practical measures to prevent degradation and restore degraded lands (soils), including afforestation of burnt areas, reclamation of on-farm quarries, ecological rehabilitation of peatlands, application of organic fertilizers to agricultural soils, liming of acidic agricultural soils, conversion of forest-suitable land plots into forest fund lands, and others.

Activities related to the implementation of the Convention in the Republic of Belarus are aimed at ensuring systematic land accounting and monitoring, measures to prevent land degradation (including soils), and preventing the decline of soil fertility and productivity.