Panos Institute Calls for Unified Effort Against Land Degradation on World Environment Day 

As the world observes World Environment Day today, the Panos Institute Southern Africa is urging renewed commitments and decisive, inclusive, and locally-led actions to combat land degradation, desertification, and climate change vulnerability in Southern Africa. These issues are increasingly threatening livelihoods and ecosystems across the region.

Vusumuzi Sifile, Executive Director of Panos Institute Southern Africa, emphasized the significance of this year’s World Environment Day theme, “Land Restoration, Desertification, and Drought Resilience,” under the slogan “Our Land, Our Future.” Since its inception by the United Nations in 1972, World Environment Day has been commemorated annually on June 5th to raise awareness and mobilize action to protect the environment.

“This year’s commemoration is crucial as biodiversity, food security, and livelihoods in Southern Africa face unprecedented threats from land degradation, desertification, and climate change-induced droughts,” Sifile stated. “If urgent and practical measures are not taken by governments, development actors, the private sector, traditional leaders, and citizens, these combined challenges will undermine food security, economic stability, and exacerbate poverty and social inequalities, jeopardizing the region’s ability to achieve most of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

Land is a vital source of livelihood in Southern Africa. However, unsustainable practices and climate change-driven extreme weather events like floods, droughts, and high temperatures have resulted in widespread land degradation and desertification, increasing the vulnerability of both livelihoods and ecosystems.

“Addressing land degradation and its related problems requires a collective, multi-dimensional, and multi-sectoral approach,” Sifile emphasized. “State and non-state actors must collaborate to create and sustain environments where affected communities drive and own the response to these environmental challenges.”

Through its participation in the Voices for Just Climate Action (VCA) programme, funded by SouthSouthNorth, Panos is advancing sustainable land and environmental management practices. This includes community-led actions and voices addressing environmental degradation and climate change, impacting policies at various levels. 

Panos believes that marginalized and underprivileged communities, being the most adversely affected by environmental degradation, are pivotal in finding local solutions to these challenges and should be empowered to do so.

“We urge governments and stakeholders in the Southern Africa region to recommit to promoting sustainable land management through progressive policy decisions and investments in community-led and focused environmental and livelihood practices,” Sifile said. “Civil society, the private sector, and individuals must join forces to prioritize land restoration to secure a sustainable and prosperous future for all.”

“Investing in land restoration is investing in our collective future,” Sifile concluded. “It is a step towards ensuring that our children inherit a world where they can thrive. Let us all commit to making ‘Our Land, Our Future’ a reality.”