ANKARA
Turkish Minister for Forestry and Waterworks Veysel Eroglu on Monday warned about the increase in unarable land, saying that 500,000 hectares in the world become desert every year only due to poor irrigation.
"The increase in unarable land costs more than $42 billion each year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)," Eroglu told Anadolu Agency. "Africa alone suffers an annual financial loss $9 billion."
Eroglu said that today, more than 250 million people are directly affected by the increase in unarable land and by drought and that more than 4 billion hectares risk becoming unarable -- this affects the lives of 1.2 billion people.
Turkey is among the countries that will be greatly affected by the increase in unarable land, and by climate change due to its geographical position, geological structure, topography and climate, he said.
Eroglu said Turkey is one of the top five countries that struggle with the increase in unarable land and erosion.
He also added that the 12th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will take place between October 12 and October 23 in Turkey's capital Ankara. From 195 countries, presidents, ministries, deputies, businessmen, NGO's and almost 10,000 experts are expected to attend the conference.
As the Convention's primary decision-making body, the COP will meet to discuss and make decisions regarding the Convention's implementation.
