Multidimensional Food Security Nexus in Drylands under the Slow Onset Effects of Climate Change

Ilan Stavi, Anastasia Paschalidou, Apostolos P. Kyriazopoulos, Rares Halbac-Cotoara-Zamfir, Si Mokrane Siad, Malgorzata Suska-Malawska, Dragisa Savic, Joana Roque de Pinho, Lisa Thalheimer, David Samuel Williams, Nurit Hashimshony-Yaffe, Kees van der Geest, Claudia M. d. S. Cordovil and Andrej Ficko
Additional contact information
Ilan Stavi: Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, Yotvata 88820, Israel
Anastasia Paschalidou: Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, 68200 Orestiada, Greece
Apostolos P. Kyriazopoulos: Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, 68200 Orestiada, Greece
Rares Halbac-Cotoara-Zamfir: Department of Civil Engineering, Politehnica University of Timisoara, 300041 Timisoara, Romania
Si Mokrane Siad: Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30170 Venice, Italy
Malgorzata Suska-Malawska: Biological and Chemical Research Centre, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland
Dragisa Savic: Faculty of Technology in Leskovac, University of Niš, 18000 Niš, Serbia
Joana Roque de Pinho: Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Centro de Estudos Internacionais, 2649-026 Lisboa, Portugal
Lisa Thalheimer: Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
David Samuel Williams: Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG), 21502 Geesthacht, Germany
Nurit Hashimshony-Yaffe: School of Government and Society, The Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffo, Yaffo 6818211, Israel
Kees van der Geest: Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), United Nations University, 53113 Bonn, Germany
Claudia M. d. S. Cordovil: Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA-UL), Universidade de Lisboa, 1349-017 Lisbon, Portugal
Andrej Ficko: Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-14

Abstract: Hyperarid, arid, semiarid, and dry subhumid areas cover approximately 41% of the global land area. The human population in drylands, currently estimated at 2.7 billion, faces limited access to sufficient, affordable, and nutritious food. We discuss the interlinkages among water security, environmental security, energy security, economic security, health security, and food security governance, and how they affect food security in drylands. Reliable and adequate water supply, and the prevention of water contamination, increase the potential for ample food, fodder, and fiber production. Protecting woodlands and rangelands increases food security by buffering the slow onset effects of climate change, including biodiversity loss, desertification, salinization, and land degradation. The protection of natural lands is expected to decrease environmental contamination, and simultaneously, reduce the transfer of diseases from wildlife to humans. Biofuel production and hydroelectric power plants increase energy security but generate land-use conflicts, deforestation, and ecosystem degradation. Economic security generally positively correlates with food security. However, economic growth often degrades the environment, changes tenure rights over natural resources, and stimulates migration to urban areas, resulting in lower food and health security. Moreover, civil unrest, political instability, and armed conflicts disrupt local economies in drylands. Maintaining food security is crucial for health security; conversely, malnourished populations and unresponsive health systems decrease economic security, and adversely affect environmental, energy, and food security. Climate change is expected to deteriorate health security by spreading vector-borne diseases. Effective governance and timely interventions can substantially shorten periods of food insecurity, lower their intensities, and accelerate recovery from inevitable crises, and are therefore crucial in preventing humanitarian crises. Since global drylands population will nearly double by 2050, and since drylands are among the most susceptible areas to climate change, integrated multi-hazard approaches to food security are needed.

Keywords: climatic change; land-use and management; loss and damage; natural vs. anthropogenic factors; population growth and urbanization; slow onset events (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/12/1350/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/12/1350/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:12:p:1350-:d:697132

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().