India aims to achieve land degradation neutrality by the year

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, 2030. Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is the core objective of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and its deadline is not set by any national policy of its own — it comes from Sustainable Development Goal target 15.3, which commits countries to 'by 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil... and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world'. India, as a party to the UNCCD and to the 2030 Agenda, has adopted that same 2030 horizon, and reaffirmed its commitment while hosting UNCCD COP-14 at Greater Noida from 2 to 13 September 2019 — barely three months before this paper was set, which is why the examiner picked it up. At that COP India also announced an enhanced ambition for restoring degraded land by 2030; press reports of the exact hectare figures vary, so the safe and examinable fact is the year, 2030.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) No LDN or SDG land target runs to 2025. The year is attractive because several national mission timelines end in mid-decade, but the land-degradation-neutrality commitment is tied to the SDG framework, whose target year is 2030.  (c) 2035 is not a milestone in the UNCCD or SDG architecture at all. It is a plausible-looking round year inserted to catch candidates who remember 'sometime in the 2030s' rather than the precise SDG deadline.  (d) 2040 belongs to no Indian or UNCCD land-restoration commitment. Candidates who reach for a distant date are usually confusing land degradation neutrality with long-horizon climate pledges, which run on entirely different timelines.

Concept: Land Degradation Neutrality means that the amount and quality of land resources needed to support ecosystem functions stays stable or increases within a given period — in practice, any new degradation must be balanced by restoration elsewhere ('no net loss' applied to land). It is the flagship objective of the UNCCD, the third of the three Rio conventions (alongside the UNFCCC on climate and the CBD on biodiversity), and it is anchored in SDG 15.3 with a 2030 deadline. Countries set voluntary national LDN targets and report progress on three indicators: land cover, land productivity and soil organic carbon.

State PCS 2019 Q7 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q7 — Environment & Ecology PYQ with Answer