Over 60% of the world’s land surface has breached the critical planetary boundary for functional biosphere integrity, signaling severe ecosystem degradation globally, a new study published in One Earth reveals.
Functional biosphere integrity reflects the ability of plants and ecosystems to regulate carbon, water, and nutrient cycles through photosynthesis and biomass production.
This alarming loss, driven by centuries of human activity, threatens life-sustaining processes.
According to Soil Atlas Kenya Edition released earlier this year, the crisis is even more acute for Kenya, with up to 80% of our arid lands degraded and only 20% suitable for agriculture, far surpassing global averages and jeopardizing food security, biodiversity, and economic stability.
According to the study led by researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and BOKU University, 60% of land areas have crossed safe ecological thresholds, with 38% in high-risk zones where abrupt ecosystem collapses are possible.
Since 1900, when only 37% of land was affected, industrialization, deforestation, and intensive agriculture have accelerated the crisis. This weakens planetary resilience, reducing carbon sinks and disrupting climate patterns.
Kenya, however, faces a graver situation. While global land degradation stands at 60%, East Africa’s soil degradation reaches 40%, and in Kenya, only 20% of land remains viable for food production due to erosion, nutrient depletion, and overgrazing.
“Soil degradation is a silent crisis in East Africa,” notes a Heinrich Böll Foundation report released earlier in the year, highlighting that 80% of Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands are critically degraded, costing billions in economic losses annually.
This places Kenya in a higher-risk category than the global 38% high-risk zone, as our reliance on rain-fed agriculture amplifies biosphere loss impacts.
The Mau Forest Complex, Kenya’s largest water tower, exemplifies this crisis. Deforestation has disrupted biomass flows, reducing water retention and increasing erosion, affecting rivers that support over 5 million people and feed Lake Victoria.
In contrast to global patterns, where industrialized nations offset losses through imports, Kenya’s 70% agriculture-dependent workforce, mostly smallholder farmers, faces direct hits, with maize yields dropping due to soil degradation and erratic rains linked to biosphere decline.
Wildlife tourism, generating KES 200 billion yearly, is also at risk as savannas in Tsavo and Amboseli shift.
A 2023 study by Nature showed that Africa’s agricultural productivity is projected to decline sharply due to land degradation. The study further warned that Kenya’s northern counties like Turkana faces desertification.
Economically, degradation drains 3% of Kenya’s GDP annually, a heavier toll than global per capita losses, undermining Vision 2030 goals.
Rural women and youth, managing most farms, bear the brunt, with declining soil fertility driving food insecurity. Unlike wealthier nations, Kenya’s dependence on domestic biomass heightens vulnerability.
Further, biodiversity in Mount Kenya and coastal mangroves is declining faster than global rates, threatening species and ecosystem services like flood control.
