Latin America

Area: 20,111,457 km² 

Latin America has the world’s largest reserves of arable land. The area still covered with forest (47%) is rapidly declining due to the vast expansion of agricultural land use. In the past 50 years, Latin America has seen an increase of almost 200 million hectares of agricultural surface area, a process which went hand in hand with rising amounts of agrochemicals used, an alarming reduction in biodiversity and a constant increase in soil erosion and degradation.  

Soil degradation in Latin America makes up for 14% of global degradation. 26% of land is affected in Mesoamerica, 14% in South America. Changes in precipitation and temperature will impact yields throughout Latin America’s agriculture, paired with an exploding demand of a growing world population and the continuous degradation of arable land, the need for upscaling sustainable land management practices is imperative. 

Source: http://www.fao.org/americas/priorities/suelo-agua/en/ 

Where we work in Latin America: