Adopting proven sustainable land management practices could raise world crop supplies by an estimated 2.01 billion tonnes, producing an extra $1.4 trillion (£600 billion) worth of food, according to experts gathering in Nairobi, Kenya.

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In a report conducted by the international Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) initiative, and supported by the UN, land degradation experts suggest that the economic value of land "is chronically undervalued and commonly determined by immediate agricultural or forestry market values." The experts go on, "This focus on short-term gain motivates the highest extraction rates possible from land, [and is] leading to unsustainable land management and degradation (the reduction or loss in biological or economic productivity)."

The study suggests a new approach to land management and efforts to combat degradation is needed urgently, including valuing healthy systems more highly, based on the beneficial natural functions they support, and championing sustainable farming and forestry approaches. It was released on Wednesday at an event in Nairobi organised by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

The value of benefits far outweigh the cost of prevention and remediation in most situations, according to the initiative behind the study, and valuing land and related 'ecosystem services' (natural functions such as insect pollination and carbon storage in soils) is both urgent and necessary to focus attention on the growing problem of land degradation.

The problem affects in particular the world's 1.2 billion rural poor – those who depend directly upon the land for sustenance and income. For the 2 billion people living in drylands, annual global losses of arable land can amount to 8 to 10 million hectares per year – an area roughly the size of Austria.

According to the study, 10 to 20 percent of drylands and 24 percent of the world's usable lands are degraded, resulting in estimated economic losses of US $40 billion per year (£25bn).

Authors from the Economics of Land Degradation initiative suggest the problem is "mainly the result of land mismanagement, drought related-famines, and misperceptions of plentiful food production, large food stocks in Europe, open land frontiers, relatively cheap subsidized food, low land prices, and abundant energy and water resources."

The authors warn that, although there is evidence that policy makers are becoming aware of the threats posed by land degradation, not enough is being invested in sustainable developments to combat the problem.

New method of assessing cases of competing land use

Lead author Richard J. Thomas, Associate Director of the UN University's Canada-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) said researchers working on the study have come up with a method of calculating the competing economic values of alternative land uses. He said he hopes this 'tool' will inform governments, the private sector and scientists, enabling better informed decision making and seeing that land is put to the best possible use.

Thomas claimed his 'tool' is intended to promote choices that would lead to sustainable land management options, which his study suggests can "provide environmental, economic, and social benefits for the greater good on a long-term scale." He said that, although the practice is controversial, looking at issues facing land and the environment from an economic perspective, will enable those with the power to make decisions appreciate the consequences of their actions.

The UNU-INWEH director said such a process "will allow for the clearest picture of land and land service values, and provide a foundational platform to guide land use, investment and equitable planning decisions that do not result in the further impoverishment of rural farmers or degradation of land."

Commenting on the ELD initiative's findings,  Zafar Adeel, Director of UNU-INWEH said, "International action on achieving sustainable land management and preventing massive land degradation can only be triggered when we know the cost of inaction. Land degradation today is largely a mismanagement problem, and one that needs to be fixed in a hurry given rising populations and slowing growth in crop yield. Sound economic valuations are thus an essential policy tool for the international community, and this study aims to provide precisely that."