Technical Report: Locust Outbreak 2019-2021

Newsom, Amy, Koli, Margaret and Sebesvari, Zita (2021). Technical Report: Locust Outbreak 2019-2021. Interconnected Disaster Risks 2020/2021. United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS).

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    Desert_Locust_Outbreak_TR_210906.pdf Desert_Locust_Outbreak_TR_210906.pdf application/pdf 1.38MB
  • Sub-type Research report
    Author Newsom, Amy
    Koli, Margaret
    Sebesvari, Zita
    Title Technical Report: Locust Outbreak 2019-2021
    Series Title Interconnected Disaster Risks 2020/2021
    Publication Date 2021-09-08
    Place of Publication Bonn
    Publisher United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
    Pages 28
    Language eng
    Abstract Locust infestations have been considered a pest since antiquity, but in the past 120 years humans have generally become much better at managing locusts, having learned how to contain them before they turn into large infestations. However, despite having this knowledge, we frequently still fail at locust management. Starting in 2018, a series of unfortunate events unfolded that led to this opportunity being missed, allowing swarms of desert locusts to form and spread across 23 countries on multiple continents between 2019 and 2021, devouring their weight in vegetation every day. Desert locusts destroy vegetation extremely rapidly: a swarm covering 1 km² consumes as much food as 35,000 people in one day, and these swarms were often much larger. One mega-swarm alone, measured in Kenya in 2020, was the size of the country of Luxembourg. This technical background report for the 2020/2021 edition of the Interconnected Disaster Risks report analyses the root causes, drivers, impacts and potential solutions for the desert locust outbreak through a forensic analysis of academic literature, media articles and expert interviews.
    Copyright Holder United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
    Copyright Year 2021
    Copyright type Creative commons
    DOI 10.53324/ECPP2581
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    Created: Fri, 28 Jul 2023, 23:37:43 JST by Aarti Basnyat on behalf of UNU EHS