Sand and Sustainability: An Essential Resource for Nature and Development

Livre Livre Sand and Sustainability: An Essential Resource for Nature and Development eng 2026 author Peduzzi Pascal 0000-0003-0665-9490 43229 Forel Communs (FOREL) author Chuah Stephanie 898259 Services communs de l'Institut des sciences de l'environnement (ISECO) author Vander Velpen Arnaud 944206 Services communs de l'Institut des sciences de l'environnement (ISECO) author Torres Montaño Juanita 411733 author Bach Calsamiglia Helena 984010 author Chung Candice author Dawson Katherine author Goichot Marc author Guppy Reia author Jouffray Jean-Baptiste author McCleaf Long Ashley author Mohammed Mona author Moizer Jonathan author Puffer Sheila author Raji Munira author Russell Mark author Sánchez Luis author Selby Ian author Shannon Murtah author Strigin Natalia author Torres Aurora author Van Lancker Vera author Young Renee author Yusuf Halinishi author Zadeh Adel author Zu Ermgassen Sophus 90 10.59117/20.500.11822/49463 9789280742794 https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/49463 Sand resources are the most extracted solid material on Earth and the foundation of modern development. They underpin housing, transport, energy systems, land reclamation, and climate adaptation infrastructure. Yet sand is more than a construction commodity. Left in place, it regulates water flows, filters pollutants, sustains fisheries and habitats, buffers coastlines against storms, and underpins tourism and livelihoods. These diverse values—spanning extraction and conservation, economy and ecology—remain poorly understood, largely invisible in global governance, and weakly integrated into biodiversity, climate, and financial decision-making. Over the past decade, UNEP and other partners have brought several reports, growing global attention to sand sustainability, with rising scientific evidence, media coverage, and recognition by Member States through four resolutions adopted at the United Nations Environment Assemblies (UNEA). Yet on‑the‑ground practices have shifted only marginally: demand continues to rise, governance remains fragmented, and extraction often follows a classic tragedy‑of‑the‑commons dynamic, actors pursuing short‑term economic gains while environmental, social, and long‑term economic costs accumulate. Sand’s dual role as both a critical input for development and a key component of natural systems heightens this tension: unsustainable extraction is degrading rivers, coasts, aquifers, and biodiversity, while contributing to social harms such as corruption, conflict, and unsafe labour. We have a sand dilemma: we need sand for our infrastructures but also in nature for all the services it provides. The role of sand in the natural ecosystems for the services it provides doesn’t benefit from enough awareness in comparison with the need of sand for building new infrastructures. The purpose of this report is to correct this, by highlighting the dual needs for sand: the sand that we leave in the environment: non-use value versus the sand we extract. Sand Sustainability Ecosystems Building material Aggregates Natural resources Nature Development Dewey 550 Dewey 333.7-333.9 United Nations Environment Programme Geneva, Swizerland Sand and Sustainability 3 18 Institut des sciences de l'environnement 0DB 41 Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau 153 false 859 Global Resource Information Database (GRID) ddf8359c-f107-43d5-90dd-787fd721320d Book (Published version) Public Sand_and_Sustainability_UNEP_Report.pdf 54172237 application/pdf CC BY-NC-ND-4.0 82f80d9ecd2113886d8f47b0e3bc730cad8688d7284cf05b356289de13c04cf6 openAccess Centres et instituts / Institut des sciences de l'environnement Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau

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Sand and Sustainability: An Essential Resource for Nature and Development				2026	9	8

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Bach Calsamiglia, Helena