Global demand for sand outpacing supply and threatening ecosystems, UN says

GENEVA - Growing global demand for sand, driven by rapid urbanisation and construction, is exceeding sustainable supply and putting ecosystems and livelihoods at risk, the United Nations said in a report on Tuesday.

About 50 billion tons of sand is used per year for building and a range of other purposes, and demand for sand is expected to double by 2060 under current trajectories - a rate faster than stocks can be replenished, a report by the U.N. Environment Programme showed.

Sand is the most exploited natural resource in the world after water, but its use is largely ungoverned and UNEP said it is being consumed faster than it can be replaced by geological processes that take hundreds of thousands of years.

Unsustainable sand extraction is causing environmental degradation to areas which host critical habitats for fish, turtles, birds and crabs as well as disruption to locally impacted communities, UNEP said.

Growing demand and depletion of land-based sand resources are driving a shift toward marine dredging, the report found, with half of dredging companies operating within Marine Protected Areas.

Sand is being taken away from natural ecosystems and turned into "dead sand" when it is extracted and transformed into concrete, asphalt and glass - instead of being used to filter water and protect shorelines from erosion, the UNEP report said.

"Sand is our first line of defence against sea level rise, storm surges, and salinisation of coastal aquifers – all hazards exacerbated by climate change," said Pascal Peduzzi, director of the UNEP Global Resource Information Database Geneva.

In small Caribbean island states, sand mining causes habitat loss, pollution, and harm to species like sea turtles and can also threaten local economies by accelerating beach erosion and reducing fish stocks, UNEP stated.

The report also highlights a growing interest in mining magnetite sand, sometimes called "black sand" and which contains valuable minerals, across regions including Southeast Asia and Latin America.

UNEP called for stronger governance, including national sand inventories and better recognition of sand as a strategic resource, warning that current oversight remains fragmented despite repeated concerns.

- Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Hugh Lawson/Reuters