The following is from:

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION (CCD)

What is Desertification?

Are the deserts advancing? Despite some rhetoric at times of crisis, the sands are not steadily spreading over neighboring land. Deserts may seem to expand when the rains are poor over a long period, but they usually retreat again with good rainfall.

So, is everything alright? No. Land degradation is continuing and increasing at an alarming pace, seriously eroding the world's precious store of productive land. When it happens in the world's drylands it often creates desert-like conditions and is called "desertification". This process happens piecemeal as different areas of degraded land spread and merge together, rather than through advancing desert.

Is it just an act of God, or the weather? No. Drought is part of the cause of desertification and certainly makes things worse. But essentially it is a man-made problem. It arises from placing too much pressure on the land.

Is it only a problem for the poor in developing countries? No. One billion of the poorest and most marginised people of the earth -who live in the most vulnerable areas - may be the most severely affected by desertification. But it has other victims too. Some 18 developed countries suffer from desertification. And developed countries as a whole - and more favoured areas of developing countries - are already being affected indirectly as people migrate to them after being unable to live off their degraded. Desertification provides one of the most graphic examples of how poverty anywhere endangers prosperity and sustainability everywhere.

So, what is Desertification? The definition agreed by the world's leaders at the 1992 Earth Summit and adopted by the Convention is: "land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities."

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THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION:

(An Explanatory Leaflet)


The problem of land degradation:

Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas. It is caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations.

Desertification does not refer to the expansion of existing deserts. It occurs because dryland ecosystems, which cover over one third of the world's land area, are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation and inappropriate land use. Poverty, political instability, deforestation, overgrazing, and bad irrigation practices can all undermine the land's fertility.

Over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification. In addition, some one thousand million (or one billion) people in over one hundred countries are at risk. These people include many of the world's poorest, most marginalized, and politically weak citizens.

An innovative solution:

Combating desertification is essential to ensuring the long-term productivity of inhabited drylands. Unfortunately, past efforts have too often failed, and around the world the problem of land degradation continues to worsen.

Recognizing the need for a fresh approach, over 110 governments have signed the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. This Convention aims to promote effective action through innovative local programs and supportive international partnerships.

The treaty acknowledges that the struggle to protect drylands will be a long one -- there will be no quick fix. This is because the causes of desertification are many and complex, ranging from international trade patterns to the unsustainable land management practices of local communities. Real and difficult changes will have to be made, both at the international and the local levels.

National action programmes ...

Countries affected by desertification will implement the Convention by developing and carrying out national, sub-regional, and regional action programmes. Criteria for preparing these programmes are detailed in the treaty's four "regional implementation annexes" for Africa (considered a priority because that is where desertification is most severe), Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Northern Mediterranean.

Drawing on past lessons, the Convention states that these programmes must adopt a democratic, bottom-up approach. They should emphasize popular participation and the creation of an "enabling environment" designed to allow local people to help themselves to reverse land degradation.

Of course, governments will remain responsible for creating this enabling environment. They must make politically sensitive changes, such as decentralizing authority, improving land-tenure systems, and empowering women, farmers, and pastoralists. They should also permit non-governmental organizations to play a strong role in preparing and implementing the action programmes.

In contrast to many past efforts, these action programmes must be fully integrated with other national policies for sustainable development. They should be flexible and modified as circumstances change.

... and partnership agreements

The Convention's action programmes will be developed through consultations among affected countries, donors, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. This process will improve coordination and channel development assistance to where it can be most effective. It will also produce partnership agreements that spell out the respective contributions of both affected and donor states and of international organizations.

Developed countries are expected to encourage the mobilization of substantial funding for the action programmes. They should also promote access to appropriate technologies, knowledge, and know-how.

The need for coordination among donors and recipients is stressed because each programme's various activities need to be complementary and mutually reinforcing.

Sustainable development

The Convention opens an important new phase in the battle against desertification, but it is just a beginning. In particular, governments will need to

regularly review the action programmes. They will also focus on awareness-raising, education, and training, both in developing and developed countries.

Desertification can only be reversed through profound changes in local and international behavior. Step by step, these changes will ultimately lead to sustainable land use and food security for a growing world population. Combating desertification, then, is really just part of a much broader objective: the sustainable development of countries affected by drought and desertification.

For more information, please contact:

Interim Secretariat for the Convention to Combat Desertification
Geneva Executive Center
C.P. 76
1219 Chatelaine (Geneva), Switzerland
Fax: (41-22) 979 9030/1, E-mail: secretariat@unccd.ch


UNEP
Information Unit for Conventions
Geneva Executive Center
C.P. 356
1219 Chatelaine, Switzerland
Fax: (41-22) 797 3464, E-mail: IUC@unep.ch

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The following is from:

dcpacinf@unep.org
Information Officer,
Dryland Ecosystems and Desertification Control Programme Activity Centre
United Nations Environment Programme

WHAT IS DESERTIFICATION?

"desertification is land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities."

SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT AND USE OF NATURAL RESOURCES

- Caring for Land Resources

Issue to Address:

Food security depends on productive land. Land degradation is worldwide in its geographical spread, leaving no continent unaffected; it is global in its environmental and socio-economic impacts. Drylands, excluding hyper-arid deserts, cover 40% of the land area of the Earth. In these drylands alone, over 110 countries, including more than 80 developing countries, are affected by land degradation = desertification. More than 1000 million people live in these areas and are at risk from the effects of this loss of productivity on their livelihoods.

Land degradation is highlighted in several Chapters of Agenda 21, most notably Chapter 12 which is devoted specifically to the problems of desertification and drought. UNEP has been charged by UNCED, the GA, the GC and the INCD to continue the battle against desertification. The Convention on Combating Desertification (UN-CCD) has been negotiated, and signed by 115 countries. It is expected to be in force before 1998. In accordance with its explicit mandate UNEP has offered to provide administrative support to the CCD Permananent Secretariat.

The need to address the global problem of land degradation is increasingly urgent; it is a major cause and mechanism of global loss of productive land resources. Land degradation contributes to loss of global biodiversity, loss of the earth's biomass and bioproductivity, and to global climate change. It can lead to economic instability and political unrest in affected areas; it puts pressures on the economy and the stability of societies outside the affected areas, and it prevents the achievement of sustainable development in affected areas and countries.

Strategic Actions


1. Improve policy-relevant assessment of drylands and land degradation.


2. Improve global awareness of dryland and desertification issues

3. Promote actions in support of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the development of national, subregional and regional action programmes

4. Social Dimensions of Land Degradation and Successful Practices to Control Desertification.