combating dessertification

8/2/2019 Combating Dessertification

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Desertification

Land degradation in the dry lands

Threatens livelihoods of > 1 billion people in 100 countries. disruption of up to 44% of all the world's cultivated systems.

Drylands 41.3% of the land surface

Home to 2.1 billion people; one in every three worldwide.

One in three crops under cultivation has origins in drylands.

Support 50% of the world's livestock, Rich wildlife habitats

Account for nearly half of all cultivated systems.


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1977

United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD), Nairobi

to produce an

effective,

comprehensiveand coordinated

programme for addressing the problem of land degradation

United Nations Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD)

1992

World Atlas of Desertification by UNEP


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1992 Rio Earth Summit

Desertification,

along with climate change & loss of biodiversity,

identified as the greatest challenges to SD


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UNCCD Established1994

Sole legally binding international agreement

Linking environment and development to sustainable land mgmt

Came into effect 1996

194 parties

Aim for Parties to the Convention

.."to forge a global partnership to reverse and prevent

desertification/land degradation and to mitigate the effects ofdrought in affected areas in order to support poverty reduction and

environmental sustainability".


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Desertification

First employed in 1949 by the French forester Aubreville,

to refer to

the displacement of tropical rainforest by secondary savannah and

scrub in those parts of Africa where forest was being cleared and burned

to provide land for cultivation

Concluded:

the process was especially active in the sub-humid tropics of Africa and

was akin to the creation of deserts in the formerly forested areas.


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Desertification

Formally defines as

land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting

from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities

(UNCED, 1992)*,

basis of the UNCCD.


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Land

The terrestrial bio-productive system that comprises soil, vegetation, other

biota, and the ecological and hydrological processes that operate within

the system.

Land degradation

Reduction or loss in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas of thebiological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland,

irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from

landuses or from a process or combination of processes, including

processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns such as:i. soil erosion caused by wind and/or water;

ii. deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic

properties of the soil;

iii. long-term loss of natural vegetation.


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Combating desertification

Includes activities which are part of the integrated development of land

in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas for sustainable

development which are aimed at:

i. prevention and/or reduction of land degradation;

ii. rehabilitation of partly degraded land; and

iii. reclamation of desertified land.


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Dryland

The arid (excluding the polar and sub-polar regions), semi-arid and dry

sub-humid areas in which the annual precipitation to potential evapo-

transpiration falls within the range from 0.05 to 0.65.

Drought

The naturally occurring phenomenon that exists when precipitation has

been significantly below normal recorded levels, causing serious

hydrological imbalances that adversely affect land resource productionsystems.


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Obligations

Give due priority to combating desertification & mitigating the effects

of drought. Establish strategies and priorities within the framework of

sustainable development.

Address underlying causes of desertification and particularly to the

socio-economic factors contributing to the desertification process.

Promote awareness and facilitate the participation of localpopulations, particularly the women and youth, non-governmental

organisations, in efforts to combat desertification and mitigate the

effects of drought.

Provide an enabling environment by strengthening the relevantexisting legislation, enacting new laws, where they do not exist, and

establish long-term policies and action programmes.


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Obligations

National Action ProgrammesAll affected developing country Parties shall prepare a National Action

Programme, utilising and building to the extent possible, on existing

relevant plans and programmes and sub-regional and regional action

programmes, as the central element of strategy to combat desertificationand drought.

Developed countries

- Providing substantial financial resources.

- Promote the mobilisation of new and additional funding.

- Promote and facilitate to appropriate technology and know-how.


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Key topics

ScienceScientific collaboration around agreed themes and support to impact

monitoring

Reporting review and assessment

Reporting under the UNCCD, including the performance review andassessment of implementation system (PRAIS) & best practices.

Awareness Raising

Active influencing of relevant international, national and local processesand actors to address desertification/land degradation and drought


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Key topics

Thematic prioritiesIdentifying and taking action on interlinkages between desertification,

land degradation and drought and selected key themes: biodiversity,

climate change, food security, forests, gender and water.

Synergies among the Rio ConventionsJoint activities by the secretariats of the three "sister Conventions" on

biodiversity, climate change and desertification, land degradation and

drought

Capacity building

Online tools and information on capacity building


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June 17

The United Nations' World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

highlights- the urgent need to curb the desertification process.

-aims to strengthen the visibility of the drylands issue on the

international environmental agenda.

-January 2010-December 2020

International Decade for Deserts and Fight against Desertification

combating dessertification

Documents