Download - 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