UN meeting set to renew fight against desertification

Representatives from 194 countries and the European Union are due to begin a biennial meeting in Windhoek, Namibia on Monday to renew global efforts to combat advancing deserts and help drought-stricken areas worldwide build a sustainable future. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), adopted on June 17, 1994, is meant to counter the destructive force of desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through international cooperation. It will be the first time for a southern African country to host a UNCCD conference of parties, highlighting the UN body's focus on African countries, the hardest hit around the world in terms of desertification and land degradation. During the September 16-27 gathering, up to 3,000 delegates, including government officials and environmental experts, are expected to discuss ways to scale up international, national and local processes to combat desertification and land degradation. In a 10-year strategic plan (2008-2018) adopted in 2007, UNCCD parties agreed to implement four strategic objectives -- improving the living conditions of affected populations, improving the condition of ecosystems, to generate global benefits through effective implementation of the convention and mobilizing funding and technology. To this end, the plan also specified five operational objectives -- promoting awareness, formulating national plans and polices, cementing a solid scientific and technical basis, strengthening capacity building of affected countries, and mobilizing financing and technology transfer. The 12-day Windhoek conference is due to take a mid-term evaluation of the plan to assess progress made and make recommendations for the next five years. "The overall finding is that there has been some progress towards achieving the objectives," said a UN working group, which was tasked to prepare recommendations for the meeting, in a July report. For example, there are "increasing global attention" to the importance of combating desertification, and "some progress" in amassing the funds, expertise and time to carry out the plan. At the same time, however, "many improvements" are needed if the plan is to be implemented "successfully," said the UN panel. To name a few, there is a lack of funding for many affected developing countries, in particular those in Africa, which the panel said is often the reason why most countries failed to carry out nationwide projects to tackle drought areas. So far, scientific data on the world's progress in fighting desertification are not optimistic. The UN says that the percentage of total land area that is already degraded or being degraded has increased from 15 percent in 1991 to 24 percent in 2008, with more than 20 percent of all cultivated areas, 30 percent of natural forests, and 25 percent of grasslands undergoing some degree of degradation. Each year an estimated 24 billion tons of fertile soil are lost due to erosion in the world's croplands. According to a 2008 estimate, 1.5 billion people around the world are affected directly by desertification, land degradation and drought, with women and children among those most severely affected. The world is losing up to 5 percent of total agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) due to land degradation, costing some 490 billion U.S. dollars per year. The UN projects that by 2030, the demand for food, energy, and water is expected to increase by at least 50 percent, 45 percent and 30 percent, respectively. By 2050, an estimated 60 percent increase in agricultural productivity, including a 100 percent in developing countries, will be necessary to overcome hunger and food insecurity. These needs will not be met sustainably, and it is likely that poverty rates would increase and food security would decline in many countries, even resulting in famine and widespread starvation, if the current pace of land degradation continues, the UN warns. Besides, recent analysis suggests that increased global warming could lead to extreme events occurring more frequently and with greater severity, which could significantly reduce the world's resilience to drought and disruptions to food systems at a global scale. To avert the disastrous consequences, the UN has called on countries to stop negligence and to embrace sustainable land management practices, so as to ensure food security, energy access, and water availability in the future. At last year's Rio+20 summit on sustainable development, world leaders pledged to strive to achieve a land degradation neutral world. To this end, the UNCCD secretariat is proposing that UN member states agree to a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on realizing zero land degradation by 2030.