SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR EFFORTS TO BREAK CYCLE OF POVERTY, LAND DEGRADATION IN MESSAGE ON DAY TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION
Press Release
SG/SM/6600
OBV/48
SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR EFFORTS TO BREAK CYCLE OF POVERTY, LAND DEGRADATION IN MESSAGE ON DAY TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION
19980616 ADVANCE RELEASE Following is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's message on the occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, 17 June:Desertification and drought threaten the livelihoods of more than 1 billion people worldwide. The causes range from natural conditions, such as vulnerable soils, vegetation and climatic variations, to human activities, including overcultivation and poor irrigation, overgrazing and deforestation.
This day, which commemorates the adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification on 17 June 1994, provides us with an opportunity to pay tribute to the many efforts made towards implementing the Convention. Some 125 countries have ratified it, and many affected countries have launched participatory processes to develop national, subregional and regional action programmes in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
By pooling the global wisdom and comparative advantages of its specialized agencies and programmes, the United Nations system has a key role to play in the implementation of the Convention to Combat Desertification. Indeed, the Convention provides these agencies with an enhanced convergence of policies, as well as an innovative framework for integrated strategic planning.
The Convention stresses that meaningful action to combat desertification and drought can be developed only in cooperation with the stakeholders in the affected communities. Many governments are working in partnership with non- governmental and community-based organizations, giving particular attention to the voice of women in developing their national action programmes.
Let us seize this day as an occasion to encourage all efforts, whether at community, country or international level, to break the vicious cycle of poverty and land degradation; to raise public awareness worldwide of an issue that affects more than a sixth of the people and a quarter of the land area of the world.
* *** *