GOVERNMENTS TO ASSESS PROGRESS AGAINST DESERTIFICATION
Press Release
ENV/DEV/492
GOVERNMENTS TO ASSESS PROGRESS AGAINST DESERTIFICATION
19981119 DAKAR, 18 November (UNFCC) -- Officials from about 150 countries will meet in Dakar, Senegal, from 30 November to 11 December to continue to address national and international efforts to reverse land degradation.The second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP-2) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will mark the first time that all members will formally report on their actions to fight land degradation and reduce the effects of drought. International organizations are also expected to report.
"Recent tragedies in the Sudan and other drought-prone countries demonstrate just how vulnerable people in dryland countries are to political and social instability", said Arba Diallo, the Convention's Executive Secretary. "Reversing desertification is going to be a long hard struggle, but progress will come quicker through the public scrutiny of governments' efforts."
Under the Convention, affected countries must promote "bottom-up" participation and adapt their legal, institutional and policy frameworks so that local communities can engage actively in national efforts to combat dryland degradation. Meanwhile, developed countries and donor agencies must strengthen their consultation and coordination with the affected countries and communities when they support their efforts with financial and technical aid.
Adopted in 1994, the Convention seeks to correct the errors of the past and make the worldwide effort to reverse dryland degradation more effective. The Convention's institutional and procedural arrangements were established at the first session of the Conference of the Parties, held in Rome in October 1997.
With these arrangements in place, the current session can focus on the Convention's implementation. Governments will report on their national efforts in oral statements made during a high-level "special segment" on 8 and 9 December. These "progress reports" will be presented in much greater detail in written form at the next COP session, probably in the second half of 1999.
The written reports, due six months before the start of COP-3, will be synthesized for review by the parties to the Convention. The review will allow governments to identify key trends and direct their efforts to the
highest priorities. The COP-3 will place a special emphasis on the reports from the African region, while COP-4 in the year 2000 will focus on the reports from other regions.
Representing an important innovation for the United Nations system, the Conference will feature two half-day sessions organized by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There will be a parliamentary round table on 7 December, as well as other special events.
Another key issue on the agenda is that of financial and technical support. Under the Convention, a Global Mechanism will try to ensure that every country that needs international support has full access to information about multilateral and bilateral sources.
Delegates will also discuss relations with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a multibillion-dollar fund set up by the international community in 1990. At its first assembly last April, the GEF raised the profile of efforts to combat desertification, which can be eligible for GEF funding if projects are linked to one of the GEF's four focal areas of climate change, biodiversity, international waters or ozone depletion.
The COP's Committee on Science and Technology will meet and discuss benchmarks and indicators for measuring progress achieved in reversing desertification. It will also spend one day discussing and reaching conclusions on the application of traditional knowledge.
A scientific issue of particular interest to countries in Latin America, the Pacific and elsewhere is the link between El Niño and desertification and drought. While El Niño clearly leads to abnormal droughts and floods in many countries, its association with desertification is less well understood.
The social and economic costs of dryland degradation are immense. Over 250 million people are directly affected, and some one thousand million (or 1 billion) are at risk. Although there is little detailed data on economic losses resulting from desertification, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that the annual income foregone in areas immediately affected by desertification amounts to approximately $42 billion. The indirect economic and social costs suffered outside the affected areas, including the influx of "environmental refugees" and losses to national food production, are also significant.
While desertification is often associated with regions such as the Sahel, Africa is not the only continent to be afflicted. The densely populated Asia and Pacific region contains some 1.4 million hectares of degraded drylands, while parts of Italy, Spain and other European countries also suffer. The continent that has the highest proportion of its dryland severely or moderately desertified -- 74 per cent compared to Africa's 73 per cent - is North America.
Desertification is caused by human activities and climate variability. In the past, drylands recovered easily following long droughts, but overgrazing and other modern conditions now often undermine biological and economic productivity quickly unless land is sustainably managed.
For more information, to arrange interviews or for information about accreditation, please contact Ms. N. Osseiran at (+41-22) 917 8412, fax (+41-22) 917 9030/1, e-mail nosseiran@unccd.ch. Official documents and other information are available via the Internet at http://www.unccd.ch.
- 3 - Press Release ENV/DEV/492 19 November 1998
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