PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF DESERTS, DESERTIFICATION

PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF DESERTS, DESERTIFICATION

At a Headquarters press conference this morning, the Governments of Italy and Algeria announced plans for the International Year of Deserts and Desertification in 2006 and linked the issue to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

The United Nations General Assembly, at its fifty-eighth session, declared 2006 the International Year of Deserts and Desertification to arrest desertification worldwide.  The main goal of the Year was to call attention to the threat of desertification, which was being exacerbated by climate change and loss of biological diversity.  In addition, the Year was intended to celebrate the unique ecosystem of the desert and its diverse species.

The initiative was being led by Cherif Rahmani, the Algerian Minister for the Management of Territory and for the Environment, and by Wangari Maathai of Kenya, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.  The Year would be officially launched in New York in November 2006, during the next General Assembly session, Corrado Clini, Director-General of the Ministry for the Environment and Territory of Italy, told correspondents.  Joining Mr. Clini was Djihed Eddine Belkas, Counsellor at the Algerian Mission to the United Nations, and Hama Arba Diallo, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Mr. Diallo said that degradation of the natural environment, including desertification, affected people in developing countries most directly.  By destroying arable land and causing deforestation, it contributed to the scarcity of food and sources of energy.  Developing countries depended on forests for 80 per cent of their energy needs, he said.  The need to arrest land degradation and desertification was, therefore, critical in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty.

“Many have seen a linkage between the problem of poverty and land degradation in the context of climate change and the loss of biodiversity”, he said.  “The most vulnerable populations are those who depend most on the natural environment.  When there is a change in the natural environment, the poorest suffer.  So, it is very important to draw the attention of the international community to the problem.”

Land was being degraded and desertification was occurring in Africa, Asia and in Europe and it had an economic, social, as well as security impact, he said.  For example, in the Mediterranean basin, the most important security threat was not from arms but from migration.

In collaboration with Italy, Algeria was leading the planning for the International Year, including 350 events, one to mark each day of the Year, said Mr. Belkas.  Activities were being planned at the global, regional, national, and local levels.

In response to a question as to whether any of the planned activities involved the Gulf States, Mr. Clini said there was a project in southern Mesopotamia to combat desertification that had been precipitated by the policies of Saddam Hussein in the 1970s and 1980s.  The area of the Eden Gardens in southern Mesopotamia, which had been a rich agricultural area, had been undergoing desertification since 1975.  The Convention Secretariat had been working to restore marshes that had been drained and the environment overall to its pre-1975 state.  In particular, it was working to rebuild the bio-filter between the sea and the land.  The project included participation by Japan, Canada, and the United Nations Environmental Programme.  He said the project was particularly significant because it was the only one under way in Iraq involving a United Nations organization.

Asked whether there had been successful projects in the past, Mr. Diallo said there had been many but that current projects were not adequate to address the immensity of the problem.  However, from projects that had been undertaken, it could be demonstrated that, with minimal investment, much could be done to protect and restore degraded areas.  The challenge was to replicate those successful initiatives as much as possible.

In response to a question, Mr. Clini said the Convention Secretariat had been working with China on 40 projects beginning in 2001 to develop clean and renewable energy and to combat desertification.  Those projects involved both reforestation and the enlisting of the next generation in the cultivation and good management of forests.  There were also major projects under way to protect major cities in China from dust storms that originated in Mongolia and the Gobi Desert.  Projects included revegetation, improving water resources management, and designing and building a green belt to protect urban areas.

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