World Day to Combat Desentification and Drought
Date: 17 June
Un Marks World Day To Combat Desertification, Focusing On Women's Contributions
New York, Jun 17 2005 5:00PM
Desertification and drought cause losses in agricultural production of $42 billion a year and women must be empowered to address this environmental challenge, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today, in a message marking the World Day to combat both adversities.
The theme of this year’s observance is “Women and Desertification,” Mr. Annan noted, adding that “in many of the world’s dry agricultural areas, including much of Africa, it is traditionally women who devote time and effort to the land.”
In developing countries, women form about 70 per cent of agricultural labour and produce 60 to 80 per cent of the food, as well as process, manage and market it, he said.
From this experience they have seen land degradation close at hand and have acquired valuable knowledge, but with men controlling land and livestock, women are often excluded from land conservation and development projects, agricultural extension work and the policy-making process, Mr. Annan said.
In many countries, however, women are beginning to own land and take part in decision-making, he said. On this day, “let us all pledge to do our part in empowering women and engaging them as full partners in global efforts to address this vital challenge.”
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the 191 States Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) are preparing for the “International Year of Deserts and Desertification 2006” during which they will profile land degradation as a major threat to humanity, especially when intensified by climate change and loss of biodiversity.
Drylands constitute about 41 per cent of the Earth’s surface and support more than 2 billion people. Between 10 and 20 per cent of drylands are degraded, or unproductive, UNCCD says.
Several UN institutions joined in launching a desertification analysis called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Synthesis” (MA) today, in response to queries from Governments. It pulls together the work of four research groups comprising 1,360 experts from around the world.
“Desertification must be fought at all levels, but this battle must ultimately be won at the local level. There is evidence that success is possible,” UNCCD Executive Secretary Hama Arba Diallo said in the foreword.
UNEP, in cooperation with the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), awards “Saving the Drylands” certificates to communities that successfully and sustainably prevent or reverse desertification. It said it has received more than 100 developing country submissions since the programme began in 1994.
June 17th 2002, commemorates the eighth anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and is observed as World Day to Combat Desertification (Land Degradation) and Drought. This activity is designed to focus the world’s attention on issues pertaining to land desertification (degradation) and drought.
St. Lucia acceded to the UNCCD on July 2nd 1997, and as of December 2001, there were 181 Country Parties to this convention. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is the National Focal Point to the convention, and consequently has the mandate for its effective implementation, in collaboration with other government ministries and agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations, Community Based Organizations and Private Sector partners.
The global area affected by land desertification (degradation) is increasing at an alarming rate, and although serious environmental and social consequences have been recognized for sometime, this issue has not received the level of national, regional and international attention that it warrants.
Drought and desertification threaten the livelihood of over one (1) billion people in more than 110 countries around the world. Last year alone, hundreds of thousands of people in Eastern Africa had to abandon their lands when drought rendered farming unsustainable. In the Americas and southern Europe, forest fires devastated millions of acres of land, and massive sandstorms ravaged vast areas of North East Asia.
The issue of Land Desertification (Land Degradation) is of great concern to our Ministry, as it impacts heavily on the agriculture sector, the fisheries sub-sector, the fresh water resources and the biological resources of our country.
Although our instinctive reaction to a Convention to combat desertification is to confidently state that it could never happen in St. Lucia, land degradation and diminishing water availability are very real issues confronting our country. In a short period of three decades we have seen the negative impacts of unsound crop cultivations, unplanned and poorly executed land developments and deforestation. Some of our fertile arable lands no longer exist and some of our more productive water courses are pale shadows of their former selves. Extrapolate this unchecked and misguided trend for another thirty years and the prospect of a tropical desert may not appear as remote as we once thought. If we are to preserve our treasured natural resource we must act now and we must act decisively.
As a result, the Ministry of Agriculture, under the direction of the Forestry Department, has decided this year to place these issues squarely in the public domain, starting with our commemoration of World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, under the theme “Land Degradation”. Our focus group for this year’s activity will be school children and teachers.
However, the promotion of public awareness and sensitization at all levels will be encouraged.
The day’s activities have two main objectives:
- To create an awareness of the problems of Land Degradation and Drought, and the impacts on agriculture, the water resources, biological resources and the socio-economic development of the country.
- To rehabilitate degraded riverbanks along major waterways.
In pursuit of these objectives, the following activities have been identified to take place to observe World Desertification Day:
- A Press Release highlighting some of the fundamental problems associated with land degradation.
- A Newspaper Supplement for the weekend of 14 and 15 June 2002 providing information on the Convention and its importance to small island states like St. Lucia.
- Radio and television programmes; and perhaps most importantly.
A field planting exercise for primary and secondary schools on June 17th2002. This involves the planting of forest trees and agricultural trees crops along degraded riverbanks at five sites round the island.
June 17th 2002, World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, is a unique occasion to remind everybody that solutions are possible, but only if we strengthen participation and co-operation at all levels.
Continued concerted efforts to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development, coupled with an increased national awareness of the problems, can help us make a difference, particularly for our rural population who depend on many of these threatened resources for their livelihood.
