Desertification Land degradation in the dry lands Threatens livelihoods of > 1 billion people in 100 countries.

s. disruption of up to 44% of all the world's cultivated systems.

Drylands 41.3% of the land surface Home to 2.1 billion people; one in every three worldwide. One in three crops under cultivation has origins in drylands. Support 50% of the world's livestock, Rich wildlife habitats Account for nearly half of all cultivated systems.

1977 United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD), Nairobi to produce an effective, comprehensive and coordinated programme for addressing the problem of land degradation United Nations Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD) 1992 World Atlas of Desertification by UNEP

1992 Rio Earth Summit

Desertification, along with climate change & loss of biodiversity, identified as the greatest challenges to SD

UNCCD Established1994 Sole legally binding international agreement Linking environment and development to sustainable land mgmt Came into effect 1996 194 parties Aim for Parties to the Convention .."to forge a global partnership to reverse and prevent desertification/land degradation and to mitigate the effects of drought in affected areas in order to support poverty reduction and environmental sustainability".

Desertification First employed in 1949 by the French forester Aubreville, to refer to the displacement of tropical rainforest by secondary savannah and scrub in those parts of Africa where forest was being cleared and burned to provide land for cultivation Concluded: the process was especially active in the sub-humid tropics of Africa and was akin to the creation of deserts in the formerly forested areas .

Desertification Formally defines as land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities (UNCED, 1992)*,

basis of the UNCCD.

Land The terrestrial bio-productive system that comprises soil, vegetation, other biota, and the ecological and hydrological processes that operate within the system. Land degradation Reduction or loss in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from landuses or from a process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns such as: i. soil erosion caused by wind and/or water; ii. deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of the soil; iii. long-term loss of natural vegetation.

Combating desertification Includes activities which are part of the integrated development of land in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas for sustainable development which are aimed at: i. prevention and/or reduction of land degradation; ii. rehabilitation of partly degraded land; and iii. reclamation of desertified land.

Dryland The arid (excluding the polar and sub-polar regions), semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas in which the annual precipitation to potential evapotranspiration falls within the range from 0.05 to 0.65.

Drought The naturally occurring phenomenon that exists when precipitation has been significantly below normal recorded levels, causing serious hydrological imbalances that adversely affect land resource production systems.

Obligations Give due priority to combating desertification & mitigating the effects of drought. Establish strategies and priorities within the framework of sustainable development. Address underlying causes of desertification and particularly to the socio-economic factors contributing to the desertification process. Promote awareness and facilitate the participation of local populations, particularly the women and youth, non-governmental organisations, in efforts to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought. Provide an enabling environment by strengthening the relevant existing legislation, enacting new laws, where they do not exist, and establish long-term policies and action programmes.

Obligations National Action Programmes All affected developing country Parties shall prepare a National Action Programme, utilising and building to the extent possible, on existing relevant plans and programmes and sub-regional and regional action programmes, as the central element of strategy to combat desertification and drought. Developed countries - Providing substantial financial resources. - Promote the mobilisation of new and additional funding. - Promote and facilitate to appropriate technology and know-how.

Key topics
Science Scientific collaboration around agreed themes and support to impact monitoring Reporting review and assessment Reporting under the UNCCD, including the performance review and assessment of implementation system (PRAIS) & best practices. Awareness Raising Active influencing of relevant international, national and local processes and actors to address desertification/land degradation and drought

Key topics
Thematic priorities Identifying and taking action on interlinkages between desertification, land degradation and drought and selected key themes: biodiversity, climate change, food security, forests, gender and water. Synergies among the Rio Conventions Joint activities by the secretariats of the three "sister Conventions" on biodiversity, climate change and desertification, land degradation and drought

Capacity building Online tools and information on capacity building

June 17 The United Nations' World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
highlights - the urgent need to curb the desertification process. -aims to strengthen the visibility of the drylands issue on the international environmental agenda.

-January 2010-December 2020 International Decade for Deserts and Fight against Desertification