Status of
Desertification and Implementation
of the United Nations Plan of Action
to Combat Desertification
Report of the Executive Director
Contents:
PART
I. World Status of Desertification
PART
II. The United Nations Plan of Action
to Combat Desertification
PART
IV. Financing the Plan of Action
to Combat Desertification
PART
III - Policy Guidelines and Course of
Action for Combating Desert
A.
POLICY GUIDELINES
ROLE
AND PLACE OF ANTI-DESERTIFICATION MEASURES
WITHIN THE PROGRAMMES FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT AND PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT
1. Sustainable socio-economic development
and protection of the environment are
inseparable pre-requisites of human survival.
This means that anti-desertification programmes
should be managed as integral parts of
socio-economic development of land resources
and societies of the drylands.
2. Prevention of desertification where
it is likely to occur and remedying its
consequences where it has already occurred
are the bases of sustainable development
of land resources in drylands. Protection
of land against degradation under increasing
human pressures must constitute an essential
part of the general strategy for agricultural
development. This strategy should include
anticipating and preventing the expected
negative effects of man's action upon
the land. If taken too late, corrective
measures will be too costly or impracticable.
(II)GENERAL
GOAL AND PRACTICAL TARGETS
4. The main goal of implementing the Plan
of Action to Combat Desertification remains
the same as it was formulated in 1977
by the United Nations Conference on Desertification
and endorsed by the United Nations General
Assembly, namely :
"The immediate goal of the Plan of
Action to Combat Desertification is to
prevent and to arrest the advance of desertification
and, where possible, to reclaim desertified
land for productive use. The ultimate
objective is to sustain and promote, within
ecological limits, the productivity of
arid, semi-arid, sub-humid and other areas
vulnerable to desertification in order
to improve the quality of life of their
inhabitants. A campaign against desertification
should take place as a priority among
efforts to achieve optimum and sustained
productivity. For the countries affected,
the implementation of the Plan of Action
implied more than a campaign against desertification,
it is an essential part of the broad process
of development and the provision of basic
human needs."
5. To reach this goal, the following practical
targets are set to be achieved by the
year 2020, which should be addressed nationally,
regionally and internationally on the
basis of experience gained and taking
into account certain achievements and
failures in implementing the Plan of Action
during 1978-1991:
Main environmental/developmental
targets :
a. Preventing further
deterioration of the world food security
and sustaining productivity of land
affected by, or prone to, desertification
through the introduction of environmentally
sound, socially acceptable and fair,
and economically feasible land use
systems based on social equity and
appropriate technologies;
b. Protection of non-degraded or slightly
degraded lands prone to desertification
and reclamation of desertified lands
for productive use or their conservation
for natural rehabilitation, as appropriate;
c. Provision of adequate insurance
against recurrent droughts and famine
in the drylands;
d. Improvement of the quality of life
of the inhabitants of lands affected
by desertification, including health,
sanitation and family planning and
achievement of the goal of satisfying
basic human needs in the extensive
areas of world drylands;
e. Prevention of adverse desertification
impact on global climate change and
biodiversity including germplasm materials
for many crop and fodder plants.
Targets
for the supporting measures :
a. Incorporation
of national actions to combat desertification
into broader national development
policies, plans or programmes;
b. Mobilization of national, regional
and international technical and financial
resources needed for the full implementation
of the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification;
c. Mobilization and strengthening
of national, regional and international
institutional capabilities for implementing
the Plan;
d. Introduction of land-use, economic
and social policies conducive to sustainable
development of land and water resources;
e. Making land-users the main actors
in designing and implementing the
Plan and ensuring full public participation
in anti-desertification campaigns;
f. Development of indigenous national
and ecoregional scientific research
and technology capabilities;
g. Co-ordination of current and new
national, regional and international
sectoral programmes (including those
for combating desertification) within
broader environment/development programmes;
h. Establishment of a global network
of national, regional and international
institutional and technical facilities
for current operational assessment
and continuous monitoring of desertification;
i. Strengthening of regional programmes
and international co-operation in
the campaign against desertification;
j. Provision of free flow of technology
on favorable terms to areas affected
by, or prone to, desertification;
k. Improvement of infrastructures
needed to provide support for the
NPACD in areas affected by, or prone
to, desertification.
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(III)
MAIN PRINCIPLES IN IMPLEMENTING THE PACD
6. The following main principles could
form the basis of the global anti-desertification
strategy:
a. The United Nations
Plan of Action to Combat Desertification
as adopted in 1977, remains valid;
b. National Plans of Action to Combat
Desertification (NPACDs) for all the
countries affected by desertification
should be fully incorporated, including
appropriate financial and institutional
provisions, into national programmes
for development;
c. The current status of desertification
in the territories affected, including
the status of rural population and the
state of land, should be assessed and
continuously monitored. These data should
be taken into account at all stages
of planning and implementing national
development programmes;
d. The way to prevent the exhaustion
of resources of drylands starts with
providing alternative means for meeting
basic needs of affected societies. The
people must be able to satisfy their
short-term needs without over-taxing
land resources;
e. Social, political and economic causes
of over-taxing land resources and resulting
physical manifestations of desertification
should be the bases for formulating
appropriate national policies and courses
of preventive and corrective actions;
f. Participation of land users, including
small-scale farmers and pastoralists
and women in particular, should be ensured
at all stages of planning and implementing
the NPACDs;
g. Tangible incentives and short-term
benefits for land-users, including small-scale
farmers and pastoralists, to ensure
their active participation in anti-desertification
campaign should be developed;
h. Ecological stabilization of agricultural
lands through sustainable utilization
of natural resources and appropriate
land use policies should be the focus
of the NPACDs;
i. Ongoing programmes addressing land
resources in areas concerned, e.g. soil
and water conservation, reforestation
or afforestation, agricultural development,
rangeland improvement, etc, should be
co-ordinated and incorporated into the
NPACDs;
j. A small-scale local community-based
approach should be preferred in developing
and implementing the NPACDs in order
to strengthen the role of local institutions,
e.g. village or farmers' committees,
as managers of communal natural resources
and major implementing agencies;
k. Conservation of land and water resources
in drylands that prevents ecological
degradation, reclamation of degraded
lands and development of terrestrial
resources of drylands for agricultural
and non-agricultural uses should constitute
integral elements of programmes for
combating desertification;
l. All NPACDs should contain integrated,
in-built chapters dealing with drought
(relief and insurance measures) that
will complement long-term anti-desertification
actions;
m. For countries which have both arid
and humid regions within their territories,
the NPACDs should be transformed into
National Environment Action Plans for
integrated management of natural resources
in order to cover the problem of land
degradation for the country as a whole
but with separate chapters for ecologically
different areas;
n. Combating desertification at national
level (a) should involve traditional
systems used by local people to promote
popular participation in programmes
of desertification control and (b) requires
the establishment of effective institutional
machinery for integrating desertification
control programmes into overall national
development plans and priorities;
o. After decades of trying to save the
soil "from the people", a
more promising approach should be adopted:
to help land-users save the soil and
water for themselves, for improved plant
production, i.e. to practice Conservation
Farming and Land Husbandry (Landcare)
instead of Soil and Water Conservation.
p. The following principles, adopted
from the Den Bosh Declaration (1991),
should be followed in the PACD implementation:
• land use
practices in drylands should be restructured
in such a way that demands for sustainable
land use and environmental protection
will be met;
• the developed countries [regions/provinces
within the partly affected countries]
should recognize their role and responsibility
for sustainable land use and socio-economic
development in drylands by improving
the international [national] economic
relations in order to increase and
stabilize incomes for farmers/pastoralists
and hence create incentives for appropriate
investments in drylands;
• the international community
should accept the need to provide
technical and financial assistance
in specific fields to promote the
PACD;
• population policies should
be implemented in order to improve,
in the long run, prospects for sustainable
development in drylands;
• governments and society at
large should recognize that agriculture/pastoralism
and rural people of drylands collectively
play an important and in many countries
vital role in ensuring food security
and maintaining the renewable natural
resource base; this recognition must
be reflected in the allocation of
adequate financial resources, pricing
policies, in the decentralization
of institutions and in the empowerment
of dryland people with particular
attention to the poor;
• fair terms of exchange should
be established among drylands producers,
industry and consumers within the
countries affected;
• farmers/pastoralists, particularly
small-scale and resource-poor ones,
men and women, should have better
access to education and training,
appropriate technologies and resources;
• campaigns to increase public
awareness of the need for and approach
to sustainable development of drylands
should be undertaken.
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B.
COURSE OF ACTION
(I) NATIONALLY
(a)
Guiding Policies
7. National Plans of Action to Combat
Desertification (NPACDs) should be prepared
on the basis of the above outlined general
Policy Guidelines and taking into account
specific ecological and socio-economic
conditions in different countries affected
by desertification. These Plans should
be fully integrated in national programmes
of socio-economic development and accorded
their appropriate places, priorities,
resources, etc. They may either be (i)
a part of the National Nature Conservation
Strategy, or (ii) a part of the National
Environment Action Plan, or (iii) an independent
programme, but in any case they must be
a part of the National Development Programme.
The current World Bank's initiative of
multi-donor National Environmental Action
Plans [NEAPs] which is already being implemented
in some 20 countries of Africa and Latin
Ameica, and which aims to define a time-bound
plan outlining environmental policy needs,
institutional and legal reforms, corrective
measures to on-going development programmes,
and new investment programmes needed in
this sector, could be considered as an
important mechanism in resolving problems
of desertification.
8. A useful way to address the causes
of desertification is to construct a multi-level
set of explanations for the cause of land
degradation. Such a "chain of explanations"
contains nested explanations, commencing
at the site with physical symptoms such
as falling crop yields or excessive soil
erosion; it continues its explanation
by broadening into land use practices,
that cause erosion such as overstocking;
then it examines the resources, assets,
skills and technologies of the land-users
in, for example, the constraint of supplying
additional family labor; widens further
to the nature of agrarian society in,
for example, distribution of land rights
and the general division of labor; continues
with the nature of the state, including
conservation laws, effectiveness of institutions
and government policies; and finishes
with the international world economy which
may well in part explain desertification
through foreign debt crises, oil and food
prices and structural readjustment prepared
by international financial institutions.
These are not mutually exclusive explanations.
However, each level in the "chain"
may prompt possible interventions, the
success of which in preventing desertification
and rehabilitating its consequences will
depend on their compatibility with other
levels in the chain. These "pressure-
points" for attention should ensure
a balanced addressing of the causes of
the problem.
9. The NPACDs should integrate four closely
interrelated elements: (i) prevention
of land degradation in areas prone to
desertification by applying appropriate
land use policies and conservation strategies;
(ii) reclamation of already desertified
lands and bringing them back to their
productive state, starting from least
affected and gradually proceeding to more
seriously affected in accordance with
an economic and social feasibility pattern;
(iii) full conservation/reservation of
lands most seriously degraded down to
the desert-like condition for their natural
recovery or future rehabilitation actions,
(iv) integrated development of land resources
in drylands for their sustainable utilization
in agricultural and non-agricultural uses.
10. The NPACDs should be prepared taking
full account of national land-use and
agricultural policies. They should aim
at reducing conflicts and competitive
demands on land. They should also aim
at achieving the objectives of agriculture:
food sufficiency and security, sustainable
production, employment of the population,
settlement of pastoralists if profitable,
etc. National policies should provide
for empowerment of local communities,
so that individual production units have
assured access to land, water and such
resources as are critical for production
and reproduction.
11. The NPACDs should be within national
socio-political policies taking full account
of: (i) equity of public participation,
(ii) balance of urban and rural interests,
(iii) organization of rural populations
into community groups or institutions
(to replace tribal structures, for instance),
(iv) self-reliance or dependence on external
aid, (v) national food security or dependence
on international trade and assistance,
etc.
12. The above provisions of the NPACDs
should be translated into legislative
instruments. New national environmentally
and development oriented land use policies
should be developed, adopted through appropriate
national legislation and implemented through
competent institutions. These policies
should contain, inter alia, explicit provisions
for the following aspects: (i) security
of resource tenure, (ii) extension of
appropriate technologies, (iii) provision
of credit, (iv) sustained extension programmes,
(v) reinforced systems of local food security,
and (vi) support of rural institutions.
13. The implementation of the NPACDs needs
to be managed by an authoritative and
effective national machinery with efficient
institutional infrastructure, particularly
at local grassroots level.
14. The implementation of the NPACDs should
be supported by the effective national
scientific and technological capabilities.
These need to be associated with a national
programme for extension services that
provide for the transfer of scientific
and technological knowledge to the field
and the working people, farmers and pastoralists
in particular.
15. In formulating the NPACDs, reference
for detail should be made to specific
recommendations of the Plan of Action
to Combat Desertification as adopted by
UNCOD in 1977.
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(b)
Practical Steps
16. Scarcity of resources often necessitates
that actions required at national level
be phased out by certain priorities which
could be different in different countries.
However, some general priorities might
be recommended as follows:
PREVENTIVE, CORRECTIVE AND REHABILITATION
MEASURES
Recommendation 1: To introduce improved
land use systems in areas affected by,
or prone to, desertification:
• STEP 1 - to
introduce an integrated approach to
the utilization of every piece of land
in accordance with its ecological characteristics,
natural capabilities and constraints;
this should ensure complementarity between
farming, pastoralism and forestry and
between economic and social goals of
individual farmers/pastoralists, local
rural communities and of the country
as a whole in the utilization of the
existing land resources, bearing in
mind their limited amount and differences
in natural productivities. For doing
this, land- use planning should be undertaken
at all levels from the farm level through
local/provincial and up to the national
level;
• STEP 2 - to introduce improved
land/water/crop management systems based
on innovative or adapted indigenous
technologies in the existing irrigated
lands with the following priorities:
(1) prevention of land degradation on
102 million hectares of non- degraded
or slightly degraded lands; (2) implementation
of corrective measures on 34 million
hectares of moderately degraded lands
and (3) reclamation of 9 million hectares
of severely and very severely degraded
lands; these improvements should aim
at enhancing food production, efficient
use of scarce water resources, reclamation
of degraded soils, prevention of water-logging,
secondary soil salinization and/or alkalinization,
prevention of air, water and soil pollution
with excess of agricultural chemicals;
the improvements should be undertaken
line-in-line with the improvement of
the living conditions of the peoples
engaged in irrigated agriculture and
of the infrastructure of these territories;
the development of new irrigation systems
for crop production, particularly for
the cash crops should be considered
in view of the improvements achieved
in the existing irrigation systems;
• STEP 3 - to stabilize rainfed
croplands using the most potentially
productive soils and avoiding marginal
ones, particularly those that better
belong to rangelands, and to introduce
improved soil/crop management systems
based on innovative or adapted indigenous
technologies, particularly using the
agroforestry approach, with the following
priorities: (1) prevention of land degradation
on 242 million hectares of non-degraded
or slightly degraded lands, (2) implementation
of corrective measures on 183 million
hectares of moderately degraded lands,
and (3) reclamation of 33 million hectares
of severely and very severely degraded
lands; these improvements should be
directed to the growth of crop production,
economical and effective use of land
resources, reclamation of degraded soils,
prevention of water and wind erosion
of soils, prevention of environment
pollution with the excess of agricultural
chemicals; these improvements should
be undertaken in parallel with the improvement
of living conditions of the peoples
affected and of the infrastructure of
these territories; the development of
new lands for rainfed agriculture in
drylands should be discouraged by all
means for the time being;
• STEP 4 - to introduce improved
rangeland/husbandry management systems
based on innovative or adapted indigenous
technologies with the following priorities:
(1) prevention of land degradation on
1,233 million hectares of non-degraded
or slightly degraded lands, (2) implementation
of corrective measures on 1,267 million
hectares of moderately degraded lands,
and (3) reclamation of 2,066 million
hectares of severely and very severely
degraded lands; these improvements should
aim at enhancing production, rehabilitation
of exhausted rangelands, prevention
of degradation of soil and plant cover;
the improvements should be undertaken
line-in-line with the improvement of
the living conditions of the peoples
affected and of the infrastructure of
these territories; the establishment
of extensive complementary irrigated
pastures instead of intensive crop production
irrigation systems, whenever appropriate,
should be considered within the general
framework of land use improvements;
• STEP 5 - to undertake major
afforestation/reforestation programme
throughout areas affected by, or prone
to, desertification, taking the agroforestry
approach whenever appropriate; this
programme should be directed to the
establishment of protective forest belts
for various purposes (around fields,
roads, settlements, processing and other
facilities, etc.) - shelter belts, windbreaks,
etc., and to the creation of forest
plantations;
• STEP 6 - to undertake, whenever
appropriate, a major campaign on stabilization
of shifting sands and for their protection
for natural rehabilitation.
The above measures for
improvement of land use systems in the
areas affected by, or prone to, desertification
should be adopted and prioritized in space
and time, within the NPACDs. Reference
here is made to Recommendations 2, 6,
7, and 19 of PACD-77.
Recommendation 2: To develop and introduce
appropriate and improved agricultural
and pastoral technologies, that are socially
and environmentally acceptable and economically
feasible and compatible with new land
use systems. The new technologies which
are to be developed and adopted need to:
(i) address immediate and short-term needs
for food and income; (ii) to be based
on existing practices, i.e. modify rather
than replace; (iii) diversify farming
practices; (iv) minimize capital/resource
requirements and external inputs; (v)
provide economic returns; (vi) meet labor
availability.
Reference here is made to Recommendations
6, 7, and 19 of PACD-77.
Appropriate technologies to be considered,
include, inter alia:
• in irrigated farmlands
• provision
of adequate drainage facilities;
• introduction of water conservation
schemes, including efficient systems
of water delivery, water harvesting,
broad-bed-and-furrow systems, ridging
and tied- ridging, small dams;
• irrigation water quality control;
• introduction of new irrigation-responsive
crop varieties;
• biological control of crop
pests and diseases;
• introduction of an ameliorative
field into crop rotation;
• watering in accordance with
current plant needs and the state
of soil moisture to avoid soil deterioration
and to economize on water;
• reduction of surface soil
evaporation;
• reduction of chemical systems
of plant nutrition by introducing
adequate biological systems, use of
organic and green manure and adopting
adequate crop rotation and mixed cropping;
• in rainfed
croplands
• introduction
of soil-conservation-oriented cropping
and soil cultivation practices, including
anti-erosion technologies as appropriate,
based on reduced requirement for external
input and, at the same time, increased
efficiency of added inputs: various
mechanical structures such as bench
terraces, contour drains, contour
ditches, contour ridges, small hollows
and lunettes, also biological techniques
such as mulching, barrier hedges,
etc.;
• introduction of integrated
systems of soil fertility management,
where all input and output factors
are manipulated in a judicious way;
• introduction of new, more
productive crop varieties;
• diversification of farming
practices in time and space and crops
(mixed cropping);
• reduction of the chemical
system of plant nutrition and plant
protection by introducing appropriate
Integrated Plant Nutrition systems
based on combinations of crop residue
mulch, animal manure and mineral fertilizers
with minimum tillage;
• introduction of crop/land-use
rotation systems as appropriate, e.g.
farming-tree (pasture), farming-tree
plantation like gum-arabic shift cultivation,
farming- grazing-forestry, etc.
• creation of shelter-belts
and other appropriate field protective
tree plantations;
• in rangelands
• improvement
of rangelands by reseeding, periodical
withdrawal from use, etc.;
• introduction and maintenance
of rotational grazing system;
• limiting the number of animals
to the rangeland carrying capacities;
• introduction of new and more
productive stock varieties;
• creation of animal food supplies
(including reserve supplies) at watering
points;
• in mixed farms
• appropriation
of specific plots for every particular
land use in accordance with slope
and soil characteristics and the conditions
of water availability;
• introduction of agro-forestry
approach: shelter belts, biomass transfer
techniques, live fences, fodder banks,
fuelwood trees on range, reclamation
forestry, etc.
Recommendation 3: To
establish adequate communication infrastructure
and sufficient processing and marketing
facilities in areas affected, or prone
to, desertification in order to provide
rural producers with adequate outlet for
increased production thus creating an
incentive for agricultural development.
Recommendations 4 and 19 of PACD-77 should
be referred to.
Recommendation 4: To develop and conserve
available water resources in areas affected
by, or prone to, desertification and to
introduce improved water management systems
with particular attention to the development
of advanced and efficient irrigation systems.
Recommendations 5, 8 and 26 of PACD-77
should be referred to.
Recommendation 5: To reclaim for productive
use or to protect for natural rehabilitation,
as appropriate, severely desertified lands
which became desert recently or were inherited
from the past and originated from the
adverse human impact on the environment.
Reference here is made to Recommendations
9 and 10 of PACD-77.
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Supporting Measures
Recommendation 6: To establish or to strengthen
the national institutional capabilities
for implementing the NPACD, including
hierarchical networks up to the grassroots
level:
• to establish
or to strengthen, as appropriate, national
anti-desertification authority (Commission,
Advisory Board, Department, etc.) within
the Government with access to the highest
executive and decision-making level;
• to establish anti-desertification
commissions-boards within provincial/divisional/district
or other local governing or executive
bodies in accordance with the existing
administrative division in a country;
• to establish land-users' anti-desertification
committees in all rural communities
affected;
• to organize working co-operation
between local authorities, extension
services and land- users committees
in planning and implementing anti-desertification
measures including full-scale technical
assistance to farmers and pastoralists;
• to support existing or newly
established national non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) including co-operatives,
women, youth and children organizations
and school associations in particular,
and to strengthen their working co-operation
with the government and local authorities
concerned with the implementation of
the NPACD, with a view of their active
participation in the national anti-desertification
campaign.
In implementing this
recommendation, reference here is made
to Recommendations 3, 18 and 21 of PACD-77.
Recommendation 7: To launch nation-wide
major anti-desertification awareness/training
campaign through existing mass-media facilities,
educational network and newly created
or strengthened extension services, fully
ensuring people's access to the knowledge
of desertification and to the Plan of
Action to Combat Desertification:
• to organize
a series of demonstration sites at the
existing or newly established experimental
stations, plots, villages (ecovillages),
etc. showing examples of anti- desertification
land use and appropriate technologies
ensuring free access of local populations
to these establishments;
• to publish in local languages
and distribute through national anti-desertification
networks or appropriate extension services
locally adapted varieties of simple
but attractive colorful pamphlets or
leaflets related to the problem of desertification
and its combat;
• to establish in all relevant
national and local newspapers, radio
and television programmes a special
anti-desertification regular page or
a corner in order to provide the public
and land users in particular with day-to-day
information with specific emphasis on
problems involved in different localities,
technological advice, stories of success;
• to introduce in rural areas
affected by desertification special
courses on desertification in all public
schools at an appropriate level of education;
• to organize, through existing
or newly established extension services
and anti- desertification networks,
an anti-desertification in-job training
of farmers and pastoralists in the areas
affected by desertification providing
them with appropriate learning materials.
Recommendation 20 of
PACD-77 should be referred to in this
respect.
Recommendation 8: To introduce a "loop
model" in the existing or newly established
extension service in the areas affected
by desertification. The first step in
this model is to provide understanding
of the rationale and ecological stability
of traditional resource management systems
and the indigenous knowledge related to
them. The second step is to use external
and local expertise to investigate why
these traditional practices are no longer
adequate and to identify areas where management
has to be adjusted. The third stage, completing
the loop, requires the interaction of
local and external expertise to develop
potential innovations which solve the
resource management problems. These must
then be tested in the field with the communities
or producers who have been involved in
developing them, before the large scale
introduction throughout the area. This
loop process requires intensive communication
between the local population, extension
service and research centers. Extension
agents should be trained in how to listen
to the people, how to capture indigenous
knowledge, how to learn from the adaptive
strategies that local people have developed
in response to often difficult and inhospitable
environments.
Recommendation 9: To finalize the operative
large-scale local and national assessment
of the current status of desertification,
including (a) the status of rural populations,
(b) the state of lands and physical causes
of their degradation, (c) the trends of
local climate changes (d) social, economic
and political causes of underdevelopment
and resulting immediate causes and processes
of desertification, and to provide the
Government with appropriate detailed and
up-to- date information related to desertification.
Recommendation 10: To develop, adopt through
appropriate national legislation and introduce
institutionally new national environmentally/developmentally
oriented land use policy which would be
directed to the improvement of land use,
appropriate management of the commons,
provision of incentives to small farmers
and pastoralists, ensuring the involvement
of women, and encouragement of private
investment in the development of drylands.
This policy should contain, inter alia,
explicit provisions for the following
institutional aspects: (a) security of
resource tenure, (b) adoption of appropriate
technologies, (c) provision of credit,
(d) sustained extension programmes, (e)
reinforced system of local food security,
(f) support of rural institutions, (g)
appropriate pricing policy.
Recommendations 2, 13 and 17 of PACD-77
should be referred to while tailoring
for the required actions.
Recommendation 11: To develop and introduce
effective national insurance schemes against
recurrent drought and famine. Recommendation
17 of PACD-77 should be referred to in
this respect.
17. In various countries affected by desertification
the implementation of the above practical
steps will undoubtedly vary in accordance
with differences in ecological, socio-economic
and political conditions. Some countries
have already started their national anti-desertification
campaigns and introduced appropriate programmes
which are being implemented on a scale
compatible with the available resources.
Others are unable to start purposeful
action because of civil strife and political
instability. Still others are even one
step back due to recent or current civil
wars. Therefore, the situation varies
greatly throughout the world. Consequently,
a uniform world-wide time frame for the
global implementation of the Plan of Action
to Combat Desertification, cannot be envisaged.
Furthermore, the combat against desertification
is a long- term process and not a one-act
operation.
18. Countries affected by, or prone to,
desertification might wish to set their
own priorities in implementing their NPACDs.
However, it seems logic that first practical
step would be to implement Recommendations
6 and 7 above, within 3-5 years. Recommendations
8, 9, 10 and 11 may take a longer time
probably up to the year 2000. Implementation
of Recommendations 1 and 2 could start
simultaneously on a trial basis. The Plan
can thus become fully operational throughout
affected areas by around the year 2000.
Full scale reconstruction will take longer
time probably through the year 2010 by
which time Recommendations 1 and 2 could
be fully implemented. The stabilization
period will take still a longer period
probably up to year 2020 by which time
Recommendations 3, 4 and 5 would have
been implemented.
19. The full implementation the Plan of
Action to Combat Desertification should
result in: (a) ensuring that objective
of arresting desertification is attained;
(b) living, health and cultural conditions
of populations affected will be substantially
improved; (c) the environment of areas
affected will be improved and stabilized;
(d) productivity of affected lands will
be sustained; (e) the economy of areas
affected will be improved and stabilized;
(f) populations of areas affected will
be involved in a progressive socio-economic
development.
20. A programme for the implementation
of a world-wide direct action to combat
desertification may be based on one of
the following options:
i. Implement programmes
of direct preventive measures in productive
drylands that are nor desertified or
only slightly desertified (about 30%
of the productive drylands; total cost
estimate is US $ 1.4-4.2 billion per
year; this, however, will not save territories
that are moderately desertified from
further deterioration;
ii. Implement the above programme plus
programme of direct corrective measures
in productive drylands that are moderately
desertified (areas with 10-25% loss
of productivity in cropland and 25-50%
in rangeland); total cost estimate is
US $ 3.8-11.4 billion per year;
iii. Implement a comprehensive programme
of direct measures to combat desertification
in all productive drylands (preventive-corrective-rehabilitation);
total cost estimate is US $ 10.0-22.4
billion per year.
The above options could
be considered as the sort of action priorities
that could be adopted globally and nationally.
They could be modified as appropriate
with the areas concerned.
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(II)REGIONALLY
21. The experience of the 80s clearly
indicated that the regional approach to
international co-operation in solving
major environmental and development problems
is the most promising one. This was particularly
exemplified by the achievements of UNSO
in the mobilization of resources needed
for combating desertification in the Sudano-Sahelian
region of Africa. Some practically oriented
regional programmes were recently developed,
e.g. by the Arab League through the Arab
Centre for the Study of Arid Zones and
Dry Lands (ACSAD), by the African Ministerial
Conference on the Environment (AMCEN)
through the African Deserts and Arid Lands
Committee (ADALCO) and the Inter-governmental
Authority on Drought and Desertification
(IGADD), by the Asian NGO Coalition for
Agrarian Reform and Rural Development
(ANGOCO), by the Inter-State Committee
for Control of Drought in the Sahel (CILSS),
by the UN Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) through
the Regional Network of Research and Training
Centers on Desertification Control in
Asia and the Pacific (DESCONAP), by the
Southern Africa Development Co-ordination
Conference (SADCC). These initiatives
should be fully utilized and further developed.
22. In addition to the above, the concept
of eco-geographical regions of the world
should be fully utilized, preferably combining
the anti-desertification efforts of countries
at different levels of development within
united anti-desertification programmes,
e.g. Mexico-USA, China- Mongolia-USSR,
India-Pakistan, Afghanistan-Iran-USSR,
etc.
23. Institutional support for regional
co-operation should be provided in order
to plan, co- ordinate and monitor joint
regional activities and to mobilize the
resources needed for the implementation
of the regional programmes. This support
should be organized either through existing
inter-governmental regional bodies or
through those newly established for this
purpose. The UN Regional Commissions and
the existing regional inter-governmental
organizations should be fully involved
and be responsible for these regional
actions.
24. The UN General Assembly could be invited
to consider the establishment of small
sub- regional offices, probably within
UNDP, analogous to UNSO, for some of the
eco-geographical sub-regions in order
to assist the sub-regions and their countries
in the mobilization of the resources and
technical assistance with possible creation
of these as joint ventures between UNDP,
IFAD, WFP, FAO and UNEP whenever appropriate.
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(III)
INTERNATIONALLY
25. International co-operation
at a global level in implementing the
Plan of Action to Combat Desertification
is to be organized on a partnership basis
between all countries of the world as
this environmental/development problem
is of a global magnitude and should not
be considered as just another aid programme
of the richer countries to poorer ones.
This co-operation is needed in the following
areas:
• Mobilization
of financial resources and provision
of financial assistance to the countries
which cannot cope with the problem by
themselves;
• Development of pricing and trade
policy that would favor agricultural
development and sustainable productivity
of drylands;
• Provision of technical assistance
to the countries in need;
• Development of appropriate anti-desertification
technologies and technology transfer
to the needy countries on favorable
terms;
• Monitoring and co-ordination
of the anti-desertification campaign
at a global level;
• Information exchange;
• International legislation, as
appropriate.
26. The first task might
be addressed bilaterally through adjusting
the World Bank, UNDP and UNEP's Global
Environmental Facility or the establishment
of a special facility within the United
Nations for funding the implementation
of the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification.
The second task should be more vigorously
and effectively addressed through GATT
and other relevant UN structures.
27. Provision of technical assistance
in combating desertification to needy
countries should be organized bilaterally
or through the existing specialized agencies
and organizations of the United Nations
system e.g. UNDP, FAO, WMO, WHO, UNEP,
UNESCO, etc. For this purpose, all existing
technical assistance or other relevant
international programmes of these UN bodies,
e.g. Man and the Biosphere programme of
UNESCO, Environment Action Plan of the
World Bank, Global Environment Facility
of the World Bank/UNEP/UNDP, Tropical
Forestry Action Plan of the World Bank/FAO/UNDP/WRI,
Energy Sector Management Action Programme
of the World Bank/UNDP, Tropical Diseases
Research Programme of the World Bank/UNDP,
World Soils Policy of UNEP, World Conservation
Strategy of IUCN, Programme of Action
of the World Conference on Agrarian Reform
and Rural Development (WCARRD, 1989),
International Action Programme on Water
and Sustainable Agricultural Development
of FAO, International Cooperative Programme
Framework for Sustainable Agriculture
and Rural Development of FAO, etc., for
the areas and regions identified as being
affected by, or prone to, desertification
should be fully co-ordinated within national
development programmes aiming at prevention
and rehabilitation of desertification
impacts in accordance with the specific
recommendations of the PACD.
28. Development of appropriate anti-desertification
technologies, both modernized high-input
and indigenous low-input, should be organized
and internationally co-ordinated through
existing national, regional and international
research centers, particularly through
the network of the Consultative Group
on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) or a comparable network to be
specialized in drylands development and
desertification matters. The transfer
of technology developed internationally
to needy countries should be organized
through the existing international channels
of technical assistance. The transfer
of technology developed nationally on
a commercial basis should be organized
with assistance from the above mentioned
environment or anti-desertification funding
facility.
29. A world machinery for monitoring desertification
and its operational assessment by using
remote sensing technology with computerized
data processing should be established.
This machinery could be a section of the
enlarged EARTHWATCH, including GEMS, GRID
and the Desertification Database of DC/PAC
in UNEP. The establishment of a network
of the regional monitoring/assessment
facilities should be considered, that
would be co-ordinated and backed-up by
the EARTHWATCH. The existing facilities,
e.g. in Dakar, Ashkhabad, Jodhpur, Damascus,
Nairobi, Lanzhou, etc. could be part of
the global network. It would be important
to stress that the desertification assessment/monitoring
network should not constitute a separate
establishment but, be a part of the general
global environment assessment/monitoring
system which would regularly provide all
necessary data on the status of the natural
resources (soil, water, air, vegetation,
animals, etc.) and peoples (number, health,
etc.) of the world. The main immediate
task would be to establish a Global Baseline
Reference Database for future assessments
of changes and trends.
30. World capability for advanced training
in desertification assessment/monitoring
should be substantially strengthened,
particularly in such world centers as
FAO; the International Institute for Aerospace
Survey and Earth Sciences in Enschede,
the Netherlands; the USA Environmental
Systems Research Institute, Inc.; Belgian
Catholic University in Leuven, etc.
31. Responsibility for over-all global
monitoring and co-ordination of the anti-desertification
campaign should be given to UNEP with
its existing inter-governmental and inter-agency
mechanisms, including IAWGD and DESCON.
32. UNEP and UNDP should, once in five
years starting from 1995, jointly review
the implementation of the PACD and of
corresponding development programmes in
the areas affected by desertification
in order to suggest, in time, necessary
corrective measures at an international
level.
33. International legislation concerning
the drylands should be developed: the
desert fringes which are prone to desertification
should be internationally and nationally
declared as "PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE
AREAS" with all legal implications
concerning their use and protection, e.g.
prohibition of agricultural development
in dry steppe virgin lands.
PART
IV. Financing the Plan of Action to Combat
Desertification..
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