The United Nations General Assembly, at its 58th session, adopted resolution A/Res/58/211 which declares 2006 the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. The decision was taken to help prevent the exacerbation of desertification around the globe. The General Assembly invites all countries, international and civil society organizations to celebrate the Year 2006 and to support public awareness activities related to desertification and land degradation.

The main objective of the year is to get the message across that desertification is a major threat to humanity, compounded by both climate change and loss of biological diversity. Land degradation affects one third of the planet's land surface and around one billion people in over a hundred countries.

While fully addressing the growing threat that desertification represents for mankind, the year also seeks to celebrate the unique ecosystem and cultural diversity of deserts worldwide, therefore establishing a clear difference between the need to protect deserts as unique natural habitat and the fight against desertification as a global sustainable development challenge.

As the main agency for the year, the UNCCD Secretariat is launching a unique logo for the year and inviting stakeholders to make use of it. The logo is intended to promote all awareness activities related to the year, as well as to represent the dual issues at stake in one single image: Deserts as natural ecosystems and the issue of desertification as a global problem.

With UNCCD, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the international community possesses a key instrument to deliver the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that must be met by 2015. The MDGs are the most comprehensive and ambitious strategy ever put forward to combat global poverty.