UN Moves To Combat Encroachment by the Desert
3/24/98
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Title: UN Moves To Combat Encroachment by the Desert
Source: InterPress Service
Status: Copyright by source, contact for reprint permissions
Date: 3/24/98
Byline: Philip Ngunjiri
NAIROBI, Mar 24 (IPS) -- Twenty African countries are to benefit from a 50-
million-US dollar fund managed by the UN Global Environment Facility (GEF) to
fight land degradation and desertification.
Ahmed Djoghlaf, the executive co-ordinator of the GEF - a subsidiary of the
Nairobi-based U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) -- said the funds would be
disbursed within the next two years.
Starting in July, the first beneficiaries -- Kenya, Botswana and Mali -- will
receive a total of 10 million dollars to revive degraded rangelands. ''The
project will focus on the rehabilitation of indigenous vegetation in the arid
regions of Botswana, Kenya and Mali,'' said Djoghlaf.
The overall objective of a three-million-dollar project in Botswana is to
facilitate community management of trans-border resources in the Kalahari-Namib
ecosystem. The project is expected to enhance sub-regional co-operation between
Botswana, Namibia and Zambia in carrying out coordinated actions and management
strategies to address the problem of land degradation in trans-boundary
rangeland and pastoral areas, including biodiversity loss.
According to Djoghlaf, the GEF will also address cross-border land degradation
issues in Mauritania and Senegal, which are among the African countries most
affected by desertification.
The project, which is estimated to cost 12.3 million dollars, will be
implemented over a period of five years. ''It will aim at addressing the root
causes of biodiversity loss from land degradation in five critical ecosystems,
encompassing a 60,000-km square portion of the trans-border Senegal River
Valley in Senegal and Mauritania,'' he said.
A total of 2.5 million dollars has been set aside to assist 10 African
countries -- Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso,
Benin, Niger, Mauritania and Senegal - in the preparation of their national
strategies, plans or programmes for the implemetation of the UN Convention on
Biological Diversity.
Desertification affects one sixth of the world's population and 70 percent of
all dry lands or 3.6 billion hectares - a quarter of the total land area of the
world.
''In Africa, the impact of desertification is particularly acute. It threatens
the lives of millions of people and seriously affects more than 39 percent of
the total area of the continent,'' said Djoghlaf.
Indigenous vegetation on rangelands is the primary resource of the pastoral
economy in arid and semi-arid regions of Africa. How the vegetation is managed
is vital for the survival of the people in these regions.
According to Djoghlaf, loss of natural vegetation through grazing, building and
fuelwood, and the widespread effects of drought have resulted in land
degradation, leading to untold human suffering and erosion of unique and
endemic plants on which the ecological stability of these ecosystems depends.
''A key factor for the sustainable development of these lands is the ability to
maintain their diversity,'' he said.
The GEF is a multilateral financing mechanism created to address climate
change, the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, the reduction of
ozone layer depletion, the protection of international waters, and other global
environmental challenges.
It is a result of the 1992 Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and
has been designed to promote international cooperation and foster environment
protection efforts by providing funding to meet the costs of conserving the
environment.
Djoghlaf said the GEF would be replenished for another four- year period in
July this year, with a capital of 2.75 billion US dollars. The fund, he said,
was committed to giving high priority to Africa to improve its environment
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