UN meeting to try to revive fight against advancing deserts
Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse
September 30, 2001
GENEVA, Sept 30 - Representatives from 176 countries are due to begin a meeting in Geneva on Monday to try to revive UN efforts to combat the extension of deserts and drought-stricken areas worldwide, the UN said.
The seven year old UN Convention to Combat Desertification is meant to counter the destruction of essential agricultural land and natural resources in about 110 countries ranging from sub-Saharan Africa to the United States, according to a UN statement. The UN estimates that in two decades the world has lost agricultural land equivalent to the area of arable land in the United States.
"Progress under the convention has been slowed by a lack of sufficient international funding and by the challenges of reforming domestic institutions and policies in affected countries," Hama Arba Diallo, the Convention's executive secretary, said ahead of the October 1-12 meeting.
"Recent crises in Mongolia, Afghanistan and other drought prone countries demonstrate just how vulnerable people in dryland countries are to political and social instability," Diallo added.
The desertification convention focuses on the hardest hit countries, especially in Africa. Unlike other recent environmental treaties it does not have guaranteed funding.
The UN estimates that the livelihoods of one billion people are at risk from desertification, which affects about one third of the earth's landmass and 70 percent of the world's agricultural drylands on the major continents.
It is also warning that official climate change predictions indicate that dryland areas could become even hotter over the coming century.
The UN says most desertification is caused by deforestation and poor land use by expanding populations.