uncdd – desertification. a visual a visual synthesis

7/27/2019 UNCDD Desertification. A visual a visual synthesis

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EROON

IFICATION

CATION

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NO WATER

DEVELOPING

WITOUT

WITOUT ACCESS

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CLIMATE CHANGE

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LIMATE CHANGE

CLICLIMATE NGE

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WSS

SOILCAUSESN CONTROLLANDS

COLLABORATION

ATER

UNCCD

UNCCD

KNOWLEDGE

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DESERTIFICATION

DESERTIFICATION

DESERTIFICATION

ION

GENDER

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SOIL

Affected

WATER

WATER

VULNERABILITY

IONMENTAL

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VEGETATION

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IMPORTANTBIODIVERSITY

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MOBILIZATION

a visual synthesis


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Printed at GRAPHI 4 in Bresson, France

2011 UNCCD, Zo Environment Network

ISBN 9789295043497

UNCCD inormation kit in English

This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part

in any orm or educational or nonprot purposes with

special permission rom the copyright holders, provided

acknowledgement o the source is made.

No use o this publication may be made or resale or or

any commercial purpose. The use o inormation romthis publication concerning proprietary products or

advertising is not permitted.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this publication are those o the

authors and do not necessarily reect views o UNCCD

nor its member Parties. The designations employed

and the presentation o material in this publication

do not imply the expression o any opinion on the

part o the organizations concerning the legal statuso any country, territory, city or area o its authority, or

delineation o its rontiers and boundaries.

UNCCD promotes

environmentally sound

pratices globally and in its own

activities. This publication is printed

on ully recycled paper, post consumer

waste and chlorineree. Inks are vege

table based and coatings are waterbased.This publication is climate neutral. All CO2

emissions generated by its production

have been compensated.


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CONTENTSCONTENTS CONTENTS

CONTENTSCONTENTS CONTENTS

FOREWORD 04

1 GLOBAL DRYLANDS 05

2 WHAT IS DESERTIFICATION? 11

2.1 DRIVERS OF DESERTIFICATION 13

2.2 EXAMPLES OF LAND DEGRADATION 14

3 COMBATING DESERTIFICATION 19

3.1 INCREASE POPULATION RESILIENCE 20

3.2 IMPROVE LAND MANAGEMENT 21

3.3 DIVERSIFY PRODUCTION 21

3.4 RESTORE LAND 21

3.5 CONTROL EROSION 22

3.6 USE NON-WOOD ENERGY SOURCES 22

3.7 FIND ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS 22

3.8 FORGE A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP 24

4 DESERTIFICATION IN CONTEXT 27

4.1 CLIMATE CHANGE 29

4.2 WATER SCARCITY 30

4.3 ENVIRONMENTAL MIGRATION 32

4.4 POVERTY ERADICATION 34

4.5 LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY 36

4.6 AVOIDED DEFORESTATION 36

4.7 ENERGY CHALLENGES 38

4.8 FOOD SECURITY 40

4.9 GENDER 42

5 THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT 45

DESERTIFICATION (UNCCD)

5.1 STRENGTHS OF THE CONVENTION 47

5.2 PROCEDURES AND EXECUTIVE INSTITUTIONS 47

OF THE CONVENTION

REFERENCES 51

LAND FOR LIFE STORIES OF BEST PRACTICE AROUND THE WORLD

* BEST PRACTICE: DESERTIFICATION, LAND DEGRADATION AND DROUGHT, 10

AND SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT/RESEARCH

* BEST PRACTICE: SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES, INCLUDING ADAPTATION 16

* BEST PRACTICE: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND DECISION SUPPORT 26

* BEST PRACTICE: CAPACITYBUILDING AND AWARENESSRAISING AT VARIOUS LEVEL 37

* BEST PRACTICE: POLICY, LEGISLATIVE AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK 43

* BEST PRACTICE: FUNDING AND RESOURCE MOBILIZATION 44

* BEST PRACTICE: PARTICIPATION, COLLABORATION AND NETWORKING 49


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FOREWORDOten, when people think o drylands, they associate them with deserts andhostile living conditions, economic hardship and water scarcity. But that is notwhat drylands are all about. I managed well, the drylands are also ertile andcapable o supporting the habitats, crops and livestock that sustain nearlyonethird o humanity. Drylands oer opportunities or local populations

and provide tangible regional and global benets. For a variety o reasons,such as market ailures, weak investment incentives, gender inequalities andsome enduring myths, the benets to be gained o working with the drylandsand their vibrant communities are not ully realised. There is a genuine riskand rapidly growing concern that desertication will undermine nascentopportunities and the world will lose the inherent potential o the drylands.

Desertication means land degradation in arid, semiarid and dry subhumidareas resulting rom various actors including climatic variation and humanactivity. It aects the livelihoods o rural people in drylands, particularlythe poor, who depend on livestock, crops, limited water resources and uel

wood. The critical social and economic importance o natural resources,agriculture and animal husbandry mean that in many countries, combatingdesertication and promoting development are virtually one and the same.We need to correct an image o desertication as an unstoppable monsterslowly consuming the worlds ertile lands, plants, livestock and people.Practical solutions to desertication exist at many levels and are beingsuccessully employed by communities around the world.

Yet in no other ecosystem are the interactions between the challenges oclimate change and the conservation o biodiversity so closely linked to oodsecurity and poverty reduction. In the drylands, we need to address theseissues jointly and understand how they aect each other to nd practicalsolutions that work or aected communities. This requires cooperationbetween experts in dierent elds and in the mechanisms provided bythe global community. In this, the United Nations Convention to CombatDesertication (UNCCD) plays an important role between dryland and nondryland countries, promoting scientic and technological excellence, raisingpublic awareness and mobilizing resources to prevent, control and reversedesertication/land degradation and mitigate the eects o drought.

ABOUT THIS BOOKThis book is intended as a basic inormation kit that tells the story odesertication, land degradation and drought at the global scale, togetherwith a comprehensive set o graphics. The book indicates trends as theyhave taken place over the last decades, combining and connecting issues,

and present priorities. It also provides inormation on the United NationsConvention to Combat Desertication (UNCCD) and how it works to orge aglobal partnership to reverse and prevent desertication/land degradationand to mitigate the eects o drought in aected areas in order to supportpoverty reduction and environmental sustainability.

This book was produced in cooperation with Zoi Environment Network.

Editorial team

Yukie Hori

Christina Stuhlberger

Otto Simonett

Cartography

Matthias Beilstein

Design & Layout

Carolyne Daniel

With this very visual and easily readable booklet we aim to explain currentthinking about the drylands in a concise and accessible manner.

Luc GnacadjaExecutive SecretaryUnited Nations Convention to Combat D esertication

Text

Alex Kirby

Karen Landmark

Copy editing

Harry Forster

Krystyna Horko


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GLOBAL DRYLANGLOBAL DRYLANDSGLOBAL DRYLANDS

1GLOBAL DRYLANDS


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Guatemala

El Salvador

Costa RicaPanama

Ecuador

Peru

Colombia

Dominican Republic

VenezuelaTrinidad and Tobago

GuyanaSuriname

French Guyana

Brazil

Bolivia

Paraguay

UruguayChile

Haiti

CubaBelize

NicaraguaHonduras

Mexico

Jamaica

Canada

United States of America

Dry sub-humid areas

Drylands

Map produced by ZO Environment Network, September 2010Source: UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre

Semi-arid areas

Arid areas

Hyper-arid areas

1 Netherlands2 Belgium3 Denmark4 Lithuania5 Latvia6 Estonia7 Switzerland8 Austria9 Hungary10 Czech Republic11 Serbia12 Moldova

13 Bulgaria14 Romania15 Cyprus16 Syria17 Palestinian Territories18 Israel19 Lebanon20 Kuwait21 Bahrain22 Qatar23 United Arab Emirates

Arid

Semi-arid

Dry sub-humid

Total drylands

Aridity Index (AI) =

Average annual

precipitation/PotentialEvapo-Transpiration

0.05


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China

DPR of Korea

Republic ofKorea

Japan

Viet Nam

Indonesia East Timor Papua New Guinea

Australia

New Zealand

Thailand

Myanmar

Cambodia

Malaysia

Lao PDR

Mongolia

Tajikistan

KyrgyzstanUzbekistan

Kazakhstan

Turkmenistan

Pakistan

India

NepalBhutan

Philippines

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Turkey

GeorgiaAzerbaijan

ArmeniaIraq Iran Afghanistan

Oman

Saudi

ArabiaMali

Ethiopia

Somalia

Eritrea

Kenya

Tanzania

MadagascarMalawi

LesothoSwaziland

Mozambique

YemenDjibouti

BurkinaFaso

UnitedKingdom

Niger Chad

Central AfricanRepublic

SenegalMauritania

MoroccoAlgeria

GambiaSierra Leone

Liberia Uganda

RwandaBurundi

Congo

Angola

ZambiaZimbabwe

Namibia

South Africa

Botswana

Cte d'Ivoire

Republic ofthe Congo

GabonGhana

Benin

Cameroon

NigeriaGuinea

Iceland

GermanyIreland

23

4

7

9

810

1113

15

14

17

18

19

16

20 21

23

22

12

6

51

Norway

Spain

Tunisia

Italy

Libya Egypt

France

Poland

Greece

Jordan

Ukraine

Belarus

Russia

FinlandSweden

Portugal

Sudan

Togo


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Drylands population

The ollowing main types o human use are ound in drylands: rangelands(59%);cultivatedland(30%);andurbanareas(2%).Otherareasaredenedas hyperarid such as the worlds driest places, the Atacama desert in Chileand the Namib desert in southwest Arica, the Gobi desert in Mongolia andwestern Inner Mongolia in China, as well as polar regions. The dominantlandcover or drylands consists o shrubs, ollowed by cropland, savanna,steppe, grassland, orest and urban areas.

Water scarcity is the predominant eature o drylands. While heavy rain mayoccur, rainall typically varies, sometimes dramatically, rom season to season,and year to year. In arid and semiarid zones, the water balance is negativeat year basis, meaning that more water evaporates than precipitates duringone year. Thereore, water is scarce most o the time and human settlementsmay cluster around rare sources o water such as rivers, springs, wells, watercatchments, reservoirs and oases.

Arid

Semi-arid

Dry sub-humid

Total

Dominant broad

ecosystem

Semi-Desert

Grassland

Rangeland

Total population

242 780 000

855 333 000

909 972 000

2 008 085 000

Share of global

population (%)

4.1

14.4

15.3

33.8

Guatemala

Mexico

El SalvadorCosta Rica

Ecuador

Peru

Chile

Colombia

Dominican Republic

Guyana

Venezuela SurinameFrench Guyana

Trinidad and Tobago

Cuba

Brazil

Paraguay

Uruguay

Argentina

Bolivia

ThHaiti

Panama

Canada

NicaraguaJamaica

Honduras

Belize


< 1 million

1 million

Absolute growth per country

Drylands

10 million

100 million

Population prospects 2025

0 +20% +30% +40%+10%-10%Relative growth of population up to 2025(2010 = 100; medium variant)


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ChinaRepublic of

Korea

DPR of Korea

Japan

Viet Nam

Indonesia

ThailandMyanmar

Cambodia

Singapore

Lao PDR

Mongolia

Azerbaijan Tajikistan

Bhutan


Turkmenistan

Kazakhstan

Pakistan

India

Nepal

Philippines

Papua New Guinea

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Malaysia

Brunei

Timor Leste

Australia

New Zealand

UkraineBelarus

Finland

Romania

Poland

JordanIsrael

Saudi Arabia

Armenia

Georgia

Russia

Turkey

IraqIran

Afghanistan

Mali

Tunisia

Egypt

Ethiopia

Somalia

Eritrea

Kenya

Tanzania

Madagascar

Malawi

Lesotho

Mozambique

South Africa

YemenOman

U.A.E.

Djibouti

Burkina Faso

NigerChad

Centr. Afr. Rep.

Senegal

e Gambia

Morocco

Portugal

European Union

Iceland

United Kingdom

France

ItalySpain

GermanyNorway Sweden

SyriaGreece

PalestinianTerritoriesAlgeria

Mauritania

Sierra LeoneLiberia

Uganda

Rwanda

Burundi

Congo

AngolaZambia

NamibiaZimbabwe

BotswanaSwaziland

Cte d'Ivoire

Rep. ofthe Congo

GhanaEquatorial Guinea

Gabon

Benin Cameroon

Nigeria

GuineaGuinea-Bissau

Sudan

Togo

Map produced by ZO Environment Network, August 2010Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects:

The 2008 Revision, New York, 2009 ( http://data.un.org)


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Dryland acts

The total population o the worlds drylands is 2 000 million, excluding hyperarid (desert) areas. Drylandsare thus home to almost one in three people in the world today.

Drylandssupport50percentoftheworldslivestock.

Themajorityoftheworldsdrylandpopulationisindevelopingcountries.

Drylandsstore46percentoftheplanetscarboninventory.

Drylandscomprise44percentofallcultivatedland.

Plantspeciesendemictothedrylandsmakeup30%oftheplantsundercultivationtoday.

ThelargestdrylandareasareinAustralia,China,Russia,theUnitedStatesandKazakhstan.

At least 99 per cent o the surace area o six countries (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Moldovaand Turkmenistan) is classied as drylands.

Saramacca, which lies halway on the Atlantic coast in northern Suriname,depends mainly on agriculture, horticulture and petroleum extraction. Thedistrict traditionally had ertile soils, but ertility had reduced due to theoveruse o synthetic ertilizers. Crops shrank over the years because o thedepleted soil quality.

In order to retrieve ertile soil, the Caribbean Institute Suriname developed abiological method which controls the eects o pests and diseases during thecrop harvesting period. The method uses a seed extract o Crotalaria striata orSmooth rattlebox, an herbaceous plant that dissolves in a certain proportion

o water. This mixture is then poured around the crops every two weeks. Thepractice does not kill the pests, namely nematodes, but suppresses themenough or the crops to grow well. Another biological pesticide is the use oextracts o tobacco leaves to kill plant louses.

Although the armers were not used to this new technology, they werehighly motivated and actively participated in learning this method, receivingtraining, and eventually adopting the new practice. The transition not onlyhelped armers adopt competitive organic horticulture and develop asustainable agrosupply chain, but also resulted in better crop yields.

(Source: PRAIS 4th UNCCD reporting and review process. Suriname)

LAND FOR LIFE 1

Best practice: Desertifcation, land degradation and drought, and sustainable land management monitoring andassessment/research

Suriname: Combating the loss o soil ertility through the use o compost and natural pesticides


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WHAT IS DESERTIFICATION?WHAT IS DESEWHAT???WHAT IS DESERTIFICATION?

2WHAT IS DESERTIFICATION?


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Desertifcation

Contrary to popular perception, desertication is not the loss o land to desertor through sanddune movement. Desertication reers to land degradationin arid, semiarid and subhumid areas resulting rom various actors,including climatic variations and human activities. When land degradationhappens in the worlds drylands, it oten creates desertlike conditions. Landdegradation occurs everywhere, but is dened as desertication when it

occurs in the drylands.

Behind land degradation lies disturbance o the biological cycles on which liedepends, as well as social and development issues. The term deserticationwas coined to convey this drama o pressing and interconnected issues indrylands.

The soil o degraded land has less capacity to support plant growth, resultingin the loss o vegetation and economic productivity. Despite the act thatanimals and plants are able to adapt to the drylands, desertication hasserious consequences or the environment. It is oten caused by humanactivities, such as overgrazing, overcultivation, deorestation and poorlyplanned irrigation systems. Extreme climatic events, such as droughts oroods, can also accelerate the process.

Depending on the type o agricultural technique employed, dierent ormso land degradation occur. For example, these can be:

lossofnutritivematter(duetoagriculturalover-exploitation);

lossoftopsoilsurfaceduetowindandwatererosion,particularlyduetothelossofvegetation;

landslidescausedbytheactionofwaterandtheeectsofvegetationloss;

increasedsalinityandsoilacidicationduetoirrigationmalpractice;and

soilpollutionduetoexcessiveuseofchemicalfertilizers.

Facts on land degradation

Between1981and2003,24percentofgloballandwasdegraded.

Rangelandaccountsfor20to25percentofdegradingland.

Croplandaccountsfor20percentofdegradingland. Worldwidesome1500millionpeopledependondegradingland.

Between1981and2003,16percentofdegradedlandwasimproved.

Rangelandcomprised43percentofdegradedland.

Croplandcomprised18percentofdegradedland.

Landcovering12millionhectares,equivalenttoBulgariaorBenin,islosteveryyear.

Annuallandlostcouldproduce20milliontonnesofgrain.


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Desertication occurs because dryland ecosystems are extremely vulnerableto overexploitation and inappropriate land use. Poverty, political instability,deorestation, overgrazing and improper irrigation practices can allundermine the productivity o the land. There is no linear process o causeand eect leading to land degradation in the drylands, but its drivers, whichinteract in complex ways, are known. Such drivers are climatic, especially lowsoil moisture, changing rainall patterns and high evaporation. Most o themare humanrelated, and include poverty, technology, global and local market

trends and sociopolitical dynamics. It is important to note that poverty isboth a cause and consequence o land degradation. Other consequences odesertication include:

diminishedfoodproduction,soilinfertilityandadecreaseinthelandsnaturalresilience;

increaseddownstreamooding,reducedwaterquality,sedimentationinriversandlakes,andsiltingofreservoirsandnavigationchannels;

aggravated health problems due to wind-blown dust, including eyeinfections,respiratoryillnesses,allergies,andmentalstress;

lossoflivelihoodsforcingaectedpeopletomigrate.

There is a ne line between drylands and deserts once crossed it is hard toreturn. It is much more costeective to prevent drylands rom degradationthan to reverse it. Restoring soil lost by erosion is a slow process. It cantake 500 years or 2.5 centimetres o soil to orm but only a ew years todestroy it. Although the gure varies a great deal depending on how costsare measured, estimates by UNEP in 1993 suggested that desertication

and drought account or USD42 000 million income lost worldwide everyyear, equivalent to all ofcial aid to Arica in 2009. On top o this gure isthe uncountable cost in human suering and lives lost due to hunger andthe need to abandon onceproductive land. Not only are these statisticsdisturbing, they can be prevented.

Between 1981 and 2003, 24 per cent o the land has been degraded globally.About 1 500 million people depend directly on these degrading areas. Nearly20 per cent o the degraded land is cropland, and 20 to 25 per cent is rangeland.

Despite the grave problems o drylands, such regions are areas o greatpotential or development. The act that more than hal the worlds productiveland is dryland emphasizes the critical importance o wise management at theglobal, national and local levels. Impoverished land and impoverished people

are two sides o the same coin. Sustainable land management can support landusers to respond to changing market demand with adapted and traditionaltechnologies to generate income, improve livelihoods and protect ecosystems.

2.1 DRIVERS OF DESERTIFICATION

Land degradation reduces or destroys soil productivity, vegetation, arableand grazing land, as well as orest. In the most extreme cases, hunger andpoverty set in and become both the cause and consequence o urtherdegradation. While this book seeks to present a wide range o causes andimpacts to oster understanding o desertication, it is by no means exclusive.Further it is important to recognize that issues can only be generalized to acertain extent beyond which, each country and region must be viewed intheir individual context.

2.1.1 Climatic variations

Drought means the naturally occurring phenomenon that exists whenprecipitation has been signicantly below normal recorded levels, causingserious hydrological imbalances that adversely aect land resource productionsystems. High, sustained temperatures lasting or months with inrequent and

irregular rainall lead to drought and difcult growing conditions or plants andtrees. As a result, severe hydrological imbalances jeopardize natural production systems. When violent winds and heavy downpours destroy the vegetation carried away by the sudden gush o water harvests and livestock suer. As aconsequence, the income o the rural communities diminishes.

DESERTIFICATION


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2.1.2 Human activities

In countries where major economic resources are dependent on agriculturalactivities, there are ew alternative sources o income, or none at all. Soil isdamaged by excessive use when armers neglect or shorten allow periods,which are necessary to allow the soil to recover sufciently to produceenough ood to eed the population. This in turn causes the soil to loseorganic matter, limiting plant growth and reducing vegetation cover. The

bare soil is more vulnerable to the eects o erosion. Four human activitiesare the most immediate causes:

Over-cultivationexhauststhesoil;

Overgrazingremovesthevegetationcoverthatprotectsitfromerosion;

Deforestationdestroysthetreesthatbindthesoiltotheland;and

Poorlydrainedirrigationsystemsturncroplandssalty.

Extractive industries advance land degradation by lowering water tables,disturbing land and accelerating soil erosion. Inadequate knowledge onsustainable land management, unavourable trade conditions in developingcountries, nonecological tourism and other socioeconomic and politicalactors, which intensiy the eects o desertication, create another ormo impact. These actors interact with the causes above and are oten theunderlying drivers o manmade desertication.

2.2 EXAMPLES OF LAND DEGRADATION

2.2.1 Soil salinization

There are several severe consequences linked to increased land degradation.In irrigated lands, where water rom underground reservoirs is oten polluted,evaporation brings mineral salts to the surace, resulting in high salinity. Thiswill render the soil unsuitable or crops which cannot withstand high saltconcentrations. Similarly, vegetation cover may not be given enough time toreestablish itsel during intensive grazing periods or when grazing activitiesaect plots that have already been cultivated.

2.2.2 Deorestation

Water speeds up erosion, as a direct result o tree clearing and deorestation,and the orest ecosystem disappears. This has severe consequences or soilertility as well as or the preservation o animal and plant species. In act,roots maintain soil structure and can limit soil erosion since they help waterinltration, which reduces water runo, encouraging the composition orich, productive soil. Leaves alling rom trees reduce the action o the wind

on the soil surace. Dead tree parts all to the ground, decompose and enrichthe soil with organic matter.

2.2.3 Environmental degradation

Land degradation can also trigger a cycle o environmental degradation,impoverishment, migration and conict, oten jeopardizing the politicalstability o aected countries and regions. Populations in drylands otenendure very harsh economic conditions, suering rom low percapitaincome and high inant mortality rates. Soil degradation in drylands urtherexacerbates the problem. The decline in the ertility o land reduces cropproduction and prospects o additional income.

Degraded land may also cause downstream ooding, poor water quality,sedimentation in rivers and lakes, and silting up o reservoirs and navigationchannels. It can cause sand and dust storms and air pollution, resulting indamaged machinery, reduced visibility, unwanted sediment deposits, unsaecommunication, risks to health, and mental stress.

All this draws a dramatic and negative picture o increasingly difcultdevelopment. But there are solutions and grounds or hope. Deserticationcan be reversed, but only i arreaching changes are made in local andinternational action. Step by step, these changes will ultimately lead tosustainable land use and ood security or a growing world population.Combating desertication is really just part o a much broader objective: thesustainable development o countries aected by drought, land degradationand desertication (DLDD).

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S E N E G A L

M A L I

G U I N E AG U I N E A - B I S S A U

G A M B I A

M A U R I T A N I A

Senega

l

Gam

bia

Gambi

a

Ferlol

Faleme

Saloum

Casamance

NieriKoSa

ndo

ugou

Ferlol

Mboune

Soungro

ugrou Koulountou

Dakar

Banjul

Saint-Louis

Richard-Toll

Podor

Matam

Nay

Kdougou

KoldaBignona

Ziguinchor

Tambacounda

Kaolack

This Touba

Rufisque

M'Bour

Diourbel

Lingure

Hydro-erosion of soil

Soil degradation in Senegal

Map produced by ZO Environment Network, August 2010Source: Land Degradation Assessement in Drylands (LADA) ( www.fao.org/nr/lada)

Aeolian erosion of soil

Chemical degradation of soil

Degradation of water resources

Biological dagredation

Mixed degradation

No data

DESERTIFICATION


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According to Chinas State Forestry Administration (SFA) and Ministr y o Landand Resources, deserts now cover almost one th o the countrys territory,while the area threatened by desertication amounts to more than onequarter o Chinas landmass. The impact o this is elt most acutely in the driestareas in western China, which are also among the poorest. The governmentestimates that the livelihoods o 400 million people are either threatened oraected by desertication, land degradation, the encroachment o the Gobi,Taklimakan and Kumtag Deserts as well as other deserts and sandy lands inwestern China.

Rapid industrialization and sprawling cities have eaten up armland andconsumed water resources, compounding an already severe problemo scarce arable land. A boom in the timber and urniture business hasled to erocious treeelling, exposing more and more vulnerable land tothe encroaching sands. A prolonged drought in northwestern China has

aggravated the problem, making it easier or the dry soil to be blown awayby strong winds, and the intensity o the dust and sand storms has increasedover the past years. Unortunately, eorts ocus mainly on sandstorms, whichare only one symptom o the wider problem o land degradation.

In order to reverse land degradation, since 1978 a Great Green Wall o treesshrubs and grasses, costing some CNY50 000 million (USD6 300 million) hasbeen planted in the Kubuqi Desert to protect northern cities rom the rapidly

spreading deserts. As a result, the SFA reported that desertication hadslowed rom roughly 3 400 km2 annually in the 1990s to about 2 000 km2 ayear since 2001. According to the Fourth National Survey on Deserticationand Land Degradation (20052009) carried out by SFA in 2010, 12 452 km2o deserticationprone lands have been rehabilitated, meaning a total o 2491 km2 annually has been reversed since 2004 (A Bulletin o Status Quo oDesertication and Sandication in China, Beijing, 2011).

Planting trees in a desert might sound oolish, but the Kubqi Desert is oneo the wettest deserts in the world and just 20 cm below the dusty surace,the sand is relatively moist. Xinjiang poplars and several species o willowspecially chosen or the desert climate, orm the backbone o the new orests.Planted in the spring or autumn, the saplings are protected by woodenrames, which are sunk deep into the sand to prevent movement. Thesegive the young trees stability and the time to take root. Planted correctly,

they grow quickly and their spidery roots help to stop the migration o sandand thereby stabilize mobile sand dunes. Local armers, many o whomwere once sceptical about whether orestation could work on a large scale,are now supportive and appreciate the eorts being made to restore theirgrasslands and oasis cropland.

Although there has been some success, the desertication situation remainsvery serious.

LAND FOR LIFE 2Best practice: Sustainable land management technologies, including adaptation

Great Green Wall in China

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C H I N A

KashgarKorla

rmqi

Burqin

Golmud

Lanzhou

Xian

Chongqing

Guiyang

Lhasa

Xining

Yinchuan Taiyuan

BaotouHohhot

Tianjin

Jinan

Shijiazhuang

Beijing

Dalian

Shenyang

Changchun

Harbin

Hailar

Tsingtao

Zhengzhou

Lianyungang

Nanchang

ShanghaiNanjing

Hefei

Wuhan

Changsha

HangzhouChengdu

Nanning

Kunming

Hong Kong

Guangzhou

Zhanjiang

Haikou

FuzhouTaipei

Xiamen

KaohsiungSoil degradation in China

Map produced by ZO Environment Network, August 2010Source: Land Degradation Assessement in Drylands (LADA) ( www.fao.org/nr/lada)

0.5 1.5

low highmoderate

2.0 2.51.0

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COMBATING DESERTIFICATIONCOMBATING DCOMBATING DESERTIFICATION

3COMBATING DESERTIFICATION

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national and regional levels is clearly central to any attempt to slow the progresso desertication. Climate change adaptation will need to nd a concerted wayto address poverty reduction and vulnerability to changing conditions.

Insurance schemes or smallholder agriculture can give armers greatersecurity, and Ethiopia and Kenya are piloting schemes which oer theminsurance against crop ailure. The ultimate goal is to provide a largescaleinsurance scheme or the population. However, at the moment only very ew

benet rom such a scheme. Beyond that, land reorm (in which Kenya againis making progress) can play a major part in improving peoples ability tocope, including by making sure that they enjoy security o land tenure. Aleasehold orestry project in Nepal is also achieving valuable results.

Supporting sciencedriven agriculture is clearly essential, as it is the wayto enable armers to take advantage o uptodate developments andbest practice which has worked elsewhere. Rainwater harvesting, droughtresistant crop varieties, agroorestry and efcient energy use will allcontribute to sustainable land management and improved ways o managingdrought risk. Although it may sound too obvious to need mentioning, sharing

research and inormation on the actors which contribute to deserticationand on ways o combating it the policies and practices which make the realdierence must not be neglected.

Improving resilience also means, o course, learning to be aware o andresponsive to the needs o the natural world, adopting a holistic biodiversityand ecosystem approach, conducting and acting on environmental impactassessments, and observing the principles o sustainable use.

Further, it is well established that the dry areas and threatened areasare overpopulated, thereore unable to support human and livestockpopulations. One o the main keys is to reduce the dependence on theselands via creating jobs in other sectors note based on cultivation, or on rangeor orest lands.

Beyond these approaches, there is much more that can be done, or examplepartnership building or sustainable investments. This will involve: institutionalstrengtheningatlocallevel;

governanceempowermentandcapacitydevelopment;and

targetingwomenandyouth.

What can we do?

Combating desertication and promoting sustainable development areclosely linked due to the social and economic importance o natural resourcesand agriculture. As we know, when people live in poverty, they have littlechoice but to overexploit the land. This is the circle that the UNCCD, throughits work, seeks to break.

As with many other environmental challenges, it is less costly to stop thedamage happening than to solve the problems it causes. Once deserticationis a reality, repairing its impact is a long and costly process. Despite theseverity o land degradation, it is not necessarily nal. By employing goodagricultural practice, the trend can be reversed, or example. To preserve soilproductivity, sustainable longterm practices must be applied.

UNCCD Best Practice approaches ocus on:

SustainableLandManagement(SLM)technologies,includingadaptation;

capacity-buildingandawareness-raisingatvariouslevels;

desertication,landdegradationanddrought,andSLMmonitoringandassessment/research;

knowledgemanagementanddecisionsupport;

thepolicy,legislativeandinstitutionalframework; fundingandresourcemobilization;and

participation,collaborationandnetworking.

3.1 INCREASE POPULATION RESILIENCE

One valuable way o slowing the process o desertication is to reducepeoples vulnerability by increasing the availability o alternative livelihoodsand strengthening their resilience. This can be done in a variety o ways.

Preventing land degradation is obviously essential where it is possible, and whereit is not recovery and rehabilitation are good options. Mainstreaming sustainable

land management, droughtrisk management and biodiversity considerationsinto the design, implementation and monitoring o adaptation action at local,

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3.2 IMPROVE LAND MANAGEMENT

To combat desertication it is necessary to restore and ertilize the land.Nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium etc. must bein the soil or plants to grow. When the soil has lost all or part o its nutrientsand may also have accumulated toxic elements such as salt, it is degradedand its productivity diminishes as a consequence.

Intensive agriculture is one o the main reasons or the soil to degrade,and once that has happened it is necessary to reestablish soil ertility byusing either synthetic ertilizers or natural compost. The soil regeneratedwith organic matter in this way will produce more ruitul harvests. Therestructuring o the soil is potentially a very eective and sustainable way tomaintain soil ertility.

There is also a cultural aspect linked to land management and the challengeo overgrazing. It can be hard to convince local armers to adopt the ideas ogiving land time to recover and reducing herd numbers. In many countriesthe amount o livestock is a source o pride and honour or the owner, their

amily or clan. A possible solution can be to improve cropping techniques incultivated areas, release land or cattle and hence reduce pastoral pressureand the degradation that results rom it.

3.3 DIVERSIFY PRODUCTION

Diversiying crop and animal production allows better use o land resourcesand prevents overproduction o a single species or crop. A plot can sustaindierent plants and animals over long periods, since their nutritional needsvary and the resources they remove rom the land are complementary. Mixedarming reduces the loss o agricultural products in the case o a naturaldisaster, and certain production methods are obviously better adapted tocounter drought than others.

Each plant species has specic nutritional needs, or example maize rapidlyexhausts the soil much aster than other plants. In many cases prolongedmonoculture should be avoided on the same plot o land and a system orotational crop production should be established to restore soil ertility.

3.4 RESTORE LAND

Land degradation need not be permanent. To restore degraded lands, croptechniques should be improved by stabilizing the soil while enriching it withorganic matter, and selecting dierent crop varieties. Even the slightest waterlevels can be used to irrigate and make unproductive soil productive. It is alsoimportant to combat marked soil salinity by employing the most eectivesystem o irrigation. This involves removing any surplus water, monitoring

the changes in groundwater reserves and soil salinity in the problem areas,draining, irrigating and planting trees whose roots will prevent the soilleaching away. Trees in turn act as a windbreak and provide supplementaryresources like wood, leaves and ruit.

Experience shows that reorestation is a very eective approach to restoringland. It requires the creation o nurseries to nurture young plants rom localspecies selected or their rapid growth and adaptation to the harsh climate. Inrangelands, rehabilitation through shrub planting or seeding o appropriatespecies is also an eective means o land restoration. Reorestation is a longterm action since tree growth is slow. Fortunately, the trees long lie cycle

means that the investment is generally viable.

Trees play several roles:

theyxsoilparticlesandpreventerosionbywaterandwind;

actasobstaclestothewindandsoprotectcrops;

enhance soil fertility sincemany treesproducenitrogen that fertilizesandincreasessoilproductivity;

facilitate water penetration in the soil during rain and contribute tomaintaininghumidityforlongperiods;

provideshadeforanimalsandpeople;

supplynutrientsbecausefruittreesdiversifyfoodsourcesandprovidefodderforlivestock;and

provideasourceofrewoodandconstructionmaterials.

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3.5 CONTROL EROSION

To prevent desertication or to restore the productivity o damaged soil,erosion control is essential. A number o simple mechanical means alleviate theeects o wind and prevent the displacement o sand and dust. These include:

the constructionof fences orbarriers from localplant species,wovenpalms,plantedhedgesormetalsheetingaroundvillagesandcrops;

plantingvegetationwhoserootsprotectandxthesoil;

prohibitinglivestockfromgrazingtoprotecttheplantationareas.

3.6 USE NON-WOOD ENERGY SOURCES

All human societies use energy, which is vital or their proper unctioningand development. Today, a large number o populations use wood as theirmajor source o energy, which contributes to worsening deserticationthrough deorestation and also increases the greenhouse eect by releasing

carbon dioxide.

The nonsustainable use o orest resources as a source o energy is a actorin desertication. Identiying and employing alternative renewable energysources are thereore important in the ght against desertication.

3.6.1 Solar energy

Given the right technology, the bright, sunny conditions characteristic oarid and semiarid regions, can satisy energy needs in these areas. However,this may be still too expensive or widespread use. Ideally solar energy would

be the obvious choice, and could be used in many ways, or instance:

greenhousesintegratedintothedwellingstructurewithpanelsthatstoreenergyfromthesuninbatteries(tosupplyhotwater);

parabolicmirrorstohelpcookfoodandproducesteamforrunningsteamturbines;

photo-voltaic panels to transform the suns rays into electricity. Theelectriccurrentisstoredinbatteriesandcanbeuseddayornight;and

theevaporationpowerofthesuncanproducedistilled,salt-freewaterbymeans o a solar distiller.

3.6.2 Wind

Wind turbines need to be set on open exposed areas with high average windspeeds (at least 20 km/h). However, wind energy is growing rapidly becauseit can provide more energy on a large scale than solar power. In drylandswith requent winds, this orm o energy could be an important complementin the long term. For example, wind energy can acilitate irrigation and watersupplies or livestock.

One o the greatest advantages o wind energy is that it is plentiul. It is alsowidely distributed, cheap, does not emit toxic gases, and avoids uncontrolledtreeelling or uelwood collection.

3.6.3 Biogas

Natural gas and biogas are in essence the same uel but rom dierent origins.While natural gas is a ossil uel, biogas is a renewable uel produced throughthe ermentation o organic materials such as household or agricultural waste.

The high temperatures in the drylands are benecial to biogas creation.Biogas has several advantages. For one thing it is cheap to produce and can beused or lighting, cooking or to drive motors. It can also be produced in smallinstallations, especially in regions where agriculture and cattle rearing coexist.

In developing countries, over 500 million households still use traditionalbiomass or cooking and heating. Elsewhere 25 million households alreadycook and light their homes with biogas and a growing number o smallindustries, including agricultural processing, obtain process heat and motivepower rom smallscale biogas digesters. Biogas is an example o a stationaryuse application thought to have particularly good potential as a renewable

energy source with good greenhouse gas savings, especially when waste isused. Nevertheless, when energy crops are used or biogas, ecological andland use concerns need to be considered.

3.7 FIND ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

3.7.1 Biochar

Land has an unparalleled capacity to hold carbon and to act as a sink orgreenhouse gases. It is thereore imperative to ocus on activities thatenhance the rehabilitation, protection and sustainable management odegraded lands. Conventional means to increase soil carbon stocks dependon climate, soil type and sitespecic management.

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Biochar is charcoal created by a process called biomass pyrolysis (thedecomposition or transormation o a compound by heat), and diers romcharcoal only in that its primary use is not or uel but or but or improvingagricultural soils. Biochar was added to soils in the Amazon basin severalhundred years ago with the aect o improving agricultural production..

Biochar is o increasing interest because o concerns about climate changecaused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. The pyrolysis or

carbonization process is well known and can be implemented on a small scale(e.g. a cooking stove) as well as on a large scale (e.g. a biorenery). About 50per cent o the carbon can be captured when biomass is converted to biochar.

Some types o biochar can improve soil texture, thereby increasing its abilityto bind and retain ertilizers and release them gradually. It naturally containsmany micronutrients needed by plants and is saer than other naturalertilizers such as manure or sewage, having undergone hightemperaturedisinection. Because it releases nutrients slowly, it poses much less risk owater table contamination. Recent studies appear to show that soil biocharis capable o increasing soil ertility by improving its chemical, biological, and

physical properties. It signicantly increases plant growth and nutrition, andimproves the efciency o nitrogen ertilizers in elds containing biochar.The act that many o the dryland soils have been degraded means that theyare currently ar rom saturated with carbon and their potential to sequestercarbon may be very high.

The avoided emissions o greenhouse gases are between 2 and 5 timesgreater when biochar is applied to agricultural land than used solely or ossilenergy osets. As such, this approach o soil organic carbon restoration couldcontribute a signicant adaptation tool to climate change, in addition tosequestering carbon. Having said that, research on biochar is still underway

and many critically important issues have yet to be understood. Thus ar therehas been little public awareness or debate about the widescale applicationo biochar. Further, the pyrolysis conditions and the biomass eedstock willaect the suitability o biochar or improving the productivity o agriculturalsoils, with some types o biochar having the potential to seriously reducesoil ertility and agricultural productivity. It is thereore vitally important thatonly suitable biochars are added to agricultural soils. It is imperative thaterrors as they have been made in other areas are avoided, such as urtherland conversion.

3.7.2 Zerotillage arming

Zerotillage arming (also called notill or notillage) is a method o plowingor tilling a eld in which the soil is disturbed as little as possible by, essentially,

not plowing the eld. The crop is planted directly into a seedbed which hasnot been tilled since the harvest o the previous crop. This way armers canincrease the amount o water in the soil and decrease erosion. It may alsoincrease the amount and variety o lie in and on the soil, but may requireincreased herbicide usage. Zerotillage also improves the structure o thesoil by maintaining soil cover. It implies leaving the residues o the previousseasons crops on the armland, which can increase water inltration whilereducing evaporation as well as wind and water erosion. The additional

use o other soil ertilization techniques is also promising, at the same timeincreasing moisture capture, which is associated with carbon sequestration.Less soil tillage reduces labour, uel, irrigation and machinery costs. Zerotillage can increase yield because o higher water inltration and storagecapacity, and less erosion. Another benet o zerotillage is that because othe higher water content, it can make economic sense to plant another cropinstead o leaving a eld allow.

Conservationofsoilmoisture;

Reductionofsoilerosionbythewindsincethecropresiduecoverisnt

plowedunderthesoil;

Reductionof farm labour (i.e.timeactually spent tillingthe eld,fuelconsumption)therebyreducingfarmexpenses;

Increasedplantingandharvestingtimelines,sincetimespenttillingandpreparingtheeldrequired;

Earthworms, and other biological organisms, are left alone to liveand manipulate the soil by creating tunnels, which otherwise wouldbe created by tilling. This allows or good movement o water and air

throughoutthesoilforgoodplantgrowth;

Reduced soil compaction. Many years of tilling lead to a very hard,denselypackedsoil;and

Increased soil organicmeansbetter soil structure andmore availablenutrients or plant growth. Tilling burns organic matter away.Increasingsoil organic helps to sequin the soil.

While these aspects make zerotillage a promising tool to reverse soildegradation, one should remain alert to potential negative impacts itmight entail, such as increased pesticide use. It is recommended to consideradvanced research and local conditions beore adopting new techniques toachieve the greatest benets.

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3.8 FORGE A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP

Millennium Development Goals

One conclusion o the landmark survey o global ecosystems, the MillenniumEcosystem Assessment (MA), was that people living in drylands on averagelag ar behind the rest o the world in terms o their human wellbeing andother Millennium Development Goal (MDG) indicators. Some o the contrasts

highlighted were stark. For instance, the average inant mortality rate (MDG4: Reduce child mortality) or all dryland developing countries was at least 23per cent higher than that in nondryland countries.

But this is not to say that no MDG achievements have occurred in drylands.Remarkable progress has been made towards universal primary education(MDG 2) in many countries, not least in subSaharan Arica where the grossintake rate rose by 25 per cent between 2000 and 2007. Abolishing schoolees at primary level in several countries with signicant proportions o theirterritories in the drylands including Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya,Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania resulted in enrolment surges. One o the

largest increases in the net enrolment ratio was in Tanzania, where the 1991gure (just over 50 per cent) had risen to more than 96 per cent by 2006.

Other proven measures widely introduced include investment in schoolinrastructure, improvement in teacher recruitment, and the distribution oree or subsidized textbooks. In Burkina Faso, or instance, a ocus on publicprivate partnerships has helped to increase the country s available classroomspace by almost 8 per cent per year between 2000 and 2007.

UN Commission on Sustainable Development

The sixteenth session o the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD16), held in May 2008, highlighted the link between climate change and land

degradation, underlining how agricultural systems needed to adapt to climatechange conditions to ensure ood security. It also identied several obstaclesto addressing land issues, such as growing pressure on scarce land resourcesdue to population growth, the increasing need or ood, energy, water andraw materials, and the expansion o urban areas. Other actors contributingto land degradation include the loss o arable land to urbanization, erosion,or mechanisms that make the soil sterile. Drought threatens the livelihoods oaected rural communities leading to ood shortages and ood insecurity, and

contributes to the decline in agricultural production, amine and populationmovements. Projected climate change is likely to increase the requency,severity and duration o drought in many arid and semiarid regions, witheven greater and prolonged impact. The increasing requency o the El Nio/La Nia phenomenon has led to a new climate pattern called seasonal aridityor periodic drought, in addition to local droughts.

Other obstacles include the lack o both nancial and technical resources as wellasthecapacity-buildingsupportneededforeectivedroughtmanagement;aweaklegislativeframeworkforpromotingsustainableagriculturalpractices;and a lack o institutional capacity or implementation, which urther weaken

localcommunitiescapacitytodealwiththeimpactofdrought;alackofreliableforecastsandinformationforlocalcommunities;andalackofdrought-monitoring systems and earlywarning capability, particularly in Arica.

The CSD meeting was told that desertication is the most serious orm oland degradation, posing a threat to progress in sustainable development,and to the eradication o poverty and hunger, thus setting back the eorts odeveloping countries to achieve internationally agreed development goals,including the Millennium Development Goals. Constraints also includedthe slow process o transer, acquisition and adaptation o appropriateand aordable technologies, including or water and soil conservation, or

growing climateresilient and less waterintensive crops, or improving landproductivity and increasing agricultural production. Also cited were the

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lack ofnancialincentives; inadequate scientic research, education,datacollectionandmonitoring;andlimiteddecision-makingparticipationbylocalcommunities, indigenous peoples and other civil society groups, in policies tocombat desertication.

Many delegations stressed the important role o UNCCD and highlightedthe need or its ull implementation. UNCCD was deemed the only legallybinding, universal agreement on land issues that systematically addresses

land degradation and desertication, oers a platorm or adaptation,mitigation and resilience and can thereore reinorce the measures intendedto address the adverse impacts o climate change and the loss o biodiversity.

At the seventeenth session o the CSD in May 2009, the actions identied tocombat desertication included:

calling upon governments, where appropriate, in collaboration withrelevant multilateral organizations, including the GEF implementationagencies, to integrate desertication and land degradation into theirplansandstrategiesforsustainabledevelopment;

integratingNationalActionPlans(NAPs)fordroughtanddeserticationintonationaldevelopmentstrategies;

supporting the implementation of the UNCCD as well as its Ten-year Strategic Plan (20082018), through regional and internationalcooperation, the provision o adequate and predictable nancing,technologytransferandcapacity-building;and

taking measures and providing international assistance, promotingnational action and encouraging subregional, regional and international

cooperation to prevent sand dune movement and reduce the requencyand severity o sandstorms.

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The Syrian steppe (Badia) covers 10 million hectares o central and easternSyria. Characterized by poor soils and low rainall, it is suitable only or grazingby small ruminants, equines and camels. The Bedouin communities herdabout 12 million animals here. Ater years o severe drought and intensivegrazing, the Badia has become badly degraded.

With support rom the International Fund or Agricultural Development,the local communities have restored vegetation in about one third o theBadia rangelands (nearly three million hectares). The key to success wasinvolving local people in decisionmaking and encouraging them to take ullownership o the rehabilitation and management o the rangelands.

Using their extensive local knowledge, the Bedouin herders worked withexperts in the drating and implementation o the management plans. Theydetermined how many animals should graze in a given area at a given time, taking seasonal conditions into account. Various approaches were used, includinglms, meetings with communities, eld days and workshops, to bring communities on board and communicate the new rangeland management techniques.Once communities had agreed to collaborate, they and the experts establishedthe boundaries together and selected the sites suitable or rehabilitation.

Three key approaches pursued in the rehabilitation were land resting,reseeding and planting. Where possible, the land was simply rested or upto two years. As a result, native plants that had long disappeared sproutedand ourished, and the ull range o vegetative cover reemerged. Wheredegradation was advanced, the ocus was on reseeding using native

rangeland orage plants or plants suited to the local conditions. Soil was rsturrowed to enhance rainwater inltration. As a result, the seed productionunits now generate 160 tonnes o seed per year.

Rotation grazing has regenerated more than 930 000 hectares o the Badia.About 225 000 hectares were reseeded and about 94 000 hectares have hadnursery shrubs planted. Regular browsing by livestock keeps the shrubsrom becoming woody and prolongs shrub lie. Eventually, they reseedthemselves.

As a result, breeders have reported up to a tenold increase in the averageproductivity o the land, rom 50 to 500 eed units per hectare. Thisrehabilitation has not only provided odder but also led to a healthierecosystem to which birds, insects and animals are returning.

(Source: IFAD)

LAND FOR LIFE 3Best practice: Knowledge management and decision support

Rotation grazing: resting, reseeding and planting in Syria

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DESERTIFICATION IN CONTEXTDESERTIFICATIDESERTIFICATION IN CONTEXT

4DESERTIFICATION IN CONTEXT

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4 1 CLIMATE CHANGE


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4.1 CLIMATE CHANGE

Desertication is exacerbated by climate change and vice versa. As severeweather events increase in requency and severity due to climate change,dryland degradation tends to increase. Worse still, desertication and climatecan orm a eedback loop with the loss o vegetation caused by deserticationreducing carbon sinks and increasing emissions rom rotting plants. Theresult is more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and a continuation o

the vicious cycle involving climate change and desertication.

In Arica alone, a total o more than 650 million people are dependent onrained agriculture in environments that are already aected by waterscarcity and land degradation, which will be urther exacerbated by climatechange. I this trend continues, twothirds o the regions arable land couldbe lost by 2025 (FAO 2009), and the livelihoods o millions o small armersalong with it.

On the other hand, drylands can also play an important role in mitigation, orexample through carbon sequestration in soils. While drylands have relatively

low sequestration potential per unit area, their large expanse makes themimportant. This creates both risks and opportunities or mitigating climatechange. While soil degradation emits greenhouse gases, soil restorationprevents such emissions and even creates storage capacities or greenhousegases already in the atmosphere.

Carbon sequestration is the process by which carbon sinks (both natural andarticial) remove CO

2rom the atmosphere, primarily as plant organic matter

in soils. Organically managed soils can convert CO2

rom a greenhousegas into a oodproducing asset. Combined with sequestration in nonagricultural soil, the potential or land to hold carbon and act as a sink or

greenhouse gases is unparalleled.

This should help coner new value on land, because o its ability to sequesterand literally breathe in the excess blanket o CO

2. In turn, CO

2enriches the

soil, giving lie to trees and vegetation, which then can generate more carbonsinks. In areas where the soil is depleted, this process o carbon sequestrationis literally switched o.

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4.2 WATER SCARCITY

Water availability aects domestic lie as well as the development ocertain agricultural techniques. In drylands more than anywhere else, wateravailability is oten critical. These areas are characterized by a high evaporationrate and surace waters such as rivers and lakes tend to disappear relativelyquickly. Water scarcity and poor water quality threaten public health, oodand energy production, and regional economies. It is estimated that 40 per

cent o the worlds population suers rom water shortages. In the drylands,practically all water reserves are utilized and are oten threatened withpollution, which may help to spread numerous diseases.

While irrigation could improve ood production, its inef cient application canalso be a risk, especially in terms o salinization. For example, about 10 percent o the worlds irrigated land has been damaged by salt, compoundingthe threats to ood security. The buildup o salts in the soil lowers yields andcan damage the land beyond economic repair. Salinization is reducing theworlds irrigated area by 12 per cent every year, hitting the arid and semiarid regions the hardest (FAO 2002).

Land degradation in the drylands can have direct consequences on the watercycle. I there is low rainall, drought ensues: groundwater reserves do notrell, water sources become depleted, wells run dry, plants and animals dieand humans have to migrate to more hospitable regions. Conversely, duringperiods o high rainall, the ensuing oods kill people and animals, notablyin regions where the vegetation cover is reduced or totally destroyed. Thetorrential rain ow causes a substantial loss o soil, which is ushed out bythe rains and when the land dries again, a hard crust orms on the suracemaking it impermeable, and reducing water inltration.

Guatemala

Mexico


Ecuador

Peru

Chile

Colombia

Dominican Republic

GuyanaSuriname

St. LuciaTrinidad and Tobago

Cuba

Brazil

Paraguay

Argentina

Bolivia

CapTheHaiti

Panama

Canada

NicaraguaJamaica

Honduras

Belize


Number of people without access to improved drinking waterWater

< 1 million

1 million

Absolute

10 million

100 million

Drylands

Water stress

Relative (as a percentage of each countrys population)

10% 30% 40%20%0

Definition of water stress:

Domestic, Industrial and Agricultural water demand per available water

supply per grid cell along river network. This indicator is also known asRelative Water Demand (RWD).(www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/indicators)

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China

Republic ofKorea

Viet Nam

Indonesia

Thailand

Myanmar

Cambodia

Lao PDR

Mongolia

Azerbaijan Tajikistan

Bhutan


Kazakhstan

Pakistan

India

Maldives

Nepal

Philippines

Papua New Guinea

Marshall Islands

Northern Mariana IslandsBangladesh

Sri Lanka Malaysia

Timor Leste

Ukraine

Jordan

Belarus

Serbia

Estonia

AlbaniaMontenegro

F.Y.R.O.M.

MoldovaBosnia andHerzegovina

CroatiaSlovenia

Latvia

Armenia

Georgia

Kuwait

Russia

Turkey

Iraq Afghanistan

Mali

Tunisia

Egypt

Ethiopia

Somalia

Eritrea

Kenya

Tanzania

Comoros

Madagascar

Mauritius

Malawi

LesothoMozambique

South Africa

YemenOman

Djibouti

BurkinaFaso

NigerChad

Centr. AfricanRepublic

Senegal

Verde

Sao Tome and Principe

ambia

Morocco

PortugalSyriaGreece

PalestinianTerritoriesAlgeria

Mauritania

Sierra LeoneLiberia

Uganda

Rwanda

Burundi

Congo

AngolaZambia

Namibia Zimbabwe

BotswanaSwaziland

Cte d'Ivoire

Republicof theCongo

Ghana

Guinea Bissau

Gabon

BeninCameroon

NigeriaGuinea

Sudan

Togo

Map produced by ZO Environment Network, August 2010

Source: WHO / UNICEF - Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMP) (www.wssinfo.org);UNESCO - World Water Development Report Indicators, water stress index (www.unesco.org/water/wwap/wwdr/indicators

Note: Data not available for every country

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Desertication is a global issue, which threatens development, sparking anexodus rom the aected regions because when land becomes uneconomicto arm, people are oten orced into internal or crossborder migration. Thiscan urther strain the environment and cause social and political tensionsand conicts. Because o its link with migration, desertication is a trulyglobal problem, in the same way as climate change or biodiversity loss.

In some countries, land degradation has led to massive internal migrations,orcing whole villages to ee their arms or already overcrowded cities.Fity million people are at risk o displacement in the next ten years idesertication is not checked (UNU 2007). Implementing sustainable landand water management policies would help to overcome these increasinglyextreme challenges.

Problems occur in the urban environment as well as in rural areas stillunaected by land degradation, but which receive new migrants.Desertication can drive whole communities to migrate towards cities or

regions where survival conditions are initially more promising but growincreasingly difcult and threaten social stability and cultural identities. Themakeshit dwellings, which are insanitary and illegal, are sometimes sourceso ethnic or religious conict. Desertication also causes political instabilityand has played a part in sparking o some o the armed conicts currentlyunderway in the drylands.

Guatemala

Mexico


Panama

Ecuador

Peru

Chile

Colombia

Dominican RepublicCuba

Venezuela

Brazil

Bolivia

Uruguay

Argentina

Paraguay

HaitiNicaragua

Honduras

Canada


Total agricultural production (in US$)

1 billion

10 billion

100 billion Drylands

Agriculture

Map produced by ZO Environment Network, August 2010Source: FAO Statistical Yearbook 2009 (www.fao.org); FAOSTAT ( http://faostat.fao.org)

-20% 20% 50%0

Growth of agricultural production 1997-2007in per cent (1990-2001 = 100)

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China

DPR of Korea

Republicof Korea

Japan

Viet Nam

Indonesia

Thailand

Myanmar

Cambodia

Malaysia

Lao PDR

Mongolia

Azerbaijan

Kazakhstan

Russia

Tajikistan

Kyrgyzstan

Afghanistan

Uzbekistan

Turkmenistan

Pakistan

India

Nepal

Philippines

Papua New Guinea

Australia

New Zealand

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

ArmeniaGeorgia

F.Y.R.O.M.

Ukraine

Belarus

Norway

Switzerland MoldovaSerbia

AlbaniaBosnia and

Herzegovina

Croatia Turkey

Israel

Egypt

PalestinianTerritories

LebanonTunisia

Morocco

Algeria Libya

Mali

European Union

Ethiopia

Somalia

Saudi Arabia

Kenya

Tanzania

Madagascar

Malawi

Mozambique

South Africa

Yemen

IranJordan

Syria

Iraq

Burkina Faso

Niger Chad

Central AfricanRepublic

Senegal

Uganda

RwandaBurundi

Congo

Angola

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Cte d'Ivoire

GhanaBenin

Camreoon

NigeriaGuinea

Sudan

Togo

DESERTIFICATION

4.4 POVERTY ERADICATION


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The majority o people who are directly aected by desertication live belowpoverty line and without adequate access to resh water.

Poverty drives populations to overexploit the remaining natural resources,triggering a vicious cycle o accelerating land degradation and greaterpoverty. Poverty is thus both a cause and a consequence o desertication.

Land degradation also weakens populations and institutions rendering themmore vulnerable to global economic actors. For example, the shortall in taxreceipts as a result o low productivity impacts governments capacity torepay their oreign debt and develop national socioeconomic programmes.

The occurrence o desertication and prolonged drought reduces nationalood production and increases the need to turn to oreign products.Moreover, ood aid can eventually lead to a reduction in local agriculturalproduction, especially i it becomes more costly to produce locally than toresort to imports that are distributed or ree by the international community.

Although both rich and poor are aected when disasters occur romdesertication, land degradation and drought, the poor are hardest hitbecause their ability to cope with, and recover rom, these events dependson their access to assets such as land, and their ability to mobilize resources.For example, when drought strikes, rich individuals, groups or communitiescan invest their assets elsewhere to meet shortterm needs, whereas that isnot an option or the poor.

Mexico

Guatemala

*Belize


Ecuador

Peru

Chile

Bolivia

Colombia

Dominican Republic

*Trinidad and Tobago

*Guyana*Suriname

Brazil

Venezuela

Paraguay

Uruguay

Argentina

Cap

HaitiJamaica

Nicaragua

Panama

Honduras

Poverty headcount ratio at $ 1.25 a day (PPP; absolute)

1 million

No data available or countries without strong poverty(according to the definition above)

10 million

100 million

Poverty

Poverty headcount ratio at $ 1.25 a day(PPP; relative: in % of total population)

20% 40% 60% 80% 100%0

>1 million

* Data older than of the year 2000

Drylands

a visual synthesis


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China

Viet Nam

Malaysia

Timor Leste

Indonesia

*Papua New Guinea

Thailand

Cambodia

Lao PDR

Morocco

Tunisia

Ukraine

Estonia

Belarus

Serbia

Lithuania

Poland*SlovakiaHungarySloveniaCroatia

Bosnia and HerzegovinaMontenegro

LatviaRussia

MoldovaRomania

Bulgaria

Jordan

AlbaniaF.Y.R.O.M.

IranTurkey

AzerbaijanGeorgia

*TurkmenistanTajikistan

Kyrgyzstan

KazakhstanMongoliaUzbekistan

Pakistan

India

Nepal

Bhutan

Philippines

Bangladesh

Sri Lanka

Armenia

*Algeria

Mali

Ethiopia

Djibouti

Kenya

Tanzania

Comoros

Seychelles

Madagascar

Malawi

SwazilandLesotho

South Africa

Mozambique

Yemen

BurkinaFaso

Niger

Chad Central AfricanRepublic

MauritaniaSenegal

VerdeThe Gambia

Sierra LeoneLiberia UgandaRwanda

BurundiCongo

*Namibia

*Botswana

AngolaZambia

Cte d'Ivoire

Republic of the Congo

Ghana

Cameroon

Gabon

Benin

Togo

Nigeria

Guinea

Egypt

Map produced by ZO Environment Network, August 2010Source: World Bank ( http://databank.worldbank.org)

DESERTIFICATION

4.5 LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY 4.6 AVOIDED DEFORE STATION


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Drylands are oten seen as being devoid o lie, but in act they contain anincredible diversity o species that are well adapted to the difcult climaticconditions. The biodiversity we see today is the result o thousands omillions o years o evolution, shaped by natural processes and, increasingly,the inuence o humans. It orms the very web o lie o which we are anintegral part and upon which we so ully depend.

More than anywhere else, societies in the drylands depend on the useo biodiversity or their daily needs and their economic and spiritualdevelopment. Since dryland biodiversity is ragile and specialized, andadapted to a very specic set o physical conditions, land degradation andclimate change can have signicant and irreversible negative impacts ondrylands species.

Biodiversity underpins many livelihoods in drylands, including pastoralism,agriculture and tourism. Naturebased tourism is a particularly importantsource o income or people living in subSaharan Arica where community

management o biodiversity yields positive benets both or biodiversityconservation and sustainable use, as well as or sustainable livelihoods. Forgenerations, traditional pastoral and agricultural practices have evolved inharmony with biodiversity in such a way that people rely on indigenousbiodiversity, such as traditional livestock varieties that are more resilient todrought and disease than imported varieties. At the same time, the structureand composition o grasslands, including the variety o species, is reliant onsustainable grazing.

As a consequence o land degradation, animal species that are dependenton vegetation have to migrate to other areas to nd sufcient resources or

they risk disappearing altogether. Their loss is signicant because animal andplant species rom the drylands are particularly well adapted to this extremeenvironment. They act as indicators o environmental conditions and theirdisappearance is a sign o signicant habitat degradation. In addition,local species constitute important resources or the population, so theirdisappearance increases ood insecurity and the impoverishment o theworlds most ragile populations.

Taking all these actors into account, desertication reduces the naturalcapital available to drylands species and people, making them morevulnerable to change. The loss o dryland biodiversity also limits the extent

to which drylands can recover rom temporary reductions in productivity.

Deorestation and desertication adversely aect agricultural productivity,the health o humans as well as o livestock, and economic activitiessuch as ecotourism. Forests and tree cover combat land degradation anddesertication by stabilizing soils, reducing water and wind erosion andmaintaining nutrient cycling in soils. The sustainable use o goods andservices rom orest ecosystems and the development o agroorestry

systems can, thereore, contribute to poverty reduction, making the ruralpoor less vulnerable to the impacts o land degradation. Desertication andthe associated loss o vegetation cause biodiversity loss and contribute toclimate change through reducing carbon sequestration.

A key actor on how deorestation triggers desertication is linked to adrastic change in microclimates where vegetation is removed. For instance,i shrubs and trees are elled, the noonday sun will all directly on ormerlyshadedsoil;thesoilwillbecomewarmeranddrier,andorganismslivingonor in it will move away to avoid the unaccustomed heat. The organic litter onthe surace dead leaves and branches, or example will be oxidized rapidly

and the carbon dioxide carried away. So too, will the small store o humus inthe soil.

The problem o developing arid lands and improving the wellbeing o thepeople dependent on them, is vast and complex. Forestry has a major role toplay in any strategy to tackle it:

itplaysafundamentalroleinthemaintenanceofthesoilandwaterbaseor ood production through shelterbelts, windbreaks, and scatteredtrees,andsoilenrichment;

contributestolivestockproductionthroughforestpastoralsystems,particularly by the creation o odder reserves or banks in the orm o oddertreesorshrubstocushiondroughts;

producesfuelwood,charcoal,andotherforestproductsthroughvillageandfarmwoodlots;

contributes to rural employment and development through cottageindustries based on raw materials derived rom wild plants and animalsandthedevelopmentofwildlife-basedtourism;and

providesfoodfromwildlifeaswellasfromplantsintheformof fruits,leaves, roots, and ungi.

a visual synthesis

LAND FOR LIFE 4


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UNREDD

Deorestation and orest degradation, through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, inrastructuredevelopment, destructive logging, res etc., account or nearly 20 per cent o global greenhouse gas emissions,more than the entire global transport sector and second only to the energy sector. It is now clear that in order to limitthe impacts o climate change to a tolerable level, the global average temperature rise should not exceed 2C overpreindustrial levels. This will be practically impossible to achieve without reducing emissions rom the orest sector,as well as other orms o mitigation.

Reducing Emissions rom Deorestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is an eort by the UN to create a nancialvalue or the carbon stored in orests, oering incentives or developing countries to reduce emissions rom orested

lands and to invest in lowcarbon paths to sustainable development. REDD+ goes urther, including the role oconservation, the sustainable management o orests, and the enhancement o orest carbon stocks.

Tree species producing gums generally belong to Acacia genus, which

is largely spread in Arica and particularly in arid and semiarid areas. Inaddition to producing gums, odder and rewood, Acacia species ensure themaintenance o agriculture avorable conditions by protecting crops againstheavy rain and wind erosion, by buering extreme climatic conditions andespecially, by restoring soil ertility.

FAO in collaboration with its partners in 6 subSaharan Countries (BurkinaFaso, Chad, Niger, Kenya, Senegal and Sudan) has implemented successullythe Acacia Operation Project Suppor t to ood Security, Poverty alleviation,and soil degradation control in the Gums and Resins Producer countries.A mechanized water harvesting technology ( Vallerani system) was tested

and a total o 13,240 ha were restored. Local people were trained in anintensive capacity building programme on use and application o thetechnology, nursery establishment and plants production, agricultureproduction and gums and resins harvesting and processing. The projectocused particularly on the poorest and most vulnerable groups o rural

society: women and children, most oten assigned to harvest and process

gums and resins.

The technique adopted consisted in working plots with the water harvestingplough, leaving a distance o about 6/8 meters between the rows. Treeswere planted along the rows in the excavated halmoonshaped basins. Thespace between the rows was normally used or sowing other herbaceousplants such as cotton, millet, peanut and watermelon. 600 hectares werereplanted with Acacia trees at a later stage. Nurseries were established andproducers trained to relevant techniques, the nurseries produced more than700 000 seedlings. Additionally, the project purchased and provided seeds.For instance, 250 kg o Acacia senegal seeds and 50 kg o Acacia melliera

seeds were bought and 3 200 kg o vegetable seeds were distributed todierent communities along with tools to ght bush res.

In Senegal 44 sites and 3 390 hectares o land were treated as agroorestryplots. Planted plots had very variable suraces going rom 2 to 500 hectares.

(Source: FAO)

LAND FOR LIFE 4

Best practice: Capacitybuilding and awarenessraising at various levels

Senegal: Acacia Operation Project

DESERTIFICATION

4.7 ENERGY CHALLENGES


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Drylands provide energy resources to local populations as well as to globalmarkets. These resources include wooduels, a variety o uel minerals as wellas a large potential or solar energy. Energy is essential to poverty reductionand economic transormation, yet the worlds hunger or energy is also oneo the main drivers o desertication. The availability and use o energywill, to a large extent, determine how and i countries increase agriculturalproductivity, provide sae water, achieve higher levels o industrialization,and ef ciently use inormation and communications technologies to becomeintegrated into the global economy.

The use o rewood is one o the principal causes o desertication. In tropicalarid areas, wood is the principal source o domestic energy or cookingand lighting both in rural and urban populations. Wood energy data tendto be scarce, with a high degree o uncertainty and many gaps. However,several organizations have attempted to present consistent statistics romthe best national knowledge or eld surveys. These organizations includethe Food and Agriculture Organization o the United Nations (FAO) and the

International Energy Agency (IEA).

FAO reported that wooduel consumption in Arica reached 623 millioncubic metres in 1994 the highest per capita wooduel consumption oany continent. Many Arican countries depend heavily on wood or energy,with uelwood oten representing more than 50 per cent o primary energyconsumption. Due to the lack o water in the drylands, orest regenerationis very slow, reducing the growth o vegetation. However, practices suchas allowing or rest periods rom grazing and increasing allow periods,generally have spectacular regenerating eects on the orest.

Energy crops can oer an alternative to wood and nonrenewable energysources i managed responsibly. The jatropha plant is one such crop thatgrows in lowrainall regions on wasteland, does not compete with oodcrops on cultivated land and can contribute to sand xation. In drylandsthereore, careul selection o nonood crops could not only signicantlyreduce competition between ood and energy security, but could alsoprovide incomegenerating possibilities, as well as opportunities to reducesoil degradation. Furthermore, agrouel crops could have the potential toincrease soil organic carbon stocks while simultaneously curbing the amounto carbon released into the atmosphere through soil degradation. This in turnwould contribute to climate change mitigation. Several developing countries

such as India and Mali are implementing a number o jatropha projects.

Areas with geothermal potential

Geothermal energy

Note: large areas in the world not yet explored

Drylands (see map Drylands)

Yearly solar radiation (KWh/m per year)

Solar energyRenewable energy

1250800 1000 1800 22001500

Wind energy

Major windfarms

Major windfarm potential areas

Northern- and southern limit for OTEC-powerplantsin tropical and sub-tropical areas

Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)*

Wave energy

Coastlines with wave energy potential

*Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a means of converting into useful energy the temperature difference between the surface water of

the oceans in tropical and sub-tropical areas, and water at a depth of approximately 1 000 metres, which comes from the polar regions. For OTEC a

temperature difference of 20 C is adequate, which embraces very large ocean areas, and favours islands and many developing countries.

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Map produced by ZO Environment Network, August 2010Source: The windpower ( www.thewindpower.net); Cristina L. Archer, Mark Z. Jacobson, Evaluation of global wind power, Stanford University, 2005

( www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/winds/global_winds); Energie Atlas GmbH, 2008 ( www.energie-atlas.ch)

DESERTIFICATION

4.8 FOOD SECURITY


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One o the reasons why desertication is considered a major globalenvironmental issue is the link between dryland degradation and oodproduction. Meeting the ood demand or the projected population increaseby 2050 (which will be mostly urban and richer) will be difcult to achieveeven under avourable circumstances. I desertication is not stoppedand reversed, ood yields in many aected areas will decline. Malnutrition,starvation, and ultimately amine may result.

Meeting global ood targets and sustaining a breakthrough in terms o yieldswill require more land and thereore more water, or at least more productionper unit area or volume o water. Farmers will need to adapt, possibly byusing new technologies and crops to be more rugal in their water use. Amovement towards an increased utilization o drought and heattolerantcrops could be extremely important.

Food security can ultimately be put at risk when people already livingprecariously ace severe droughts and other environmental disasters. Famine

typically occurs in areas that also suer rom poverty, civil unrest, or war.Drought and land degradation oten help to trigger a crisis, which is thenmade worse by poor ood distribution and inability to buy what is available.The relationship between soil degradation and crop yields, however, isseldom straightorward. Productivity is aected by many dierent actors,such as the weather, disease and pests, arming methods, external marketsand other economic orces.

Guatemala

El Salvador

Panama

Ecuador

Peru

Colombia

Dominican Republic

Venezuela Trinidad and Tobago

Guyana

Suriname

Brazil

Bolivia

Paraguay

Haiti

Nicaragua

HondurasJamaica

Number of people undernourished 2004 - 2006Note: data not available for every country

1 million

< 1 million

10 million

Proportion of people undernourishedin total population (%)

100 million

Food insecurity

10% 20% 30% 40%0

No data available or countries without food insecurity

Proportion of undernourished people in total population (%)(1990 - 1992 to 2004 - 2006):

uncdd – desertification. a visual a visual synthesis

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