IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature

The UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference held in Bonn, Germany last week focused on the theme ‘Economic assessment of desertification, sustainable land management and resilience of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas’. The conference was organised and run by the Global Risk Forum (GRF) Davos. Conference outputs are scientific and policy-oriented recommendations, which will be submitted to the Committee of Science and Technology (CST) and Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNCCD convention for consideration.

Sustainable management and restoration of dry forests (forest landscapes in drylands) contributes greatly to tackling the challenges of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought. In many drylands, forests protect the water towers and humid zones that are pivotal for ecosystem function. Dry forests also provide essential seasonal safety nets – sources of secondary income and grazing reserves – for dryland residents. Restoring and sustainably managing these zones reduces the risk of drought, increases ecosystem resilience and strengthens adaptive capacities.

A joint publication between IUCN and UNCCD on global dryland biodiversity conservation to be officially launched at Congress in Jeju 2012.

Drylands cover 41 percent of the earth’s terrestrial surface. The urgency of and international response to climate change have given a new place to drylands in terms both of their vulnerability to predicted climate change impacts and their potential contribution to climate change mitigation. This book aims to apply the new scientific insights on complex dryland systems to practical options for development. A new dryland paradigm is built on the resources and capacities of dryland peoples, on new and emergent economic opportunities, on inward investment, and on the best support that dryland science can offer.

Drylands cover over 40% of the earth’s land surface, and are home to more than a third of the world’s population – many of whom are the poorest of the poor. Whilst drylands also support some of the world’s biggest cities, such as Mexico City and New Delhi, millions of rural dryland dwellers are directly dependent on local dryland ecosystem services for their daily survival. Climate change will have a disproportionate effect on dryland areas, contributing to desertification, and to increasing the vulnerability of people who live there. We need to put the conservation of dryland ecosystem services at the heart of development policy if we want to reduce poverty, and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the World has entered into a number of multilateral agreements to address some of the greatest threats to our environment. Of these agreements, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is often considered the most pertinent to the drylands that cover 41% of the earth’s land surface. Yet, the Convention on Biodiversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change are equally important for ensuring the protection and sustainable management of drylands. The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 added further impetus for addressing sustainable development, but as the 2015 target for these goals approaches, it is becoming evident that the related challenges of environmental degradation and human poverty are particularly entrenched in the drylands; and nowhere more so than in Sub Saharan Africa.

Contrary to popular perception, desertification is not the loss of land to desert or through sand-dune movement. Desertification refers to land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. When land degradation happens in the world’s drylands, it often creates desert-like conditions. Land degradation occurs everywhere, but is defined as desertification when it occurs in the drylands.