Desertification

Green Facts Scientific Facts on Desertification
FAO Desertification website
Did You Know? Deserts and desertification

Harper government quietly leaving UN droughts and deserts convention
The Harper government is pulling out of a United Nations convention that fights droughts in Africa and elsewhere, which would make Canada the only country in the world outside the agreement.
The federal cabinet last week ordered the unannounced withdrawal on the recommendation of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, ahead of a major scientific meeting on the convention next month in Germany.
The abrupt move caught the UN secretariat that administers the convention off guard, which was informed through a telephone call from The Canadian Press.
The cabinet order “authorizes the Minister of Foreign Affairs to take the actions necessary to withdraw, on behalf of Canada, from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, in those Countries Experiencing Severe Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa.”

2012

8 December
Fighting desertification in China
Beijing launched an ambitious plan a decade ago, but the desert continues to swallow up large tracts of green land.
(Al Jazeera) Often accused of being an impediment to climate change mitigation because of its massive carbon emissions, China’s government has recently appeared to brandish its environmental credentials in the fight against desertification.
Vast tracts of China have been impacted by desertification, affecting about 400 million people in recent decades.
The Gobi desert in central China gobbles up 3,600 square kilometres of grassland each year, creating powerful sandstorms, robbing farmers of food-producing land, and displacing people from their homes. China’s desertification even affects neighbouring countries such as Japan, North Korea and South Korea.
8 November
Desertification, Drought Affect One Third of Planet, World’s Poorest People,
Second Committee Told as It Continues Debate on Sustainable Development
(UN) Nigeria’s representative said drought and desertification threatened the livelihoods of some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Africa, including those in his own country. He called for international to support efforts by the Nigerian Government to check desert encroachment in terms of monitoring land degradation and mitigating its effects.

2011

20 September
Why is the General Assembly convening a high-level meeting?
Taking place in the context of the UN Decade for Deserts and the Fights against Desertification (2010-2020), the high-level meeting aims to raise awareness of desertification, land degradation and drought at the highest level. The outcomes of the meeting will be transmitted to the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification that will be held from 10 to 21 October 2011 in Changwon City, Republic of Korea. It also seeks to contribute to the preparation of the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012 (Rio+20). Background

2010

UNEP launches initiative to address desertification
Desertification threatens one-third of the planet and the livelihoods of more than a billion people, the United Nations Environment Program officials said Monday as the agency launched a new initiative. The decade-long effort will seek to support poverty-reduction programs that encourage environmental sustainability. The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia)/Agence France-Presse (8/16) , AlertNet.org/Reuters (8/16)
UN Launches Decade-Long Efforts to Tackle Desertification.
(UNDDD>UNCCD) Fortaleza, Brazil/Nairobi, Kenya, 16 August 2010 – The United Nations is launching the Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification (2010-2020) today, an 11-year long effort to raise awareness and action to improve the protection and management of the world’s drylands, home to a third of the world’s population and which face serious economic and environmental threats.
“Continued land degradation – whether from climate change, unsustainable agriculture or poor management of water resources – is a threat to food security, leading to starvation among the most acutely affected communities and robbing the world of productive land,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a statement announcing the launch.
13 August
Official web-site of the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification launched