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Algiers Hosts Conference on International Year of Deserts and Desertification
Around 2 billion people live in areas threatened by desertification. To deal with the growing concern, about 200 experts from 25 countries convened in Algiers on December 17-19, 2006 for a United Nations University (UNU) conference to consider the types of changes policy makers would have to make to cope with the causes and consequences of desertification. The conference, hosted by the Algerian government, concluded the International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD).
“Desertification is a major threat, and the benefits of combating desertification in terms of poverty reduction and global environmental security are enormous,” stated Prof. Hans van Ginkel, UN Under-Secretary-General and Rector of UNU.
The conference summarized the policy-relevant conclusions of the IYDD and discussed the policy challenges leading up to actionable recommendations. The results of the conference will be published in June 2007 in a publication aimed at assisting policy-makers.
The GEF contributed to the conference with presentations on the following issues:
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Results and recommendations of the Cape Town forum on sustainable land and water management and the study on “Resources Mobilization and the Status of Funding of Activities Related to Land Degradation”
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Knowledge management
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Development of indicators for sustainable land management (SLM)
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Land Assessment of Dryland Areas (LADA)
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Project examples of implementation of GEF’s land degradation strategy
The GEF CEO, Monique Barbut, participated in the closing high-level panel discussion, where she highlighted some of the policy issues that were explored during the conference.
The Algiers meeting discussed shared lessons and promising results. One lesson shared is that policy change and integrated implementation of SLM do not necessarily require a high level of investments. Moreover, investments in natural resources management and in drylands provide a positive rate of return. There is a high cost of inaction.
Various economic concerns were discussed at the meeting. Land degradation’s threatens social-economic stability. Strong sustainable land management policy response and political will are needed to alleviate the severity of the problem. If governments of affected countries take more control in combating desertification with the development of sustainable land management policies integrated into development policies, the positive impact will be greater.
Along these economic lines, the meeting concluded that pastoralists are important custodians of the drylands and pastoralism is an economic viable sector. Beyond the economic benefits, pastoralism provides vital ecosystem services.
In wrapping up, the meeting re-emphasized the importance of participatory approaches of policy development, implementation, and monitoring of impact. Several recommendations for monitoring and evaluation were also provided, along with noting some important initiatives underway, such as a global LADA and the development of a global indicator system for sustainable land management.
The IYDD Algiers meeting ended with a ceremony of signature of a document to the UN General Assembly to declare the next decennium as the Decennium of Deserts and Desertification. The document was jointly signed by the 22 Ministers of Environment of the League of Arab States who had their meeting on December 19, 2006, in Algiers, by the organizing agencies of the IYDD Algiers meeting, and by the secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
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