Global trade adjustment can prevent desertification
28-Aug-2003: By GUY ROGERS at the 6th Conference of the Parties at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in Havana, Cuba --
THE link between poverty, desertification and global trade is the key issue for South Africa here in Havana.
A strong delegation headed by department of environmental affairs and tourism director Dr Moshibudi Rampedi is due to be joined next week by political leaders including Deputy President Jacob Zuma, environment minister Valli Moosa and his deputy Rejoice Mabadufhasi.
South Africa boasts some world-class environmental initiatives to combat land degradation and desertification but government focus, as at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), is on community upliftment.
Dr Rampedi’s team has been represented in all the sub-committees and presented a well received initiative driven by the Environmental Monitoring Group centred on land care and rooibos tea farming in the bokkeveld. Together with the Global Environment Facility’s identification of desertification as an important new focal area of their new funding regime, land care is one of a handful of recommendations that emerged from WSSD that is actually being implemented.
Speaking to Planets-Voice on Wednesday, the third day of the conference, Dr Rampedi said the key issue was the budget debate, with no immediate solutions in sight.
The secretariat of the UNCCD has proposed an extraordinary 63 per cent hike in the management budget for the new financial year, sparking immediate disagreement from some members. A number of the convention’s developing world signatories, the majority in Africa, have not paid their dues for 3-4 years, and they seem unlikely to want to or be able to pay the proposed new bill, which was raised from R12 2 600 ($15 325) to R20 0 296 ($25 037).
Commentators say the reasons range from the distractions of war to poor governance and a lack of political will as well as simply not having enough money.
South Africa’s books are in order and it is ready to meet “any justified increase” so it is more about how well the UNCCD is using the funds and what exactly member states are getting from the relationship, Dr Rampedi said.
“What we really want to see come out at the end of this conference is the link between desertification and poverty to be identified and recognised, as well as the link between desertification and global trade. The aim is to integrate the work here with the broader sustainable development agenda.”
The global trade debate is centred on a call by developing countries for European governments to scrap their agricultural subsidies to allow African farmers to compete with European counterparts on an equal basis. It is an old debate but many of the delegates in Havana will be moving straight on to the Mexican city of Cancun for a World Trade Organisation summit and the South African argument is that here is an excellent opportunity to finally endorse the proposal and recognise the synergies between land care, trade and livelihoods.
A senior member of Dr Rampedi’s team, Mpumalanga agriculture and environment MEC Maureen Sithole said they would also be hoping to finish the conference with an allocated budget from the UNCCD for the required national action plan which the South Africa has completed.