Desertification now up there with the planet's big three eco-ills

05-Sep-2003: By GUY ROGERS at the 6th Conference of of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Havana, Cuba


THIS major conference ended here yesterday (Friday 5th) with the clear identification of desertification as “a major international source of ecological imbalance”.

Yesterday morning, the work of the delegates and the UNCCD secretariat was by no means over, with the major decisions from the committee for science and technology and the committee to review and implement the convention still requiring ratification and compilation. In UN terms, as the convention spokesman said wryly, with this work sure to carry well into the night, “one day can be a long long time”.

The signposts are already in place as to what has been achieved, however, with the single most important decision related to funding. UNCCD external relations and public affairs co-ordinator Rajeb Boulharouf told Planets's Voice that the announcement by the Global Environment Facility of a $500 million programme to combat desertification -- made in fact a week before the conference but endorsed here – had elevated the issue of desertification and the convention’s work to a new level.

“With this decision there is a recognition that desertification is a global problem. There were not enough resources but additionality has now been brought to the process. It has enhanced our planning capacity and allowed us to boost and revitalize co-operation schemes here at the conference.”

An aspect of the conference has been the strong showing by the Third World “developing countries” from Africa and central and south America especially and the relatively low key representation by the developed nations, apparently for both political reasons related to conflict with Cuban President Fidel Castro as well as other pressing business including the continuing pressures in Iraq and the Middle East. As a result, a fair amount of political bashing of the former colonial regimes has taken place, culminating in a heads of state round table earlier this week which excluded most of the developed countries and which was dominated by rhetoric from leaders including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe emphasised the continuing “fight with Britain” over Zimbabwe’s land reform programme and the efforts by Tony Blair’s government to “manipulate our policies”.


Member states are required to make contributions to the convention to enable it to undertake its work and these are made in terms of the UN’s established ability-to-pay scale, so the support of the developed countries is particularly important for the process to work.

One commentator here has questioned why the developed countries should stay in this process, given the attacks they have fielded in Havana, and not rather channel funds to fight desertification through local aid agencies.

Mr Boulharouf said the answer lay at the heart of the what the United Nations was all about.

“Do we believe in multi-lateralism or not? It is up to us to look to our common heritage, to the things that unite us. Dialogue is the only way. The political speeches should not be allowed to be the trees that prevent us from seeing the wood.”

In fact this had happened in Havana, he said, with dialogue initiated and flourishing in some cases between between developed and developing countries as well as with NGOs where before communication channels had been poor.

The second of the open dialogue sessions yesterday between NGOs and government was particularly successful in its illumination of the issue of nomad pastoralism in the African desertification heartland of the Sahel in countries like Mali and Mauritania and the marginalisation of these communities. One of the most interesting revelations was that the authorities in these countries have in the past condemned nomadism to be irrational and conducive of conflict, but now it is being accepted that this is the most sustainable way of living on and managing these lands.

Mr Boulharouf said the strong representation generally by the developing countries was one of the highlights of the conference.

“Desertification is one of the major challenges of these countries in terms of sustainable development and they are proving how high this is on their agenda. I have never seen a meeting before where these countries have been represented at such a level and with such strong feeling.”

The issue could not be more important, he said.

“There is a realisation by all the delegates that desertification is the root to deal with poverty, which puts it centre-stage in terms of the UN Millenium Strategy.”

The Millenium Strategy identifies eight goals designed to alleviate poverty including reducing by half, by 2015, the number of people without access to clean water or sanitation and who live on less than $1 a day.

The UNCCD points to the impact of desertification on food production and social security with the fall-out ranging from mass forced migration to wars and terrorism as clear evidence of the inter-relatedness of its effects.

A phenomenon occuring in developing as well as developed countries – with some of the severest examples identified in the US -- desertification is caused by land degradation. Land degradation in turn is sparked by poor land use choices, unsustainable farming practices like over-grazing, decimation of forests and the rising temperatures associated with global climate change. And this vicious circle of growing poverty and environmental destruction has been exemplified by studies that are now revealing that the huge tracts of scarified and degraded land are in turn causing climate change.

Dust storms, one of the most visceral and terrifying manifestation of desertification, have killed and injured people and livestock, wrecked houses and croplands and caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in places like northern China and west Africa. Its effects have not been contained by borders, however, and astonishing reports show that sand being blown across the oceans is causing damage to farmlands and changing the environment around the world.

Mr Boulharouf said the issues and the effects were all inter-related.

“We have sandstorms from North Africa flying across the Meditterannean causing damage to crops in the countries of Southern Europe. We have seven thousand Mexicans a day crossing the Rio Grande. Not for Big Mac or Coca Cola.. Just looking for a decent life. If desertification is not a global problem, tell me what it is.”

He said the EU-Africa/ Caribbean/Pacific implementation action plan was another key decision that had emerged at the conference.

“I think this conference will be remembered as a landmark in the maturing of the process where it was recognised that – like loss of biodiversity, the diminishing resource of clean water and climate change – desertification is a major international source of ecolocal imbalance.”


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