Government leaders, lawmakers, scientists and activists from 190 countries will gather in the Cuban capital later this month to discuss ways to mitigate desertification and its impacts, which affect nearly 40 percent of the earth's land surface. The 6th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought has the mandate to promote implementation of the agreements reached at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held last year in South Africa.

That global meeting achieved consensus on the goal to reduce by half the population worldwide that lacks access to water and sanitation by 2015.

Desertification is a process of degradation and loss of soils that also reduces the land's capacity to retain water.