Ecobreves – GUATEMALA: Summit Against Drought

By - - and IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

GUATEMALA CITY, Oct 4 2004 (IPS) - Some 200 officials and experts will gather in the Guatemalan capital in November to study the problems of drought and desertification afflicting Latin America and attempt to come up with some solutions, announced this Central American country's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. The meeting is part of the 10th Latin American and Caribbean Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought, Jorge Luis Galindo, the ministry's director of environmental policy and strategy, told Tierramérica.

The participants will study ''possible joint actions to confront the problem of drought and in some cases the advance of the desert that affect the countries in the region, as well as analyzing ways to obtain international aid,'' he said.

According to United Nations figures, more than 30 percent of the Earth's land surface is threatened by or vulnerable to desertification, affecting more than 150 countries.