ENVIRONMENT: Yet Another U.N. Conference To Halt Desertification

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Ramesh Jaura

BONN, Dec 6 2000 (IPS) - Drought and desertification – resulting from global climate change and human activities – are threatening the livelihoods of more than 1.2 billion people in 110 countries.

A United Nations conference, beginning next Monday in Bonn, will therefore review the progress made in preventing things getting from bad to worse.

Going by its three predecessors, the Bonn global gathering is not expected to draw the kind of world-wide attention that was focussed on the climate talks which ended without an agreement in The Hague on Nov 25.

“However, we are not going to witness a pre-Christmas festivity – with God in his Heaven and all being right with the world,” warned a government official from an industrialised country, who did not wish to be named.

The impression appeared to be substantiated by a press statement posted on the website of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

“We are ready to see if progress has been achieved in combating desertification world-wide,” Hama Arba Diallo, UNCCD Executive Secretary is quoted saying.

Desertification is an acronym for land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities.

Diallo’s brief remark came in the run-up to what is officially described as the fourth session of the Conference of Parties to the UNCCD (COP4), from Dec 11 to Dec 22 Bonn, where the convention’s secretariat is based.

The Convention was adopted in Paris in June 1994 and opened for signature there four months later. It entered into force on 26 December 1996, 90 days after the 50th ratification was received.

According to the UNCCD, Convention stresses the global dimension of desertification and calls for increased efforts towards the implementation of national, sub-regional and regional action programmes to combat desertification, and the promotion of sustainable development particularly in the dry lands of our planet.

It is a legally binding instrument resulting from the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992.

In what appeared to be praise for the pace of progress achieved in implementing the Convention, the UNCCD secretariat said that 171 countries had become a party to the Convention.

This reflected the growing importance assigned to this global phenomenon, added the statement.

Notwithstanding the financial difficulties, more than 80 reports had been submitted this year from affected country parties for consideration at the COP4.

More than 30 National Action Programmes to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought had been elaborated and adopted.

“Activities are underway to strengthen collaboration also at the sub-regional, regional and interregional levels,” according to the statement.

It added: “Thematic Programme Networks are being launched in Asia and Africa to focus efforts on issues of particular relevance in the framework of policies to implement the UNCCD, such as water management, agro- forestry, soil conservation, desertification monitoring and assessment, rangeland management and dune fixation, and others.”

Nevertheless, the dominant impression is that not sufficient attention is being paid to combating desertification. The reasons given differ from which side of the fence one stands.

The press statement carries a quote from Theo-Ben Gurirab, President of the 54th session of the United Nations General Assembly, and current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Namibia, expressing concern.

He notes with “increased concern” that the process of combating desertification “lacks the kind of support it is entitled to in terms of financial assistance from the international community for its timely and effective implementation.”

“The amount raised to cover the needs of all African countries for the preparation of their national reports is equivalent to the grant that the Global Environmental Facility allocates to one single country for its ‘enabling activities’,” he adds.

The Global Environment Facility was established by the World Bank, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and the world body’s Environmental Programme (UNEP) in 1990.

It operates as the financial mechanism for implementation of the U.N. Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) and the U.N. Biodiversity Convention (UNCBD).

The GEF was created to provide grants and concessional funds to developing countries to finance incremental costs for programmes, projects, and activities to protect the world’s environment.

Anti-desertification projects, relevant to the focal areas of climate change, biodiversity, ozone depletion, and international waters may be eligible for funding.

However, the GEF is not the financial mechanism of the UNCCD. Established under the Convention, the Global Mechanism (GM) is responsible for promoting actions for the mobilisation and channelling of substantial financial resources.

These include the transfer of technology, on a grant basis, and-or on concessional or other terms, to developing countries adversely affected by drought and desertification.

The Global Mechanism is hosted in Rome by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and functions under the authority and guidance of the Conference of the Parties.

Against this backdrop, Gurirab says in the UNCCD statement: “…we have to underline that the UNCCD implementation cannot be conceived only in bilateral terms as it remains a multilateral instrument addressing the vital issue of sustainable development in arid ecosystems.”

This is the kind of stuff that portends the continuation of a hectic debate, which was triggered at COP3 in Recife, Brazil, last November.

The Recife conference was preceded by COP2 end of the year in Dakar, Senegal and the first session of the conference of parties the year before in Rome.

The developed countries’ view is reflected in an official German government report on measures taken to assist the implementation of UNCCD in affected country parties with a special focus on Latin America and Asia.

“There are a number of encouraging examples now of the CCD lending fresh impetus to desertification control….Yet it is still a challenge to make the CCD a universally accepted strategic framework for resource management in arid zones,” says the report.

It adds: “There are a number of developing countries that have produced CCD national action programmes, but there are still investments in important CCD-related areas that are made without reference to these NAPs and without attention for the principles of the Convention.”

UNCCD official sources at the UNCCD secretariat said they were expecting about 2,000 delegates from over 170 countries to attend the Conference.

This would include Heads of State and of Government, ministers, representatives of intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, and the media.

A distinct feature of COP4 to combat desertification is an Inter-Parliamentary Round Table, which will be joined by more than 35 parliamentarians from 25 countries.