Credit: UNCCD

By Monique Barbut
BONN, Jun 14 2018 (IPS)

Are you overwhelmed by the depressing news coming at you daily? Conflict, forced migrants, famine, floods, hurricanes, extinction of species, climate change, threats of war … a seemingly endless list. It might surprise you, but you can really make a difference on many of these issues.

Just like every raindrop counts towards a river and every vote counts in an election, so does every choice you make in what you consume. With every produce you consume, you strengthen the river of sustainability or of unsustainability. It is either a vote in favor of policies that spread social goods like peace and poverty eradication or social bads like – conflict or grinding poverty.

We look up to governments a lot, forgetting that governments set up policies to encourage us to make specific choices. That’s how powerful our lifestyles choices are.

Imagine, what would happen if the world’s over 7 billion consumers committed, every year, to just one lifestyle change that will support the provision of goods from sustainably managed land.

Every year, we make New Year resolutions about change. Why not include as one of those resolutions, a changeof habit leading that will lead to a smart sustainable consumer lifestyle? Without any government intervention, you can make choices that will help to end deforestation, soil erosion and pollution or reduce the effects of drought or sand and dust storms.

Monique Barbut

Every country and product has a land footprint. What we eat. What we wear. What we drink. The manufacturer or supplier of the products we consume. The brands related to these suppliers that we will support. We prioritize buying from the local small farm holders to reduce our global land footprint. Consumers have plenty of options.

But a vital missing link is the informed consumer.

Through mobile phone apps**, it is getting easier and easier to track where the goods we consume come from. It is also getting easier to find alternative suppliers of our choice, as the private sector embraces the idea of ethical business. The information you need is literally in the – mobile phone in the – palm of our hand.

But you must believe in your own power to change the world. The global effect on the market may surprise you.

We will reward the food producers, natural resource managers and land planners struggling against all odds to keep the land healthy and productive. This is cheapest way to help every family and community in the world to thrive, and avoid the damage and loss of life that comes from environmental degradation and disasters.

Make 17 June, the celebration of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, your date with nature. It’s the mid-point of the year and a good moment to review the progress you are making towards your New Year resolution of a sustainable lifestyle.

In 2030, when the international community evaluates its achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, you can point to positive changes that you have contributed in favor of present and future generations.

You are more powerful than you think. Take your power back and put it into action.

Monique Barbut is Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

Excerpt:

Women farmers clearing farmland in Northern Bangladesh. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By Monique Barbut
BONN, Mar 12 2018 (IPS)

The international community agreed on the global Goal of achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030. But we can’t reach it – not even by 2050 – until we talk to each other, rather than past each other. If we are serious about empowering women and girls, we have to bridge the huge chasm that exists between the advocates of gender equality, on the one hand, and advocates of other Goals, on the other.

Take, for example, global Goal 15, on Life on Land. One of its targets is to restore degraded land and achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030. It simply means that every country will take measures to “avoid, reduce and/or reverse land degradation” so that by 2030, land degradation – at worst – does not exceed what it was in 2015. As of today, 115 countries are identifying the areas at highest risk of land degradation. A third of the countries are already planning actions to meet this target.

Monique Barbut

A majority of policy-makers are more aware and ready to embrace corrective actions that involve and help women. And it’s not just to be politically correct. A big part of it is self-interest. A case study in India comparing grazing and forest regeneration practices showed statistically significant results in villages where women participated in land management compared to villages where women did not participate. With women’s participation, the probability for controlled grazing increased by 24 percent, and by 28 percent for forest regeneration.

Without a doubt, women can be powerful actors in efforts to halt land degradation, to improve the lives of affected families and communities and to mitigate the effects of droughts that are becoming more intense, frequent and severe.

So, when the 197 countries bound to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) agreed on the framework for action for 2018-2030, it is not surprising they adopted a gender action plan to go with it. The GAP, as it is known, will tackle the gender inequalities that might undermine the achievement of national targets.

The key hindrance to gender equality today is not the absence of affirmative gender laws. Rather, it is the failure to act on them. Gender experts have the means. Technical experts have the frameworks. We are only a series of the right conversations away from righting a historical wrong and make it possible to achieve our gender goals for 2030.
The gender inequalities it identifies are high on women’s agendas everywhere, but are especially critical for the empowerment of rural women and girls. They concern women’s access to land rights, credit, knowledge and technology and full participation in decision-making. By acting on these, the Plan also stresses the need to work through women’s groups and organizations in order to build capacities.

It is important for rural women and girls to be key agents of this change, but just as important is for them to reap direct benefits from these interventions. And GAP is an instrument designed to ensure pursuing land degradation neutrality which is means avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation, also empowers women and bridges gender inequality.

The technical staff from the ministries in charge of the Convention know both outcomes are vital. But they are not gender experts. This is not their primary function. And, they are technically ill-equipped to address any of the issues. So, in spite of the power of the political will and having a Plan, realizing both outcomes is not guaranteed.

For the goal of gender equality to be achieved by 2030, the organizations dedicated to gender rights need to take this expression of political will and ensure it is pursued through to implementation at the national level. This matters because perhaps more than at any other time in history, today technical experts are not just aware of the importance of gender equality; they are committed to action.

Gender experts and advocates at national level can be practical and help to make the results tangible. With a basic understanding of how the Convention works and its intended outcomes, gender activists, experts and advocates can provide the capacity to correct a failure and the persistent discriminatory practices in land use and land management.

The key hindrance to gender equality today is not the absence of affirmative gender laws. Rather, it is the failure to act on them. Gender experts have the means. Technical experts have the frameworks. We are only a series of the right conversations away from righting a historical wrong and make it possible to achieve our gender goals for 2030.

Excerpt:

Burkina Faso: 20 000 trees are planted to create living hedges. Credit: UNCCD

By Monique Barbut
BONN, Germany, Jun 14 2017 (IPS)

We all have dreams. For most of us, those dreams are often quite simple. They are common to individuals and communities all around the world. People just want a place to settle down and to plan for a future where their families don’t just survive but thrive.  For far too many people in far too many places, such simple dreams are disappearing into thin air.  

This is particularly the case in rural areas where populations are suffering from the effects of land degradation.  Population growth means demand for food and for water is set to double by 2050 but crop yields are projected to fall precipitously on drought affected, degraded land.

Over the next few decades, worldwide, close to 135 million people are at risk of being permanently displaced by desertification and land degradation
More than 1.3 billion people, mostly in the rural areas of developing countries, are in this situation.  No matter how hard they work, their land no longer provides them either sustenance or economic opportunity. They are missing out on the opportunity to benefit from increasing global demand and wider sustained economic growth. In fact, the economic losses they suffer and growing inequalities they perceive means many people feel they are being left behind.

They look for a route out.  Migration is well trodden path.  People have always migrated, on a temporary basis, to survive when times are tough. The ambitious often chose to move for a better job and a brighter future.

One in every five youth, aged 15-24 years, for example is willing to migrate to another country. Youth in poorer countries are even more willing to migrate for a chance to lift themselves out of poverty. It is becoming clear though that the element of hope and choice in migration is increasingly missing.  Once, migration was temporary or ambitious. Now, it is often permanent and distressed.

Over the next few decades, worldwide, close to 135 million people are at risk of being permanently displaced by desertification and land degradation.  If they don’t migrate, the young and unemployed are also at more risk of falling victim to extremist groups that exploit and recruit the disillusioned and vulnerable.

Monique Barbut. Photo courtesy of UNCCD.

So this year, the Convention is calling for a focus on making the land and life in rural communities viable for young people. As the global population edges towards at least 9 billion, in Africa alone 200 million of the 300 million young people entering the job market over the next 15 years will be living in rural areas.

Let’s give young, rural populations better choices and options. We need policies that enable young people to own and rehabilitate degraded land.  There are nearly 500 million hectares of once fertile agricultural land that have been abandoned. Let us give young people the chance to bring that natural capital back to life and into production.

If we secure access to new technologies and to the knowledge they need, they can build resilience to extreme weather-elements like drought.  With the right means at their disposal, they can feed a hungry planet and develop new green sectors of the economy.  They can develop markets for rural products and revitalize communities.

With the right type of investments in land, rural infrastructure and skills development, the future can be bright.  We have to send a clear message that if it is well managed, the land can provide not just enough to get by but a place where individuals and communities can build a future.

Excerpt:

By Monique Barbut
BONN, Mar 6 2017 (IPS)

International Women’s Day this year focuses on economic empowerment in the changing world of work. The vision is to achieve gender equality and empowerment of women and girls by 2030. Girls’ aged three will become adults with a legal right to work in 2030. Together, with those aged up to 10, these girls are the prime target for gender equality by 2030.

Monique Barbut

But the persistence of the obstacles women have faced throughout history and the neglect of poor rural women in the Millennium Development Goals era, cautions us to focus on two fronts. First, the front-end mechanisms, such as education, that prepare young women and girls for their careers. But we must not forget the back-end mechanisms linked to the land, which dictate the livelihoods of a majority of women in the rural areas. Women will likely still fall back on them in 2030. They are equally vital.

Women’s land rights, one of the 2030 targets for gender equality, is a key mechanism that will shape women’s progress in agriculture. But is change possible?

By 2011, women made up 43 percent of the labor in agriculture in the developing countries. In Africa and Asia respectively, 60 and 70 percent of the adult women worked the land. But in many of these countries, women farmers can only use, not own the land they farm. Worse, in some cases, the surplus they produce or its earnings are seized by their husbands, based on their claim to land ownership. Left in a bind, many rural women, whose primary source of livelihood is the land, farm unsecured or marginal land or end up using the family land unsustainably.

Some experiments coming out of Africa show there are innovative ways for women to get land rights and ownership over their produce, which then create wealth and food security for families. They show that political will is a critical lever for change.

In the Mboula region of Senegal, the regional government allocated tracks of land to women’s groups to farm together to meet household food needs. Women self-organized into groups that work one day a week. The benefits are more than the government expected. Women spend less time working the land but consistently produce surplus food, meeting both family and market needs. The results, combined with the security of tenure they enjoy over the land they use, have motivated the women to seek training to cultivate a traditional tree, at scale. They intend to produce its oil commercially, harvest its leaves for food and improve the land’s productivity through agroforestry.

In Eastern Uganda, the government has taken a similar initiative one step further. It targets women who only possess user rights to family land. Previously food insecure, they have rehabilitated degraded land and are producing a surplus. The environment and trade ministries jointly developed a program to train the women on how set up, run and manage a cooperative. The women are close to joining the formal food supply chain. They are entrepreneurs and job creators in their community.

Small changes can be transformational.

Preparing every girl to become economically empowered is a top priority for achieving gender equality by 2030. The rear view of history cautions that innovating on women’s land rights as we advance towards 2030 will also be vital.

There are many routes to that objective. Rural women can obtain land rights as individuals or groups. When women only have user and access rights to land, enabling them to own and market what they produce is another option. The denial of land rights by culture is not inescapable trap. Where the leadership is enlightened and progressive, it is possible to create new land rights models.

This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds launched by IPS on the occasion of this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8.

Excerpt:

By Monique Barbut
WINDHOEK, Aug 18 2016 (IPS)

Let us start with some good news.  Sort of.  The strongest El Niño in 35 years is coming to an end. [1]

In 2015/2016 this “El Niño effect” led to drought in over 20 countries [2].  There were scorching temperatures, water shortages and flooding around the world.  Worst hit were eastern and southern Africa[3]

Monique Barbut

To understand what that means for people, you just have to look at the numbers about food insecurity[4].  32 million people in southern Africa were affected by food insecurity as a result.  Across Africa, 1 million children required treatment for severe acute malnutrition.

And though the worst of the drought is coming to an end, predictions are high (at about 75%) that La-Nina will arrive later in 2016. La Nina – El Niño’s opposite number – is known for the flooding it brings.

There may not be much relief for policy makers and people across Africa before the end of the year.

But then, if will be over, we can breathe again.  We can go back to business as usual – right?

Well…if you will allow me…for Albert Einstein…one of the definitions of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

Going back to business as usual fits this definition of insanity very well.

• We know the next El Niño droughts are likely to return regularly.  Probably as often as every two to seven years.

• We know that the extent and severity of droughts will increase.  This is because of climate change and unsustainable land use.   Scientists have estimated that the fraction of the land’s surface regularly experiencing drought conditions is predicted to increase from less than 5 percent today to more than 30 percent by the 2090s[5].

• We know we will miss our targets on water scarcity (6.4, 6.5 and 6.6) under the sustainable development goals[6].

• We know poor people, who tend to be wholly dependent on natural resources like water and land to provide for their families, will suffer.

Unless we change our approach, when drought comes and the rains fail, the future of the 400 million African farmers who rely on rain fed subsistence agriculture, for example, is put in jeopardy.

Rain-fed agriculture accounts for more than 95 percent of farmed land in sub-Saharan Africa. And water scarcity alone could cost some regions 6 percent of their Gross Domestic Product.

Unless we change our approach, people are going to be increasingly forced to decide whether to ride out a drought disaster and then rebuild.  Or simply leave.

It is a form of madness that we force our people to make these difficult choices.

Especially if the cycle of drought disaster and recovery could be broken. 

Progress is starting to happen. Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam and Morocco, to name just a few countries, are now implementing drought plans with a strong emphasis on risk mitigation and preparedness.

And in the areas where land has been restored in Central and Eastern Tigray in Ethiopia, ecosystems and people seem to have fared better in recent El Nino related droughts than areas where no restoration has been undertaken.

But because by 2050, one in four people – up to 2.5 billion people – will be living in a country at risk of water scarcity, more needs to be done. Everywhere.  We must prepare better and manage drought risks proactively.

Africa has already done a lot[7] but needs to stay on its toes.

UNCCD is proposing three important pillars for your consideration.

Firstly, Early Warning Systems. 

Declaring a drought too late can have a devastating impact on lives and livelihoods. Yet when you declare a drought, it can often be very subjective and highly political.

Africa would benefit from an effective Early Warning System (EWS) in all countries. The system would need good data and – equally important – local and traditional knowledge. It would guide you by providing timely information that you can use to reduce risks and to better prepare for an effective response.

Secondly, vulnerability and risk assessment.

Of course, no amount of early warning will work without action to protect the most vulnerable.

Some people and some systems are more vulnerable to drought as a result of social, economic, and environmental factors. So it is important to combine better forecasts with detailed knowledge on how landscapes and societies respond to a lack of rain.

Which communities and ecosystems are most at risk? Why are important sectors like agriculture, energy, tourism, health vulnerable?

Then turn that knowledge into early intervention.

We can assure it would be highly cost effective.  Before the cost of a single late response is reached, you can “overreact” up to six times.

In Niger and Mozambique for example, the cost of an early intervention and resilience building efforts would lead to a cost reduction of 375 million US dollars in Mozambique and 844 million US dollars in Niger when compared to late humanitarian response to drought.[8]

Finally, drought risk mitigation measures.

We can identify measures to address these risks head on.  There are things that can be done at a very practical level to reduce drought risk, which if started right away, can deliver real and tangible benefits to your communities.

African countries could consider the development of sustainable irrigation schemes for crops and livestock or water harvesting schemes or the recycling and reuse of water. They can explore the cultivation of more drought tolerant crops, expand crop insurance schemes and establish alternative livelihoods that can provide income in drought-prone areas.

Investing in improved land management, for example, can improve on-farm water security by between 70 and 100%[9].

This would result in higher yields and more food security.   In Zimbabwe, water harvesting combined with conservation agriculture increased farmers gross margins by 4 to 7 times and increased returns on labour by 2 to 3 times. [10]

This is the type of proactive drought risk management, which could save lives and the livelihoods of millions of people, is something that we all should aspire to.

The Africa Drought Conference is a rare window of opportunity.

An opportunity for the continent to recognize that the traditional approach of “responding” to drought is no longer viable. It has proved to be ineffective far too often. Instead, Africa could lead a proactive drought revolution.

By investing in early warning systems and addressing their vulnerabilities head on, well-planned and coordinated drought action will have a positive ripple effect across sectors and across borders.

Nelson Mandela once said, “We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right”.

The time is ripe. Taking proactive action against drought is the right thing to do.

Footnotes

[1] http://media.bom.gov.au/releases/267/el-nino-ends-as-tropical-pacific-ocean-returns-to-neutral/

[2] List compiled from: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/22/southern-africa-worst-global-food-crisis-25-years and https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/30/el-nino-is-over-but-it-leaves-nearly-100-million-people-short-of-food.

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/22/africa-worst-famine-since-1985-looms-for-50-million

[4] https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/Documents/OCHA_ElNino_Overview_13Apr2016.pdf

[5]  WMO( 2011): Towards a Compendium on National Drought Policy, p. 9.

[6] https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg6

[7] i.e. The Sahel and Sahara Observatory (OSS), IGAD’s Drought Resilience Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI), the Southern Africa Development Community – Community Climate Service Center (SADC-CSC) or the African Drought Risk and Development Network (ADDN).

[8] Department for international development : The Economics of Early Response and Resilience Series, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/226255/TEERR_Two_Pager_July_22.pdf

[9] Bossio, Deborah et al( 2010): Managing water by managing land: Addressing land degradation to improve water productivity and rural livelihoods, p. 540.

[10] Winterbottom, R. (et al.): Improving Land and Water Management. Working Paper, Installment 4 of Creating a Sustainable Food Future. World Resources Institute, 2013, p. 18.

Excerpt:

By Monique Barbut
BONN, May 23 2016 (IPS)

Two months ago, I was in Agadez, a city in the middle of the famous Ténéré Desert of Niger. Agadez has become a major transit point on a hazardous journey for the hundreds and thousands of desperate people from all over West Africa trying to make it to the Mediterranean coast every year.

Monique Barbut

Migration has become the ‘hot potato’ issue of our times. Alongside it, hidden in plain sight, is another threat that closely reflects this same abandonment dynamic. Plants and animals are also moving from their native homes to other parts of the world. A recent example is the mosquito carrying the deadly Zika virus. In a relatively short time, it has migrated from South to North America, and is now threatening to reach Europe.

The transformation occurring in ecosystems as a result of climate change, as plant and animal species selectively find new habitats, is difficult to fathom or explain to the public. It will be even harder to contain it.

The rate at which plant and animal life is migrating signals deepening trouble in the systems that support life on Earth – land, water, plants, climate, etc. Species migration, like human migration, has an impact in the new locations, but also in their places of origin.

An assessment in 2012 of the impacts of the ragweed species in Europe, for instance, shows it poses a risk to human health and agriculture. In future, more people may suffer allergies and maize, potato and sugar beet farmers, among many others, may be fighting a new weed.

On the other end is the predicted loss of food crops such as maize, beans, bananas and finger millet from much of sub-Saharan Africa. The loss of these crops, which are widely consumed in the region, could lead to new types of hunger crises.

Human migration is guided by reason and choice, and can be managed, even reversed, with the right policy incentives. For instance, if land is restored people may return. However, areas that are abandoned by humans are depopulated and eventually collapse and die for lack of investment.

By contrast, the migration of biodiversity is irreversible beyond a certain threshold. It is almost impossible to recover plants and animals that have become extinct or have migrated due to ecosystem change. Areas that are abandoned by species eventually die for lack of ecosystem services.

The forces driving species migration are strikingly similar to those driving people in West Africa’s Sahel region towards Agadez.

According to the local people, the forces driving their migration North are: land that is no longer productive; droughts and flash floods that are stripping much of the fertile top soil from the land; and population pressure in some of the most fertile areas of West Africa.

Climate change impacts, such as droughts that transform the local vegetation, the emergence of dust in new areas and migration of plants that are swept by floods, are some of the forces behind species migration and the disappearance of native species.

The damage already done to the climate system makes the transformation of ecosystems almost inevitable. Restoring degraded lands is the last hope we have to keep ecosystems functioning at the level they are in today. That window of opportunity, however, is closing fast.

That is why, in observing the International Day for Biological Diversity on 22 May, we must celebrate the countries leading the way in mainstreaming the biodiversity that has sustained us and our livelihoods for millennia.

Let’s celebrate and recognize the 90 countries that are setting national targets to restore degraded lands in order to ensure the fertile lands in use by 2030 stays stable and, in turn, sustains species and ecosystems.

Many of these are the poorest countries and communities of the world. But they have chosen to share their labor, knowledge and limited finances to maintain the integrity of an Earth that we all share.

Excerpt:

For three consecutive days this week, we gave thought to our future. On International Forests Day, Monday, 21 March, we were reminded that forests are vital for our future water needs. On Tuesday, 22 March, World Water Day, we learned that half the world’s workers are involved in the water sector and some 2 billion people, especially women and girls, still need access to improved sanitation. World Meteorological Day, on Wednesday, 23 March, concluded with the warning of a hotter, drier and wetter future. A reality that is already evident and frightening, as productive land turns to sand or dust.

Monique Barbut

Is anybody listening?

The overall message of this week is: we have developed a reckless appetite for resources and we are not doing enough to meet future demand. But nature is neither kind nor forgiving. When the resources are exhausted or destroyed humans will lose, and lose big.

Few of us can visualize a future without trees, fresh water or productive land while the resources are still flowing and politicians muddle the science. Denial and inaction have prevailed – except in countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia where land degradation has already led to economic ruin, poverty and political conflict.

Ethiopia’s history offers us a glimpse into what our own future might look like if we fail to act now. Its story of recovery should inspire us to act – while we still can.

In just one century, Ethiopia reduced its forest cover from 40% to below 3%. It is easy to see why. In a country where agriculture is the main source of livelihoods for 85 percent of the country’s 90 million people, and also makes up 90% of the exports, it seemed like there was little choice.

Following decades of deforesting and converting forests into farmland, the land’s vulnerability to recurrent and longer droughts grew. By the 1980s, food and water shortages were severe. The political situation worsened in tandem. But Ethiopia is rising, and her people are doing the unimaginable.

For the 2007 World Environment Day, Ethiopia signed up for a 60 million tree-planting campaign. Success led to a bolder target. In late 2014, Ethiopia announced to the world that it will recover 22 million hectares of degraded lands and forests. That is an area more than one-sixth of the entire country. Recently, Ethiopia took the bolder step of becoming land degradation neutral by 2036. Under this scheme, it plans to recover and rehabilitate, voluntarily, up to 33 million hectares of degraded land to ensure the country’s productive areas remain stable thereafter.

Ethiopia is re-covering the power to feed itself and replenishing its ground water sources, but has gained much more than it anticipated. It is creating new jobs every day, by paying its population to restore degraded lands. It is re-building the means to shield itself or recover from the future drought risks. And there is a global bonus. Ethiopia’s highlands are nourishing River Nile, a lifeline for the drier countries downstream. Ethiopia’s experience is rich, with lessons for everyone.

Restoring degraded land, is a revolutionary, yet counter-intuitive, way to create formal jobs, eradicate poverty, replenish ground water sources, revive dying lands, manage disaster and climate change risks, and channel resources to the neediest.

The Bonn Challenge, which aims to restore 350 million hectares of degraded forests, is also built on inspiring stories of land restoration. Costa Rica doubled its forest cover in 25 years, and boosted its tourism industry. In just 15 years, land users in the Shinyanga area of northern Tanzania restored 2 million hectares of land, and household incomes doubled. The Republic of Korea restored more than half its forest cover and now earns up to US$50 billion in ecosystem services every year.

We are treading a dangerous path with a bleak future, but that path is not fated. We can change the trajectory of our history by our choices as individuals, organizations and countries.

At the UNCCD, we have chosen to follow the example of countries like Ethiopia. We are working with countries, UN partners, civil society organizations and women and youth groups to recover 500 million of the 2 billion hectares of land we have degraded in the course of our development.

Since the adoption of the global Goals for sustainable development last September, 65 countries have expressed interest in our programme to set out voluntary targets to become land degradation neutral by 2030. This is a sea-change that few people could have visualized five years ago.

We may never know the true value of the International Days. But they offer unique moments to share inspiring stories that are too often lost in the clutter of political negotiations. If we listen to the stories and act on them, we can influence hearts and minds, and inspire action.

Monique Barbut is Assistant Secretary General of the UN and Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification

Mary Wanjiru is a farmer from Nyeri County in central Kenya. Granting land rights to women can raise farm production by 20-30 per cent in developing countries. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Monique Barbut
BONN, Mar 4 2015 (IPS)

Women are not only the world’s primary food producers. They are hardworking and innovative and, they invest far more of their earnings in their families than men. But most lack the single most important asset for accessing investment resources – land rights.

Women’s resourcefulness is astonishing, but they are no fools. They invest their income where they are most likely to see returns, but not in the land they have no rights to. Land tenure is the powerful political tool that governments use to give or deny these rights. We are paying a high price for the failure to grant land rights to the women who play a vital role in agriculture.

Courtesy of UNCCD

Women produce up to 80 per cent of the total food and make up 43 per cent of the labour force in developing countries. Yet 95 per cent of agricultural education programmes exclude them. In Yazd, the ‘desert capital’ of Iran, for example, women have invented a method to produce food in underground tunnels.

In Asia and Africa, a woman’s weekly work is up to 13 hours longer than a man’s. Furthermore, women spend nearly all their earnings on their families, whereas men divert a quarter of their income to other expenses. But most have no rights to the land they till.

Land rights level the playing field by giving both men and women the same access to vital agricultural resources. The knock-on effect is striking. Granting land rights to women can raise farm production by 20-30 per cent in developing countries, and increase a country’s total agricultural production by up to 4 per cent.

This is critical at a time when we are losing 12 million hectares of fertile land each year, but need to raise our food production by up to 70 per cent by 2050 due to population growth and consumption trends – not to mention climate change.

But what is land tenure exactly? Land tenure works like a big bundle of sticks, with each stick representing a particular right. There are five important sticks in the bundle; the sticks to access, to use, to manage land independently, to exclude and to alienate other users. The more sticks a land user has in the bundle, the more motivated they are to nourish and support the land.Women are grimly aware that without land rights, they could lose their land to powerful individuals at any moment. Where, then, is the incentive to invest in the land; especially if you’re hungry now?

The failure to grant these rights, not just to poor, rural land users, but to women as well, means fertile land is exploited to barrenness. With rising competition over what little is available, conflicts are inevitable.

In rural Latin America, only 25 per cent of the land holdings are owned by women. This drops to 15 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa and to less than 5 per cent in western Asia and northern Africa. These are shocking figures, and yet they may be even more optimistic than the reality.

A recent study in Uganda, for instance, shows that even when men and women nominally jointly own land, the woman’s name may not appear in any of the documentation. If a husband dies, divorces or decides to sell the land, his wife has no recourse to asserting her land rights.

Women are grimly aware that without land rights, they could lose their land to powerful individuals at any moment. Where, then, is the incentive to invest in the land; especially if you’re hungry now? Instead, those without rights take what they can from the land before they move to greener pastures. This adds to the unfortunate, yet preventable, spiral of land degradation.

At least 500 million hectares of previously fertile agricultural land is abandoned. And with less than 30 per cent of the land in developing world under secure tenure, there is little hope that these trends will change. The lack of secure land tenure remains a vital challenge for curbing land degradation in developing countries.

Among the rural poor, men are often the main beneficiaries. But granting land rights to both men and women will narrow inequalities and benefit us all.

In Nepal, women with strong property rights tend to be food secure, and their children are less likely to be underweight. In Tanzania, women with property rights are earning up to three times more income. In India, women who own land are eight times less likely to experience domestic violence. The social gains from secure land tenure are vast.

For years, women have dealt with land degradation and fed the world without the support they need. Imagine how granting them land rights could power our future. Let’s mark this year’s International Women’s Day by shouting the loudest for the land rights of rural women.

Edited By Kitty Stapp

Excerpt:

By Monique Barbut
PUNTA DEL ESTE, May 31 2010 (IPS)

Another day, another commute from work, another trip to the market, another evening at home. We go about our daily business, largely oblivious to the ravages being inflicted upon our planet. Sure, we know about climate change and we see the oil spills on the news. But few of us realize that we may have fished out our oceans by 2050. Or that for the first time since dinosaurs walked the Earth, species of plants and animals are becoming extinct faster than new ones are evolving. In our modern, sterile, comfortable 21st century, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the natural world. It’s easy to think that “biodiversity doesn’t have anything to do with me.” The truth is, biodiversity has everything to do with every one of us. Biodiversity, the vast, rich and wondrous variety of life on Earth, is all around us. It touches every part of our lives –from the clothes we wear to the food we eat to the jobs we hold. But for as much as biodiversity gives us, we don’t seem to notice how much it is threatened, both in South America and around the world. Biodiversity loss has been greater and faster in the past 50 years than at any time before in human history. If we lose biodiversity, we’ll lose everything about life as we have known it. Unfortunately, the news is not good. Research suggests that the world has failed to meet its 2010 goals for reducing the rate of biodiversity loss. But there is hope. All around the world, enlightened policy-makers, business leaders, civil society organizations and community leaders are working together to launch projects that meet our human needs for development and commerce, while at the same time respecting and preserving biodiversity. A great example can be found right here in Uruguay, where a variety of stakeholders came together to develop an ecosystem-based approach to the country’s coastal fisheries. The goal is to transform Uruguay’s fisheries into truly sustainable businesses, by encouraging respect for and consideration of the environment, and finding ways to work in harmony with local ecosystems. This keeps fish on the table in the short term and strengthens the fisheries in the long term. It is a prime example of the kinds of projects that can and must be replicated elsewhere in South America and around the world. But projects like this don’t just happen. They require dedicated funding and technical support. Governments must know that investments like this are what the world needs and what their constituents demand. To help raise awareness about the value and importance of biodiversity, and how it impacts our day-to-day lives, the United Nations declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity. In that spirit, let us each embrace our sense of connectedness to the web of life around us –and let our voices be heard by those with the power to effect change. We are not mere bystanders when it comes to biodiversity. Nor are we powerless to help preserve it. As citizens and voters, we can and we must ensure that our elected leaders and others in power know that biodiversity­just as much as poverty, hunger, literacy or healthcare­is an issue that desperately demands our immediate attention. We may not be able to see it, but the world is bleeding. Preserving biodiversity is a critical first step in helping it heal. Our lives, and the lives of everything around us, depend on it. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS) (*) Monique Barbut is CEO of the Global Environment Facility, the world’s largest funder of projects to preserve biodiversity.

Excerpt:

The Global Environment Facility has provided grants totaling more than six billion dollars since its creation 15 years ago. The third GEF assembly takes place in South Africa at the end of August.

- Fabricio Vanden Broeck

In the environmental arena, the usual and unrecognized benefactor behind the scenes is not a person, but rather the Global Environment Facility (GEF), based in Washington DC.

In the past 15 years, the GEF has issued more than six billion dollars in environmental grants in the developing world, from Quito to Kuala Lumpur, with more than 1,800 projects in 140 countries

There is practically no crucial area in which the GEF hand is not present. Consider wind energy and India, one of the world's fastest growing countries and with acute and expanding need for energy in order to help millions of people escape poverty.

The projects and partners of the GEF have helped to bring about dramatic growth in the deployment of wind turbines and have cooperated to initiate a domestic manufacturing market.

In 2005, India displaced Denmark as the fourth leading nation in wind energy production, with an installed capacity of 4,253 megawatts.

In the African Great Rift Valley, where humanity made its first hesitant steps, the heated rock promotes a new and abundant source of energy. A GEF project has the goal of avoiding the risks of perforation, instead taking advantage of the steam produced.

The fault, which extends from Mozambique to the Red Sea, could, in theory, provide enough electricity to meet all of the region's development needs, reducing dependence on fossil fuels and contributing to energy security.

In the developing world, the vertiginous urbanization of the cities is multiplying health risks, air pollution, and noisy streets jammed with traffic.

The GEF, through the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Environment Program and the World Bank, is directing the bus rapid transit initiatives and other types of clean transportation in urbs like Dar es Salaam, Guatemala City, Panama City and Santiago.

The 20th century was the industrial era. The 21st will increasingly become the biological era.

The GEF supports the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, which connects protected areas and biological corridors in development from Mexico to Panama. Its aim is to help conserve the region that sustains seven percent of the Earth's plant biodiversity, along with exotic endangered animals like the jaguar.

The Facility is also helping developing countries to be pioneers in innovative trade mechanisms so that the products and services provided by the environment are better appreciated and its guardians better compensated.

In Costa Rica, the GEF is accelerating payments to ranchers and farmers. The project has helped with reforestation, which in exchange will reinforce nature's ability to provide renewable sources of freshwater and will help capture climate-changing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Environment ministers and officials from more than 150 countries will gather in Cape Town, South Africa, Aug. 29-30, for the third assembly of the GEF, the first to take place in Africa.

The meeting gives us a good opportunity to remember and renovate the vision — and the determination and optimism — that gave birth to the Facility 15 years ago.

Times were different when the GEF was established. The end of a bipolar world and the peace dividend seemed to offer a new opportunity for resolving many of the problems and challenges faced by the planet and its people.

Those hopes have not yet become reality, in spite of several obvious victories and many success stories. Environmental degradation continues its destructive and unsustainable course.

A strong, creative, vibrant, visible and well supported Global Environment Facility is important — in fact, more important today than ever.