3 September 2007
The global spread of deserts poses a severe challenge to humanity that transcends any international borders, a UN-sponsored conference in Madrid heard Monday.
"It's clear now that desertification is amongst the greatest challenges that humankind faces," Crown Prince Felipe, heir to the Spanish throne, said in an opening address to the forum, which included more than 2,000 delegates.
"We should never forget that the impact of desertification is not only felt in zones where the problem originates, but also in areas much further away," he said.
Over 2,000 senior politicians and experts from the 191 nations that have signed the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), adopted in Paris in June 1994, were taking part in the conference.
Organisers hope the event will set a new 10-year strategic plan on how to stem desertification that sets measurable objectives as well as a timeline for achieving them.
"This is not a time for complacency. Huge sandstorms, moving sand dunes or raging forest fires are only the spectacular manifestation of a growing threat," said the deputy executive secretary of the UNCCD, Gregoire de Kalbermatten.
Around 200 million people live in desert areas while just over two billion -- or one-third of the world's population -- live on arid land that makes up 41 percent of the earth's surface, according to a study by the United Nations University.
Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia are the regions most vulnerable to desertification but the problem affects all continents, it said.
Desertification is blamed for famine, conflicts and forced migration. Excessive cultivation and grazing, often the result of poverty, combined with overpopulation and climate change have been identified as the main causes.
Unless action is taken to curb the problem, some 50 million people could be displaced within the next decade, according to the study which was prepared by more than 200 experts from 25 countries.
Spanish Environment Minister Cristina Narbona said desertification has already "led to the movement of millions of persons who are fleeing countries that are increasingly affected by desertification and thus by poverty."
"We are faced with an extraordinary challenge from the point of view of human rights, from the viewpoint of poverty, inequality, hunger, of despair," she told the gathering.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that desertification and drought cause more than 42 billion US dollars (31 billion euros) in lost agricultural production every year.
Experts urge tighter land use management policies that protect existing vegetative cover from overgrazing and a ban on unsustainable irrigation practices as a means to curb desertification.
The Madrid gathering is the UN's eighth conference on the fight against desertification. The last gathering was held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in October 2005.
The roughly 800 non-governmental organisations represented at the gathering expressed concern at the slow pace of progress that has been made in implementing the UNCCD convention and said they hoped the Madrid conference would be a "turning point."
"If this does not happen, the silent death of the convention is imminent," they said in a joint statement, adding the conference was "maybe the last chance to eliminate the frustration of those who suffer the consequences of desertification."
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