Tomorrow Today

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Desertification is not about deserts:

meeting drylands challenges through education

Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary, UN Convention to Combat Desertification

he encroachment of deserts on productive land causes

desertification, but this is only a small part, not the main

cause, of desertification. Desertification refers to land

degradation in the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas

due to various factors, including human activities and climate

variations.

Together, deserts and other dry ecological systems are known as

drylands. They occupy over 41 per cent of planet Earth. One in every

three people lives in the drylands, as well as a significant proportion

of the wildlife and half of the world’s livestock. These figures suggest

that it is impossible to achieve sustainable development while ignor-

ing the drylands.

The sustainable management of the drylands today is essential for

the eradication of poverty and the attainment of other internation-

ally agreed development goals. The approach to land management

advocated in combating desertification also enhances our ability

to meet future global food demand, move excess carbon from the

atmosphere into the soil and strengthen the resilience of rural

drylands communities to climate change. Therefore, efforts to curb

land degradation in the drylands – known as combating desertifi-

cation – must be at the centre of the campaigns linked to the UN

Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD).

The basis for education initiatives to combat desertification

Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat

Desertification (UNCCD)

is the sole legally binding international

agreement linking environment, development and the

promotion of healthy soils. The Parties to the Convention

(193 countries and the European Community) seek to

alleviate poverty in the drylands, maintain and restore the

land’s productivity and mitigate the effects of drought.

Each Party implements the Convention on the basis

of its national action programme. This is the package

of activities each country deems critical to address-

ing desertification, land degradation and drought

(DLDD). The developed countries without any drylands

provide support for the implementation of the action

programmes. Although education is not prescribed

as a requirement for inclusion in every programme, it

is recognized as one of the priority fields for possible

action under Article 10 paragraph 4 of the Convention,

and as one of the supporting measures under Article 19.

At their 2007 Conference, the Parties adopted a

ten-year strategic plan and framework to enhance the

implementation of the Convention for the period 2008-

2018 (the Strategy). Education is a priority objective of

this Strategy. The Convention’s educational messages

seek to deepen understanding of issues of interest to the

stakeholders so that measures to combat desertification,

land degradation and drought become part and parcel

of every country’s development policy.

The Convention’s primary focus is the drylands areas

but its commitment to preventive measures, by promoting

Desert encroachment is only a small part of the desertification story

Land degredation and drought are widespread

& UNCCD 2009 Photo Contest