|
PRESS
RELEASE: Momentum to recover land health picks up
as rural livelihoods
improve
|
| |
|
|
|
Momentum
to recover land health picks up as rural
livelihoods
improve
Georgetown,
28/01/2019 – Momentum to repair
degraded lands and to manage droughts more
effectively has picked up, according to reports
released for review by an inter-governmental
meeting that opened today in Georgetown, Guyana.
An assessment of land degradation in 127
countries revealed that close to 20 percent of
healthy land was degraded in the first 15 years
of this Millennium. Globally, 169 countries are
affected by land degradation, desertification or
drought. In the last four years, 82 countries
have set targets aiming to halt land degradation
by 2030 and 44 of the 70 countries regularly hit
by drought are setting up drought management
plans to ensure droughts do not turn into
disasters.
The findings are the most
comprehensive to date, with data submitted by
135 countries and an assessment of degradation
monitored using earth observations.
The
Seventeenth Session of the Committee for the
Review of the Implementation of the UN’s
Convention to Combat Desertification (CRIC17)
taking place in Guyana will review the reports
over the next three days. Their recommendations
on further actions to ramp up this momentum will
be tabled at the fourteenth session of the
Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention
to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to be held on
7-18 October 2019 in New Delhi,
India.
“Momentum is with us”, announced
Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary of the
Convention, during the opening of CRIC
17.
“The first piece of good news is that
we know more and more about what is going on….
how much land we have degraded globally in the
first 15 years of this Millennium, how life has
changed for the communities living on degraded
lands, how droughts are evolving globally, the
changing status of endangered biological
species, and the financial resources available
to address desertification,” she
said.
She also described as good news the
reports’ findings that “in all regions, rural
populations now have more access to safe
drinking water, poverty has declined by 27%
overall, at least 120 countries will eventually
have targets to curb land degradation and there
is growing interest from domestic and global
private finance to invest in land
management.”
Barbut, who steps down as
the Convention’s Executive Secretary next month,
however cautioned that “aspects such as land
governance, education, demography and land use
planning still have a long way to go,” and
called on governments not to underestimate their
ability to trigger change in the most pressing
areas, but to be “brave.”
Joseph Harmon,
Minister of State, Guyana, said “although
milestones have been achieved… we still have to
be steadfast in addressing land
degradation.”
“The continuing degradation
of land and soils is a severe threat to the
provision of ecosystem services and economic
development globally,” he said.
Harmon
said “the pressures on land are increasing due
to urbanization, population growth and rising
demands for food, feed, fuel and fiber. Halting
land degradation is therefore a prerequisite for
sustainable development,” he
stressed.
Global efforts to combat
desertification began in 1977. However, the
rapid loss of productive land due to a
combination of poor land uses and growing
extreme and erratic weather effects now affects
more people than ever before.
Two other
recent reports examined the extent and effects
of land degradation on livelihoods. The Global
Land Outlook released in 2017 found a persistent
loss of 20 percent of the Earth’s vegetative
cover from 1998-2013. The Assessment of Land
Degradation released in 2018 showed that
land degradation impacts over 3.2 billion
people. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate
Change is expected to release its own assessment
of the effects climate change on land
degradation later this year.
CRIC 17 ends
Wednesday, 30 January.
NOTES
TO EDITORS
Download a factsheet
of the findings from the report:
<https://bit.ly/2S53Bjs>
Download the
detailed reports here:
<https://bit.ly/2BqbOV8>
For specific
country reports, see:
<https://prais.unccd.int/unccd/reports>
For
interviews with UNCCD staff contact: wwisch...@unccd.int
To
interview specific country delegates visit: https://bit.ly/2RiheHv
Opening
Speech of Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary:
https://www.unccd.int/conventioncommittee-review-implementation-convention-cric/cric17-28-30-january-2019-georgetown
| | |
 |
|
For more
information contact:
Ms Wagaki
Wischnewski
UN Convention to Combat
Desertification
wwisch...@unccd.int | |
| | |
|
The United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
(UNCCD) is an international agreement on good
land stewardship. It helps people, communities
and countries create wealth, grow economies and
secure enough food, clean water and energy by
ensuring land users an enabling environment for
sustainable land management. Through
partnerships, the Convention’s 197 parties set
up robust systems to manage drought promptly and
effectively. Good land stewardship based on
sound policy and science helps integrate and
accelerate achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals, builds resilience to climate
change and prevents biodiversity
loss. | | |
Copyright ©
*|2016|* *|UNCCD|*, All rights
reserved.
You are receiving this email
because you are part of the UNCCD Secretariat
mailing list
Our mailing address
is:
United
Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification
UNCCD
Platz der Vereinten
Nationen, Bonn, Germany Bonn 53113
Germany Add
us to your address
book
| |
Sent: Monday,
January 28, 2019 11:40 PM
Subject:
Momentum to recover land health picks up as rural livelihoods
improve
| |
