United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Luc GNACADJA Executive Secretary Luc GNACADJA

Executive Secretary Publc Lecture

Windhoek, 25 July 2013

What lasting Solutions?

Land Degradation Desertification

and Drought issues

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Luc GNACADJA Executive Secretary

Land Degradation Desertification

and Drought issues

Outline 1). Land as a stategic commodity in the Nexus of Poverty-Food-Energy-Water 2). Understanding Land degradation, Desertification and Drought 3). The UNCCD from Rio Summit (1992) to Rio+20 4). Land-degradation neutral world: a holistic framework for lasting solutions? 5). The reasons for hope

Land is a strategic commodity in the nexus issues of: Poverty - Food & Water security - Energy access

Deforestation: 70 to 80 % of expansion of cropland expansion

Land & Sustainability

? Sustainable

Development

Land/Soil

Poverty Food security

Energy Water

70% rural

80% hunger rural +50% in 2030 + 120 million ha

Water in Agric 70% in 2030 +30%

in 2030 +45%

Estimated Cropland expansion by 2030 for food, feed and fuel demand 175 to 220 Mha Urbanization: 3 Mha/year

Land: a scarce resource & a global Common

75%

14% 9%

3% Water

Mountains, deserts, ice

Rocky, wet, hot, infertile areas, roads or cities Arable land

Land Degradation/Desertification: Earth’s skin disease

Deforestation Overgrazing Agriculture

BioIndustries

The Causes of Land Degradation/Desertification

Desertification?

The legacy of DLDD

75%

14% 9% 3% Water

Mountains, deserts, ice

Rocky, wet, hot, infertile areas, roads or cities

q  LD is accelerating: Total land area degraded 15% in 1991 to 25% in 2011

q  More than 50% of agricultural moderately to severely degraded

q  LD directly affects 1,5 billion people globally (2008)

q  24 billion tons of fertile soil lost/year due to cropland erosion

q  12 million ha/Year lost due to drought and desertification

q  Six million km2 of drylands bear a legacy of desertification

q  Biodiversity: 27,000 species lost each year due to Land Degradation (LD)

q  70 to 80 % of expansion of cropland leads to deforestation

Africa  &  DLDD  issues  

§  Dry  lands  (including  arid,  semi-­‐arid  or  sub-­‐humid  areas)  account  for:  §  43%  of  land  area  §  50%  of  popula@on    §  75%    of  agriculture  land  

§  About  75%  of  Africa’s  poor  (living  on  less  than  $1.25/day)  are  in  countries  with  dry  land  populaEon  >  25%  of  total  populaEon  

Africa’s  Land:    §  Highest  producEvity  Gap  &    §  Highest  Poverty  rate  

   

Source:  (CGIAR)  -­‐  Zomer  et  al.  (2007)  and  Zomer  et  al.  (2008)  based  on  WorldClim  

Desertification Risk & Vulnerability in Africa

Desertification Vulnerability in Africa  Published  in:  P.F.  Reich,  S.T.  Numbem,  R.A.  Almaraz  and  H.  Eswaran  ,  2001

Risk of human-induced desertification

Risk of human-induced desertification

2/3 of Africa’s arable land under use could be lost by 2025 if the

trend of Desertification and Land Degradation

continues (FAO  2009)  

Extreme Poverty

Increased to Drought & Water stress

Food insecurity & Hunger

Biodiversity Loss

Increased emissions of

GHG

Environ. induced

Migrations Instability &

Crises Deforestation DLDD has far-reaching impacts/conseguences

DLDD & Linkages to other global issues

Adult  female  literacy  declining  with  increasing  levels  of  aridity  in  West  Africa  

DLDD & Gender

Child mortality increasing with land degradation

Drylands & Conflicts

Drought Disasters

Map of drought repartition were we can see that Africa, India, United states, Australia are the most affected by drought. For example Africa was exposed in some parts to up to nine droughts in the time span

Sahel: Seasonal Temperature trends

Sahel Hotpots of change

Namibia: Drought & Food insecurity

Drought potential worldwide 2000-2098

Source : University Corporation for Atmospheric Research - http://www2.ucar.edu/news/2904/climate-change-drought-may-threaten-much-globe-within-decades

Rio Summit 1992 Addressing drylands specific challenges:

" Environment & Development Convention "   Entered into force on 26 December 1996 "   Ratified by 195 Parties "   5 geographical Annexes (RAPs and

SRAPs) "   113 National Action Programmes (NAPs) "   168 Affected Parties (from 110)

The UNCCD

Challenges in implementing the UNCCD

q  Low political recognition & mainstreaming

q  Weak scientific basis

q  Lack of understanding of the impacts of Desertification/Land Degradation

q  Inadequate financing

q  Drylands are waste lands, marginal lands with low productivity & low adaptive capacity

q  Where poverty is inevitable

q  Little contribution to national prosperity

q  Cannot yield good return to investments

The real value of Drylands

" +1/3 of the world land mass and population

" 44% of the World’s food production system

" 50% of the World’s livestock

" Dry forest made 42% of the earth's tropical and subtropical open or closed forests

" Home to the world’s largest diversity of mammals

Drylands: Assumptions & Real Value Assumptions & Misperceptions

U N C C D

To mobilize resources through building effective partnerships among all stakeholders

The UNCCD Strategy: A framework for result-based implementation

2To improve the Conditions of affected Ecosystems

To generate Global Benefits 3

1To improve the Livelihood of Affected Populations

*SLM = Sustainable Land Management

U N C C D

The Economics of LD

Cost of Action Vs Inaction

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

The Vision of a Land-

Degradation Neutral World

Major policy development from Rio+20 Summit

A holistic framework for lasting solutions to DLDD issues

DLDD in “The Future We Want” Outcomes (para 205-209)

1)  DLDD are challenges of a global dimension and continue to pose serious challenges to the sustainable development of all countries

2)   Strive to achieve a land-degradation neutral world 3)  Monitor land degradation globally and restore restore

degraded (in drylands) in order to contribute to sustainable development and poverty eradication

4)  To improve science and science-policy interface to addresss DLDD

5)  Improve cooperation for information sharing and early warning systems

Global politics of responsibility for land stewardship In the context of the Post-2015 Global Dev. Agenda l  A SDG on land

q ZNLD by 2030 q ZNFD by 2030 q NDMP by 2020

l  Enhancing Human security: invest to improve the underperforming assets of the poor q Eradicating Poverty q Ensuring Food-Water-Energy security

Poverty eradication Improving livelihood

through pro-poor policies on Sustainable Land &

Water Management

Drought & Water stress Improving water

availability & quality through sustainable land

& water management

Food Security Preserving the resource base for food security – Land productivity/Soil fertility improvement at the core of all long term

strategies

Biodiversity Biodiversity conservation through improvement of

land ecosystems’ conditions

Climate change Land is a win-win context for adaptation, mitigation

& resilience building

Bio Energies Opportunities for Bio

energies through biomass production

Avoided Deforestation

SLM & Restoration of degraded Lands as an

alternative to Deforestation

Avoiding environ. Forced Migrations

Changing the “Degrade-Abandon-Migrate” or

DAM Paradigm

The Vision of a LDNW An integrated framework for Landscape approach

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

Luc GNACADJA Executive Secretary

The Reasons for Hope

Holistic Management

and Ecological

Restoration

Ecological Restoration

1955

2005 1975

Farmer-managed natural regeneration in Niger

l  5,000,000 ha re-greened in 20 years (only labour for protection, investment in extension, no recurrent costs to governments)

l  200 million new trees l  additional cereal

production/year: 500,000 ton

l  2.5 million people fed l  1.25 million rural

households involved & l  Resilient to climatic shocks

Challenges for scaling up and dissemination l  Secure Land tenure and

Land use rights l  Public investments on

infrastructures l  Legislation

Ecological Restoration: Loess Plateau, China

Source: World Resources Institute, South Dakota State University, the IUCN and the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration - http://www.wri.org/map/global-map-forest-landscape-restoration-opportunities

“We also need to reward those who make drylands productive, so they will

prosper and others will seek to emulate their example”

Ban Ki-moon, on 17 June 2011

Thank you for taking action

A Historical Fact

Mankind is a Desert-making Species

Drought: from crises management to preparedness & risk management