Desertification: A boomerang heading back to Europe

Africans crossing the sea to reach the Canary islands or the European costs are often forced to do so by desertification. Therefore Dodo together with the European networking initiative on Desertification (eniD) launch an emergency campaign to demand that the Parties to the UN Conference to Combat Desertification, held this week in Madrid, undertake immediate action on the ground and involve Civil Society to reach sustainable development in dryland areas.

In Europe, Spain is an excellent illustration of what is going on at a global scale. It is experiencing severe land degradation but it is also undergoing the destabilizing consequences of the same phenomenon elsewhere, migration. More than 2 billion people in the drylands of Latin America, Africa and Asia mostly depend on agriculture for their daily bread. 1.2 billion of them are affected by desertification according to UN sources. In the worse case scenario land degradation affects a country's food security, increases poverty, triggers large-scale internal migrations, intra-regional conflicts and social instability. According to the Algerian minister for Territorial Management, by 2025 65 million refugees from Africa will knock on the Western Worlds’ doors, pushed by desertification.

If developed countries continue to ignore the problem of land degradation, they will ultimately pay the high social and economic price. It is estimated that the annual economic costs of desertification worldwide exceed US$ 42 billion, including both loss of produced goods and damage to natural resources, while the costs of combating desertification are estimated to be in the range of US$ 10 to 22 billion per year. Acting now means that land rehabilitation is still possible. This Conference is therefore a turning point for the Convention where affected and donor Parties should both take on their responsibilities. Crucial decisions should be taken without delay to avoid the UNCCD to die a silent death, and the drylands with it.

eniD’s 5 proposals to reverse the process of land degradation

As two first priorities eniD considers that Civil Society can and should play a vital role in transforming objectives into result oriented local action which is the most urgent need. To do so Civil Society should have an official status in the various negotiation processes of the Convention. Third, research should definitely be closely linked to the local reality. It should involve local actors and be directly translatable into actions on the ground. The Convention’s Committee for Science and Technology should re-establish its effectiveness. Fourth, investing in human resources, through for example capacity building and knowledge sharing, instead of super structures and frameworks is more likely to lead to sustainable development on the ground. Finally, concrete commitments from all stakeholders especially Parties linked to their responsibilities are pre-requisites if any development is to be expected and reached in dryland areas.

For more information:

Read ENID position paper in the IIWG 10 year strategic plan in English, in French, in Spanish
Mikko Ahonen from Dodo participates to the conference in Madrid: etunimi.sukunimi@dodo.org or +358 40 5244544.  

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