Executive Summary
1. Desertification is land degradation in
arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas (drylands)
resulting mainly from adverse human impact.
It is a widespread but discrete in space process
of land degradation throughout the drylands which
is quite different from the phenomenon of
observed cyclic oscillations of vegetation productivity
at desert fringes ("desert expansion or
contraction") as revealed by satellite data and
related to climate fluctuations. At present
desertification directly affects about 3.6
billion hectares-70% of the total drylands, or nearly one
quarter of the total land area of the world,
and about one sixth of the world's population. These
figures exclude natural hyper-arid deserts.
2. At the same time, assessment of the
current global status of desertification/land
degradation has shown that accurate hard data,
which would allow it to be stated with some
preciseness to which degree and with what rate
desertification is taking place in various parts
of the world, are still lacking. This calls for
further research and studies to define the
magnitude of the problem in all regions and
localities and the extent to which man is
responsible for the process. The present
gaps in knowledge do not, however, provide an excuse
for delay in action. The existing data
give enough justification to urgent and effective action
to control ongoing land degradation in drylands.
3. At present desertification in the
drylands manifests itself through:
• Over-exploitation and degradation
of 3,333 million hectares or about 73% of the
total area of rangelands which are of low
potential for human and animal carrying
capacity and a low population density
but may be intrinsically resilient and might
have considerable capacity to recuperate and
regain their potential productivity if
properly managed;
• Decline in fertility and soil
structure leading gradually to soil loss in 216 million
hectares of rainfed croplands or nearly
47% of their total area in the drylands,
which constitute the most vulnerable and
fragile marginal cultivable lands
subjected to an increasing population pressure;
• Degradation of 43 million hectares
of irrigated croplands amounting to nearly
30% of their total area in the drylands,
which usually have the highest agricultural
potential and the greatest population
densities when well managed.
4. It is recognized that, while combating
desertification is vital throughout the drylands
within the above three major land use systems,
prevention of degradation of lands, which are
not affected or only slightly affected by
desertification at present but prone to degradation if
improperly managed, as well as application
of corrective measures and sustaining the
productivity of lands that are moderately
affected is more economically viable and practically
feasible than to rehabilitate severely or
very severely degraded lands. Therefore, the prevention
of degradation of lands that are not degraded
or only slightly degraded and sustaining their
productivity is considered as a first priority
in combating desertification. The second priority
is the application of corrective measures and
sustaining the productivity of drylands which are
moderately degraded at present. Rehabilitation
of severely and very severely degraded drylands
and their return to productive use is considered
as a third priority action within the total anti-
desertification campaign. At the same time,
it is further recognized that actual establishment
of the priorities should always be site-specific
and decided by the authorities concerned
depending on the actual situation in the
respective countries and localities.
5. In view of the above, in order to
stop the advance of desertification in drylands, as a
first-priority action at a global scale,
it is recommended to undertake relevant preventive
measures in:
• 102 million hectares of irrigated
non-degraded or only slightly degraded irrigated
croplands [70% of their total area in the drylands];
• 242 million hectares of non-degraded
or only slightly degraded rainfed croplands [53%
of their total area in the drylands];
• 1,233 million hectares of non-degraded
or slightly degraded rangelands [27% of their
total area in the drylands];.
6. The second priority action will
involve implementation of the corrective measures and
sustaining the productivity in:
• 34 million hectares of moderately
degraded irrigated croplands [23% of their total area
in the drylands];
• 183 million hectares of moderately
degraded rainfed croplands [40% of their total area
in the drylands];
• 1,267 million hectares of moderately
degraded rangelands [28% of their total area in the
drylands].
7. The third priority action will
include rehabilitation of:
• 9 million hectares of severely and
very severely degraded irrigated croplands;
• 33 million hectares of severely
and very severely degraded rainfed croplands
(reclamation of only 70% of these lands
might be economically viable due to climate and
soil limitations);
• 2,066 million hectares of severely
and very severely degraded rangelands (reclamation
of only 50% of these lands might be
economically viable due to climate and soil
limitations).
8. The above considerations determine
the main priorities in the implementation of the Plan
of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD),
although the actual priorities must be country-
specific and may not be the same throughout the
world. Furthermore, the dynamic overlap
between major land-sue systems must not be
overlooked and, to counteract this, an integrated
systems approach is emphasized in combating
desertification and drylands development taking
into account the interdependence of rural
and urban societies and policies as well.
9. It is recognized that sustainable
socio-economic development and protection of the
environment are inseparable pre-requisites of
human survival everywhere and in drylands in
particular. Environmental protection
programmes could succeed if conceived as integrated parts
of programmes for socio-economic development. This
means that the anti-desertification
campaign should be managed as an integral part
of socio-economic development of the
territories and societies of the drylands.
10. A distinction is made in implementing
the PACD in industrialized countries which are
able to cope with problem by themselves and
developing countries which need substantial
external assistance for its solution. In
industrialized countries like Australia or USA,
development is not dependent on drylands
and the problem of desertification can be approached
from an economic and technical point of view:
how to stop land degradation and to optimize
the economic return from drylands. In most
developing countries, and in particular in the
Sudano-Sahelian Belt of Africa, the natural
resource base is the main resource upon which the
development process must rely and the social
systems interacting with dryland resources make
the problem much more complex requiring a
holistic approach based on dryland development.
Accordingly, for the majority of countries
affected by desertification, the PACD is in effect, a
Plan of Action for Sustained Dryland Development.
11. In order to achieve the goal of reducing
land degradation through dryland development,
the strategy is based on identifying and
implementing the following actions:
• Social, economic, cultural and
political development with emphasis on solving
problems of food, poverty, housing,
employment, health, education, population
pressures and demographic imbalance;
• Conservation of natural resources
with emphasis on water, energy, soil, minerals,
plant and animal resources in arid, semi-arid
and dry sub-humid areas;
• Environmental control with special
emphasis on protection against decline of soil
fertility, soil loss, water, soil and air
pollution as well as deforestation.
12. It is recognized that broad based
public participation including all sections, both rural and
urban, of the affected community including women,
indigenous groups and representative
NGOs, is most essential for implementing the PACD.
13. To fully implement the PACD, an
increased international effort should include
strengthening the capabilities of the
countries affected, developing countries in particular, to
address environmental/developmental issues
through assistance in developing appropriate
policies, pricing, legislation, institution
building, improved natural resource management
and accounting, the capacity to use environmental
impact assessment and environmental cost-benefit
analysis technologies, improved environmental
data bases and environmental education and training,
and popular participation in implementation, especially
at local level.
14. On the basis of experience in implementing
the PACD during 1978-1991, it could be
stated that the PACD is dealing with a
problem that cannot be solved once and for all. It is
rather like dealing with a process that will
generate new problems to be tackled once the more
urgent ones have been dealt with. Therefore,
it would be unrealistic to fix a date when the
PACD would be fully implemented. However, certain
time targets could be set forth, both
nationally and internationally, for implementing
major preventive, corrective and supporting
measures to make the Plan fully operational.
15. The urgency of addressing the global
problem of desertification is based on the fact that
this process:
(a) socio-economically: constitutes
the main cause and mechanism of global loss of
productive land resources, causes economic instability
and political unrest in areas
affected, brings pressures on the economy and
the stability of societies outside the
affected areas, prevents achievements of
sustainable development in affected areas
and countries;
(b) environmentally: contributes to
loss of global biodiversity, loss of the biomass and
bioproductivity of the planet, and global climate change.
16. To achieve the general goal of the PACD,
the following set of main
environmental/developmental targets can
be set for the year 2020:
(a) Preventing further deterioration
of the world food security and sustaining
productivity of land affected by, or prone
to, desertification through the
introduction of environmentally sound,
socially acceptable and fair, and
economically feasible land use systems
based on social equity and appropriate
technologies;
(b) Protection of non-degraded or
slightly degraded lands prone to desertification and
reclamation of degraded lands for
productive use or their conservation for natural
rehabilitation, as appropriate;
(c) Provision of adequate insurance
against recurrent droughts and famine in the
drylands;
(d) Improvement of the quality of
life of the inhabitants of lands affected by
desertification, including health, sanitation
and family planning and achievement
of the goal of satisfying basic human
needs in the extensive areas of world
drylands;
(e) Prevention of adverse
desertification impact on global climate change and
biodiversity including germplasm materials
for many crop and fodder plants.
17. For the same period, the following
targets for supporting measures
are envisaged:
(a) Incorporation of national actions
to combat desertification into broader national
development policies, plans or programmes;
(b) Mobilization of national, regional
and international resources needed for the full
implementation of the PACD;
(c) Mobilization and strengthening of
national, regional and international institutional
capabilities for implementing the Plan;
(d) Introduction of new land use
economic and social policies conductive to
sustainable development of land and
water resources and improvement of land use;
(e) Making land users the main
actors in designing and implementing the Plan and
ensuring full public participation in
anti-desertification campaign;
(f) Development of indigenous national
and ecoregional scientific research and
technology capabilities;
(g) Co-ordination of current and
new national, regional and international sectoral
programmes within broader environment/development programmes;
(h) Establishment of a global network
of national, regional and international
institutional and technical facilities
for current operational assessment and
continuous monitoring of desertification;
(i) Strengthening of regional programmes
and international co-operation in the
campaign against desertification;
(j) Provision of free flow of technology
on favorable terms to areas affected by, or
prone to, desertification;
(k) Improvement of infrastructure in the
areas affected by, or prone to, desertification.
18. The following set of practical measures,
at national level, to achieve the above targets
is recommended:
Preventive, Corrective and Rehabilitation Measures
Recommendation 1: To introduce improved land use systems:
Step 1 - to introduce an integrated approach
in the utilization of every piece of
land in accordance with its ecological characteristics;
Step 2 - to introduce improved land/water/crop
management systems in existing
irrigated croplands;
Step 3 - to stabilize rainfed croplands
and to introduce improved soil/crop
management systems into this land use practice;
Step 4 - to introduce improved
rangeland/husbandry management systems based
on innovative or adapted indigenous technologies;
Step 5 - to undertake major
afforestation/reforestation campaigns;
Step 6 - to undertake, whenever
appropriate, major campaigns on stabilization of
shifting sands.
Recommendation 2: To develop and introduce
appropriate, improved and advanced, socially
and environmentally acceptable and economically
feasible agricultural and pastoral
technologies.
Recommendation 3: To establish adequate
communication infrastructure and sufficient
processing and marketing facilities.
Recommendation 4: To develop appropriately
available water resources and to introduce
improved water management systems.
Recommendation 5: To reclaim for
productive use or to protect effectively for natural
rehabilitation, as appropriate, strongly desertified lands.
Supporting Measures
Recommendation 6: To establish or to
strengthen, as appropriate, the national institutional
capabilities for implementing the PACD.
Recommendation 7: To launch nationally
a major sustained anti-desertification
awareness/training campaign.
Recommendation 8: To introduce a
"loop model" in the existing or newly established extension
service.
Recommendation 9: To finalize the
operative large-scale local and national assessment of the
current status of desertification.
Recommendation 10: To develop, adopt
through appropriate national legislation and introduce
institutionally new national environmentally sound
and development oriented land use policy.
Recommendation 11: To develop and introduce
effective national insurance schemes against
recurrent drought and famine./
19. Countries affected by, or prone to,
desertification might wish to set their own priorities
in implementing their NPACDs. However, it
seems logic that a first practical step would be
to implement Recommendations 6 and 7 above,
within 3-5 years. Recommendations 8, 9, 10
and 11 may take a longer time probably up to
the year 2000. Implementation of
Recommendations 1 and 2 could start
simultaneously on a trial basis. The Plan can thus
become fully operational throughout affected
areas by around the year 2000. Full scale
reconstruction will take longer time probably
through the year 2010 by which time
Recommendations 1 and 2 could be fully
implemented. The stabilization period will take still
a longer period probably up to year 2020
by which time Recommendations 3, 4 and 5 would
have been implemented.
20. A programme for the implementation
of a world-wide direct action to combat
desertification may be based on one of the
following three options:
i) Implement programmes of
direct preventive measures in productive drylands that
are not desertified or only slightly
desertified (about 30% of productive drylands).
Total cost estimate is US $ 1.4-4.2
billion per year. This, however, will not save
territories that are moderately
desertified from further deterioration;
ii) Implement the above programme
plus programme of direct corrective measures
in productive drylands that are moderately
desertified (areas with 10-25% loss of
productivity in croplands and 25-50% in
rangelands); total cost estimate is US $
3.8-11.4 billion per year;
iii) Implement a comprehensive programme
of direct measures to combat
desertification in all productive
drylands (preventive-corrective-rehabilitation);
total cost estimate is US $ 10.0-22.4 billion per year.
The above options could be considered as the
sort of action priorities that could be
adopted both globally and nationally. They
could be modified as appropriate within the areas
concerned.
21. Sub-regional co-operation on the
basis of an eco-geographical concept is advocated using
existing structures and promoting co-operation
between industrialized and developing countries
within the regions.
22. At international level, co-operation
is recommended to be strengthened in the following
areas: (a) mobilization of financial resources and
provision of financial assistance to countries
which cannot cope with the problem by themselves;
(b) development of appropriate pricing and
trade policies; (c) provision of technical
assistance to countries in need; (d) development of
appropriate anti-desertification technologies
and technology transfer to needy countries on
favorable terms; (e) monitoring and co-ordination
of the anti-desertification campaign at a global
level; (f) information exchange; (g) international
legislation.
23. It is estimated that current global
direct on-site financial loss [income foregone] due to
desertification amounts to about US $ 42
billion annually. Indirect off-site and social cost of
desertification damage might be 2-3 or even up
to 10 times higher.
24. The cost of meeting the minimum
objectives of stopping the spread of desertification,
that is the cost of urgent direct preventive
measures in non-affected but vulnerable or only
slightly affected irrigated lands (70% of their
total area), rainfed croplands (53% of their total
area), and rangelands (27% of their total area),
amounts to about US $ 1.4-4.2 billion a year for
a 20-Year programme. This should be complemented
by the cost of direct corrective measures
in moderately affected irrigated lands (23% of
their total area) rainfed croplands (40% of their
total area) and rangelands (28% of their total
area) amounting to nearly US $ 2.4-7.2 billion a
year for the same 20-Year programme. Out of this
total sum of US $ 3.8-11.4 billion a year,
US $ 2.2-6.6 billion a year are needed for financing
the actions in 81 developing countries
affected by desertification which cannot cope
with the problem; half of this sum could, at best,
be raised by the countries themselves, while
the other half, or US $ 1.1-3.3 billion should come
through external assistance.
25. The above indicative figures represent
only the cost of direct preventive and corrective
measures for protection and sustaining of
productive drylands. The total cost of combating
desertification, including the cost of full
implementation of all recommendations of the PACD,
might be several times higher.
26. Past experience showed that the
amount of funds spent by the world community during
1978-1991 [approximately US $ 0.5-0.85
billion a year] on direct or supporting actions to
combat desertification was far below the
amount needed for the implementation of the PACD
and for achieving substantial results.
Financial assistance to developing countries which are
most seriously struck by desertification and
have no resources to cope with the problem, was
particularly very inadequate. Likewise,
existing mechanisms for mobilization of the resources
and financing the PACD [DESCON, Special Account]
appeared to be inadequate.
27. Financial assistance to developing
countries struggling against desertification should be
additional, that is over and above regular
budgets and conventional extra budgetary resources;
it must be predictable, sustainable, and
with a degree of automaticity. Net additional financing
and technical assistance to developing
countries for combating desertification should be provided
by the donor community and international
institutions, through appropriate new or existing
international and regional mechanisms to manage
the process of mobilizing and allocating
financial and technical resources, on terms
which will not further exacerbate debt and trade
problems of recipient countries but rather
enhance their development process.
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