PART II
THE UNITED NATIONS PLAN OF ACTION TO
COMBAT DESERTIFICATION (PACD)
A. MONITORING OF THE
PACD AND ITS EVALUATION BY THE GOVERNING
COUNCIL OF UNEP
1. Starting from 1978 , the Governing
Council of UNEP at each of its regular sessions and
in accordance with the mandate given to it
by the UN General Assembly, considered progress
in the implementation of the Plan of Action
to Combat Desertification regularly reporting its
findings and decisions to the General Assembly
through the Economic and Social Council.
2. In 1984 at its 12th Session, the
Governing Council considered not only progress in the
implementation of the PACD and the world
status of desertification but the PACD itself. By
paragraph 4 of decision 12/10 of 28 May 1984,
the Governing Council reconfirmed the validity
of the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification
and the general appropriateness of the
institutional arrangements established by
the General Assembly for the follow-up of its
implementation.
3. By paragraph 8 of its decision 15/23
of 25 May 1989, the Governing Council requested
the Executive Director "to arrange for
an external evaluation of the Plan of Action to Combat
Desertification to be conducted and for
the results to be presented well in time for the proposed
United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development in 1992, but not later than the
Governing Council at its 16th session"
(in 1991). The required evaluation was made during 1990
and the corresponding report was presented
to the 16th session of the Governing Council as
document UNEP/GC16./16/Add.1.
4. The external evaluation reconfirmed the
validity of the principles contained in the PACD,
and its utility as a tool for experts and
technicians, but it showed that the modest
implementation of the PACD during
1978-1989 was partly due to a certain deficiency of the
PACD itself. It criticized the Plan
for its lack of focus and for omitting socio-economic factors
associated with desertification that should
be better understood by politicians and decision-
makers. The evaluation concluded that the
PACD should remain a global strategy for
desertification control and recommended the
preparation and dissemination of a slightly revised
version of the PACD and its guidelines.
5. After considering the above report
on the external evaluation of the PACD, the
Governing Council by its decision 16/22 of
31 May 1991 reaffirmed "its conviction that the
Plan of Action to Combat Desertification is
an appropriate instrument to assist Governments in
developing national programmes for arresting
the process of desertification" and also requested
the Executive Director "to take into account
when revising the existing recommendations of the
Plan of Action to Combat Desertification,
the approved findings and recommendations of the
evaluation report and of this decision, and
to include the revised recommendations in the
Council's report on the status of
desertification and implementation of the Plan of Action to the
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development".
6. Part III of the present report
responds to the above decision of the Governing Council
and the relevant provisions of UN General
Assembly Resolution 44/172 concerning the
preparation of the documentation on
desertification for the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development.
B. IMPLEMENTATION OF
THE PACD 1978-1991
(I) INTRODUCTION
7. In compiling the present report, the
material was obtained from relevant agencies and
organizations, both within and outside the
United Nations system, including: United Nations
Environment Programme [UNEP], United Nations
Development Programme [UNDP], United
Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office [UNSO], the
World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations [FAO], International
Fund for Agricultural Development [IFAD], World
Food Programme [WFP], United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization
[UNESCO], United Nations Children's Fund
[UNICEF], United Nations Development Fund for
Women [UNIFEM], World Meteorological
Organization [WMO], World Health Organization
[WHO], International Labor Organization
[ILO], United Nations Commission for Trade and
Development [UNCTAD], International
Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources [IUCN], United Nations Regional
Commissions [ECA, ECLAC, ESCAP, ESCWA,
ECE], Permanent Inter-State Committee on
Drought Control in the Sahel [CILSS], Inter-
governmental Authority for Drought and
Development [IGADD], Organization of African Unity
[OAU], African Ministerial Conference on
the Environment [AMCEN], Southern Africa
Development Co-ordination Conference
[SADCC], European Economic Community [EEC].
Unavoidably, constraints of reporting
length preclude the possibility of including the detailed
contributions supplied. Therefore,
only a summary and synopsis of major trends is outlined
below, while a world-wide compendium of
anti-desertification actions and projects is maintained
and permanently updated by UNEP.
8. It may be observed that the
recommendations contained in the PACD were wide-ranging
and expected action from rural populations,
governments, sub-regional and regional institutions,
and the international community. Such
expectations raised real problems for accurate evaluation
of achievements and it is only possible to
speak in general terms when looking back at what
has been achieved.
9. As UNEP's Governing Council reviewed
the first assessment of progress achieved in the
implementation of the PACD carried out in
1984, the Council noted that measures carried out
during the seven-year period had not produced
substantial results in any of the countries and
regions affected by desertification, nowhere
had the PACD been implemented in its totality.
10. On the occasion of the Xth anniversary
of the PACD in 1987, an attempt was made by
the United Nations system to evaluate what
had been achieved in the intervening period. This
served to confirm that, despite 10 years of
the PACD, desertification was still progressing
virtually at the same rate as at the time
of UNCOD. It was also confirmed that the process still
affects all continents and, as observed
previously, the most affected countries are linked to arid,
semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas of Africa
and Asia. In Africa, the Sudano-Sahelian region,
after a recent series of droughts stretching
for more than 20 years, remained the most
permanently vulnerable, and it was estimated
that the well-being of some 80-85% of the
population of the region has been affected.
(II) ROLE OF THE UNITED
NATIONS SYSTEM AND THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY
11. At UNCOD, the United Nations
system as a whole participated actively, bringing in the
special expertise of each agency, towards
the solution of the problem of desertification. In
drafting the programme of action to combat
desertification, lessons were learnt from the
experience of these agencies, and it was
assumed that they would participate actively in the
subsequent implementation of the PACD, as
envisaged by the appropriate General Assembly
resolutions. Some of the pre-UNCOD
initiatives which were tacitly subsumed in the PACD
included inter alia the following:
• FAO/UNEP Project on Ecological
Management of Arid and Semi-Arid Rangelands
[EMASAR] in Africa, Near East and Middle
East started in 1975;
• Relevant components of
UNEP's Global Environmental Monitoring System [GEMS]
using the satellite imagery interpretation
established in 1972;
• UNESCO/MAB first launched in
1970 and having important components on the
management of arid lands, like the Integrated
Programme on Arid Lands [IPAL].
12. It was recommended by UNCOD and
decided by the General Assembly to establish an
Inter-Agency Working Group on Desertification
[IAWGD] reporting to the UN Administrative
Committee on Co-ordination [ACC] and the
Governing Council of UNEP. This body was
intended to serve as a forum for co-ordinating
the work of various UN agencies and
organizations, including the regional
commissions, towards the implementation of the PACD.
Regular annual sessions of the IAWGD were
held, starting from 1978 and through 1991,
providing an input to co-ordinated
activities within the United Nations system and ensuring the
avoidance of duplications.
13. The PACD was explicit in recognizing
that whereas the main anti-desertification thrust
was expected to come from a national level,
there would be many other areas where support
from regional or international organizations
would be called for (Recommendation 26), or
projects which could only be carried out in
the framework of regional or international co-
operation. Since UNCOD, the co-ordinating
mechanism has been used successfully to ensure
a tiered action programme which starts with
activities at the grassroots level, through national,
regional and global levels. At regional and
global levels, activities of the United Nations system
have been complemented by those of
Non-governmental Organizations [NGOs], the International
Council for Scientific Unions [ICSU] and
the International Union for the Conservation of Nature
and Natural Resources [IUCN].
14. The Consultative Group for
Desertification Control [DESCON] was established by the
General Assembly in 1978 as a mechanism
for mobilizing resources needed for the
implementation of the PACD. Its mandate
was later expanded to include exchange of
information and policy guidance. So far
(1991) there have been eight DESCON meetings, while
the total funds made available through
this mechanism for approved projects have remained
minimal. The changing role of DESCON has
come as a disappointment to the developing
countries and to all those who felt that
with more financial resources available, it would be
possible to put forward viable programmes
for the control of desertification as recommended
in the PACD. Despite problems with DESCON
(see Paras 22-26 in Part IV), there have been
some limited funds to enable recipient
countries to carry out certain projects dealing with
desertification. Between 1978 and 1985,
some 50 projects at a cost of US $ 15 million were
completed, and that year (1985) there
were some 20 projects under implementation at a cost of
US $ 51 million. These projects are a part
of national programmes and the funding was
provided through bilateral arrangements
catalyzed by DESCON. The past and present
assessments have, however, indicated that
the problem of desertification was so large that in the
absence of massive financial resources it
was bound to get worse each year. Thus, in 1991 it
can be concluded that there has been a
failure to respond adequately to the needs of the PACD
including through DESCON because of the
apparent unwillingness on the part of the affected
countries and the donors to make it work
as originally conceived.
15. The UN General Assembly decided
(Res. 32/172 of 19 December 1977, para. 8) to
entrust the Governing Council and the Executive
Director of UNEP as well as the Environment
Co-ordinate Board [ECB], with the responsibility
of following-up and co-ordinating the
implementation of the PACD. Based on the
Executive Director's reports, the Governing
Council of UNEP considered various aspects
of the problem of desertification and of the
progress in implementing the PACD at each
of its regular sessions since 1978, periodically
reporting the results of considerations to
the General Assembly through the Economic and
Social Council. Within UNEP, a Desertification
Control Branch was established which was
later transformed into Desertification
Control Programme Activity Center [DC/PAC]. This unit
also provided a secretariat for IAWGD and DESCON.
16. With the Plan in place, UNEP,
supported by the IAWGD, saw its primary role as
consisting of the following:
• assisting countries to formulate
national action plans for combating desertification;
• stimulating and co-ordinating
action within the international community and the
United Nations system in particular;
• assessing desertification at a
global level and developing a methodology for the
assessment;
• monitoring the implementation
of the PACD at a global level;
• building a computerized
data base on desertification and disseminating information
for use in desertification control;
• promoting national, regional
and global co-operative action through the establishment
of networks of institutions and NGOs engaged
in desertification control;
• co-operating with national,
regional and international institutions in the assessment and
monitoring of desertification through the
application of relevant methodologies
within the means of developing countries;
• creating and co-ordinating a network
of regional and international training courses
on desertification control, particularly
for personnel from developing countries;
• sponsoring a few pilot projects
for testing and demonstrating technologies for
desertification control and integrated
development in drylands.
17. UNEP has been in a position to sponsor
and to fund the above skeletal programme areas
from the Environment fund. But the main
activities had to be funded through different
mechanisms, such as the Trust Fund
administered by UNSO, funds administered by the
specialized UN agencies, the World Bank,
Regional Development Banks and bilateral aid
agencies.
18. Members of the IAWGD have been
particularly helpful to UNEP in the technical aspects
of the PACD implementation such as deriving
criteria and techniques for the assessment of
desertification [FAO, UNESCO, WMO], holding
training workshops and seminars, and the
preparation of field manuals for use in
various anti-desertification activities.
19. UNEP has managed to work with
the UN regional commissions quite successfully, and
has succeeded in co-ordinating their work
which is relevant to the recommendations of the
PACD. Important break-through has included
the establishment of several regional networks
since 1984. UNEP Governing Council decision
12/10 of 1984 contained recommendations for
stronger regional action and supported the
establishment of regional networks primarily for
training and demonstration. The following
networks were established:
• Network on Sand-Dune Fixation -
North Africa and Middle East [ESCWA];
• Network on Afforestation - Latin America [ECLAC];
• Regional Network of Research and
Training Centers for Desertification Control in
Asia and the Pacific - Asia and the Pacific [ESCAP/UNEP/UNESCO];
• NGO Network of Research and
Information Development of Sustainable Livelihoods
in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands in Africa [ECA];
• Watershed Management Network - SADCC
region of Africa [ECA];
• Chaco Arid Zones Network - Argentina [ECLAC];
• Dendro-energy Network - Peru [ECLAC].
In commenting on the establishment of
these networks, the ACC recently noted that the
networking approach represents an effective
means of implementing the PACD (UNEP/GC/SS
I/5/1988). There are other networks at
global level established by one or more agencies
working together. These include the MAB
National Committees of UNESCO plus the MAB
International Network of Biosphere Reserves.
20. At UNCOD, attempts were made to find
suitable candidates of large anti-desertification
projects for international action. These were
transnational projects like the Trans-Saharan Green
Belt in North Africa. Apart from their rather
idealistic format, they helped to emphasize the
fact that desertification is not limited by
political boundaries. As part of that international
approach there have recently been several new
projects which are better researched and less
idealistic. These include AMCEN's African
Deserts and Arid Lands Committee [ADALCO]
projects which involve true deserts (Sahara),
adjoining river basins, economic communities
(Common Market partners), and the African
NGOs Network. These international collaborative
projects also include the development of
sub-regional data bases, monitoring systems for the
Sahara, Somali-Chalbi and Kalahari-Namib deserts,
and the selection and implementation of
regional projects suggested by the Cairo
Programme in line with the PACD.
21. Economic and social issues are
central to international co-operation in responding to the
PACD. The Plan had specific recommendations on
dealing with some of these aspects but they
have been the most difficult to quantify. It
is important both at national and international levels
to endeavor to sensitize planners, project
managers and technical persons on these issues, to
ensure that they give them the priority ratings
required for adequate funding. There are certain
achievements in this area, but it is difficult
to say how substantial they are and what impact they
provide for the implementation of the PACD.
22. The rehabilitation of the national
wealth of natural resources in the form of land surely
deserves a better deal, particularly through
appropriate land surveys at the first stage. This issue
has still inadequate priority. In the past,
donor governments, inter-governmental organizations,
aid agencies and non-governmental organizations
have often failed to accord high priority to
restoring degraded land and tend to favor projects
of agriculture, even when the land resource
base is fast being depleted by degradation. They
were usually reluctant to fund pastoralist areas
where nomadic or semi-nomadic peoples are fast
degrading the rangeland by overgrazing.
23. In terms of financial and technical
support for anti-desertification projects as contained
in the PACD, UNDP has made the largest contribution
in its normal process of funding various
development programmes in the developing countries.
Many of the UNDP funded projects were
executed by the relevant UN agencies, and the
greatest concentration of anti-desertification
projects has been executed by FAO, particularly in the areas of rainfed
croplands, rangeland and range management improvement,
soil degradation, secondary
salinization of irrigated cropland.
24. International effort to assist in
combating desertification is illustrated by the following
list of projects implemented or executed by
the UN agencies between 1978 and 1990:
Table
25. A UNDP-UNEP joint venture enabled UNSO
to assist, on behalf of UNEP, 22
developing countries in the Sudano-Sahelian
region of Africa with their national programmes
to combat desertification. These countries
are most seriously affected by desertification, many
of which are least developed countries.
This activity covered a large area including: co-
ordination of anti-desertification programmes
within the region, promotion and encouragement
of regional co-operation, provision of general
policy guidelines for the direction and co-
ordination of anti-desertification programmes,
support for efforts undertaken to combat
desertification at national level, working with
various donors and mobilization of financial
resources, assisting countries in the
translation of the PACD recommendations into concrete
projects, assisting countries in the
preparation of their national PACDs, monitoring of the
implementation of the PACD in the region.
26. Between 1974 and 1989, more than
US $ 200 million had been channelled by UNSO
for projects in the region. Programmes that
benefitted from these funds were relevant to the
PACD, such as afforestation and reforestation,
fuelwood conservation and the utilization of
alternative sources of energy, rangeland
conservation, soil management and sand dune
stabilization, integrated land management,
and planning and programming for natural resources
conservation.
27. Although the funds, mobilized by UNSO
are very far from adequate, the UNSO example
demonstrates the fact that, if more funds
were available, anti-desertification programmes within
the framework of the PACD would have been
on a more meaningful level throughout the world
compared to the present. The Sudano-Sahelian
region of Africa fared better than the other
regions around the globe in respect of
resources mobilization for anti-desertification activities.
Some consideration was given to the possibility
of replicating the "UNSO Experience" in other
badly degraded lands of the world.
Furthermore, the important role of UNSO in Africa is that
its experience is now being shared by
certain sub-regional inter-governmental organizations such
as IGADD, SADCC, ECOWAS and COMIDES, which
are dealing with anti-desertification
programmes in their respective sub-regions of Africa.
28. Another example of the United Nations
efforts to cope with the problem is the current
provision, through World Food Programme, of
some half billion dollars worth of food aid to
projects which aim at reducing desertification
impact on affected population. The WFP projects
mainly focus on providing food-for-work in
support of activities such as tree planting, building
of soils and water conservation structures,
and construction and rehabilitation of
irrigation/drainage systems. Over the 1980-1990
period WFP supplied about US $ 700 million
of emergency food aid for victims of drought
and crop failure in drylands. Some US $ 127
million of emergency food aid was provided
to those in 1991.
29. One of the most successful international
actions catalyzed and co-ordinated by UNEP
has been through sponsorship of training
courses, seminars and workshops in collaboration with
a number of countries. These were often
repeated during the last ten years (number in
brackets). The main themes of these were:
• Sand dune fixation (6),
• Reclamation of saline irrigated soils (5),
• Ecology, productivity and management of rangelands (10),
• Combating desertification through
integrated development (4),
• Physics of desertification (1)
• Desertification control (5)
• Zootechnology in drylands (2),
• Creating desertification awareness (2),
• Drylands agriculture and machinery use (1),
• Protection of oasis and lands from sand
dune encroachment (1),
• Role of forests and afforestation
in combating desertification (1),
• Soil erosion and water conservation (2),
• Ecological studies in drylands (1),
• Afforestation techniques and suitable species (1),
• Use of aerial photographs and satellite imagery (1),
• Rainfed agriculture and soil conservation (1),
• Assessment of desertification (6),
• Soil laboratory techniques (1),
• Agricultural development in drylands (1),
• Role of women in combating desertification (6),
• Diagnosis, reclamation and conservation
of gypsiferous soils (1),
• Eco-farming villages (1),
• Anti-desertification projects formulation (1).
30. The following data illustrate the
participation of the countries in the organization of
the above training courses, seminars and
workshops sponsored by UNEP from 1978 through
1991 as well as the number of participating
specialists, from developing countries affected by
desertification:
Table
31. In addition to the above, the Southern
India training courses on afforestation,
organized by the "Millions of Trees Club"
NGO, were attended by 1,600 local participants at
grassroots level.
32. Various training courses related to
combating desertification were also organized by
members of IAWGD as well as by different
inter-governmental regional organizations.
33. Thus, a total number of about 7,000
specialists, practically all from developing countries
affected by desertification, have received
their additional anti-desertification training through
various international courses, seminars and
workshops during the years of implementation of
the PACD, to which 1,600 trainees at grassroots
level in India should be added. Naturally, this
is far below what is required at global level
but it shows a good start.
34. Several recently launched international
initiatives related to the anti-desertification
campaign should be particularly mentioned.
One is the 1990 initiative of FAO to undertake a
large-scale International Scheme for the
Conservation and Rehabilitation of African Lands,
which is designed to provide a means by
which African countries can develop their own
programmes to fight land degradation. The
scheme is specifically designed to enable countries
to tailor these programmes to meet their
individual needs. The second was also undertaken by
FAO in 1990 - an international action
programme on Water and Sustainable Agricultural
Development which has a strong drylands
water management component. The third initiative
belongs to IFAD under its Special Programme
for Sub-Saharan African Countries Affected by
Drought and Desertification, which gave
priority to improving food security by measures to
preserve the environment and restore existing
productive capacity and to ensuring that projects,
once completed, would yield lasting benefits.
35. Certain concrete examples may be selected
to illustrate the achievements of the
international community in assisting countries
struck by desertification in solving their
respective environmental and developmental
problems. One such good example is the Keita
Integrated Development Project in Niger
launched by FAO in 1984 with the support of the
governments of Niger and Italy. As stated
by Mr. E. Saouma, Director-General of FAO, "The
Keita Integrated Development Project
testifies to the dramatic achievements that can result
when human energy and innovation are
applied to tackle the challenges of rural development.
In just fives years, the people of Keita
have transformed their district from a barren landscape
unable to meet basic food requirements to a
flourishing environment for crops and livestock.
The Keita project has put into practice
FAO'S objectives for integrated, sustainable
development." The project involved typically
Sahelian semi-arid landscape with an area of some
257 thousand hectares, 205 villages and 156
thousand inhabitants. Unfortunately, however, such
examples, are scarce throughout the world.
(III) ROLE OF REGIONAL AND
SUB-REGIONAL CO-OPERATION
36. Co-ordination at regional level has
been meaningful for various reasons. Desertification
as an environmental phenomenon cuts across
international boundaries, hence it calls for cross-
boundary co-operation, particularly at
sub-regional level where the experiences, efforts and
technologies could be shared by neighboring
countries having similar problems and similar
ecological conditions.
37. In addition to the activities of
the UN Regional Commissions, several sub-regional inter-
governmental institutions and programmes
were established that were specifically directed to
the desertification problem throughout the
developing countries affected by desertification, and
more particularly in Africa.
38. Even before UNCOD, African drought and
famine problems had led to the establishment
in 1973 of the Inter-State Committee for
Control of Drought in the Sahel [CILSS], a body
which was sponsored by the Club du Sahel
uniting several industrialized countries and the
developing countries of the western part
of the Sudano-Sahelian region. CILSS was followed
in 1973 by UNSO which was a mechanism for
the co-ordination of the United Nations efforts
to assist Sahel countries in combating drought.
Later on, the mandate of UNSO was expanded
to cover the combat against desertification
in the Sahel and now this UN organ covers the whole
region consisting of 22 countries affected
by desertification. The activities of UNSO were
referred to in Paras. 25-27 above.
39. The Committee of Ministers on
Desertification [COMIDES] with its headquarters based
in Dakar, Senegal, the Inter-Governmental
Authority on Drought and Development [IGADD]
covering the East-African sub-region, the
Southern African Development Co-ordination
Conference [SADCC], relevant activities of
such sub-regional organizations as the Arab
Maghreb Union [AMU] and the Economic
Community of West African States [ECOWAS] are
examples of sub-regional mechanisms, each
with important mandates to make contributions in
the implementation of some of the
recommendations of the PACD.
40. The African Ministerial Conference on the
Environment [AMCEN] has among its
activities an important mechanism for the
implementation of the PACD - the African Deserts
and Arid Lands Committee [ADALCO]. This
committee has decided to tackle some PACD
projects like the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer,
North-African Green Belt, Kalahari-Namib Action
Plan, "savannization" and "sahelization"
problems in Africa, etc. The Cairo Programme (of
AMCEN) can be said to be closely in line
with the need to address the PACD.
41. With relevance to the implementation
of the PACD, the African Environment Agenda
reflected the environmental aspirations
enshrined in the Monrovia Doctrine of 1979. The Lagos
Plan of Action, adopted in 1980 by the
Assembly of Heads of States and Governments of the
Organization of African Unity [OAU], set
out the long-term development objectives of Africa,
giving priority to regional food
self-sufficiency, the elimination of poverty through the
satisfaction of basic needs and national
and regional self-reliance. The Cairo Plan of Action
approved by AMCEN in 1985 aims at strengthening
the co-operation with the objective of
halting and reversing degradation of the
African environment. In 1986, in response to the
deepening crisis, the OAU adopted Africa's
Priority Programme for Economic Recovery 1986-
1990 and the UN General Assembly adopted a
programme as the United Nations Plan of Action
for Africa Economic Recovery and Development
1986-1990. All these regional co-operative
initiatives incorporated drought and
desertification as one of the priorities.
42. One good example of regional and
inter-regional co-operation is the initiative by the
European Economic Community within the
framework of the LomŽ Convention, through which
assistance is provided to the African
countries struck by desertification. Under IIIrd Lome
Convention, 1000 MECU were devoted to
direct and indirect actions to fight against
desertification through the European Plan of
Action which combined EDF funds and Member
States funds. It is recognized, as a result
of past years experience, that there is a need for a
much broader strategic approach to desertification
than one limited solely to dealing with the
most visible phenomena. Within the past
3-4 years a number of projects related to combat
against desertification were implemented
in different countries of Africa, among which 18%
were specifically designed for management of
natural resources and land use, 19% were sectoral
production projects with at least 70% of funds
devoted to controlling the deterioration of natural
resources, and 63% were integrated rural
development projects with at least 50% component
related to combating desertification.
43. In the ESCWA region, UNEP has been
co-operating with various inter-governmental
organizations, some of them members of
different networks interested in contributing to the
PACD implementation. One such co-operation
is with the Arab League Educational, Cultural
and Scientific Organization [ALECSO] on the
implementation of the North African Green Belt
Project. The original feasibility study for
this project was carried out by ALECSO for
presentation to UNCOD. Further links with
ALECSO were established when a joint
UNEP/ALECSO sponsorship led in 1986 to the
convening of the first Arab Ministerial
Conference on Environmental Considerations
in Development. Co-operation with the Arab
Centre for Studies of Arid Zones and Drylands
[ACSAD] centered around the preparation of
national plans for combating desertification
in West Asia. Countries which have benefitted from
this include Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Yemen.
Apart from these, several member countries of
ESCWA have shown interest in extending the
Green Belt concept in keeping with the
recommendations of the PACD.
44. The above examples clearly show
that the regional and sub-regional approach which has
developed recently is the most promising
and should be followed in the implementation of the
PACD throughout the world.
(IV)ACTIONS AT NATIONAL LEVEL
45. The PACD underlines that effective action
needs to be at national level. Success at
national level is reflected at the regional
level and ultimately at global level. Where funds for
anti-desertification measures are limited,
any action that is taken will depend on national
priorities. Although attention on drought
and desertification increased steadily throughout the
1980s, national government priorities were
little concerned with their marginal lands or long-
term conservation activities. The acute
economic crisis forced them to concentrate on economic
affairs such as energy provision, unfavourable
trade balances and terms of trade, indebtedness
and debt rescheduling. By emphasizing these
concerns, structural adjustment plans often
increased pressure on natural resources by
stressing export production and foreign exchange
earnings. This practice has often led to
further degradation of the natural resource base,
desertification.
46. As recommended by the PACD, countries
affected by desertification would prepare
national plans adapted to their specific
natural, economic, social and cultural conditions. Till
present, only some 20 countries, out of 99
affected, have developed their national programmes
to combat desertification, In the preparation
of these national plans, the countries, upon their
request, were assisted by UNEP as well as by
other relevant UN agencies, e.g. FAO, ESCWA,
UNSO. Attempts were made to incorporate
these NPACDs into national development
programmes or strategies. According to
available information, the following situation in this
respect can be reported:
• Countries with developed NPACDs
and at the advanced stage of implementation:
Argentina, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Tunisia;
• Countries with developed NPACDs
and at the beginning of implementation : Benin,
Botswana (National Nature Conservation
Strategy), Burkina Faso, Chad, Jordan,
Kenya (partial), Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan,
Syria, Tanzania, Uruguay;
• Countries with NPACDs under
preparation : Mongolia, Peru, Yemen.
47. Action at national level presupposes
that plans have been approved and funds set aside
for appropriate activities. But the truth
of the matter is that most developing countries affected
by desertification were concurrently struggling
with major drought and other pressing economic
and social problems. Under these circumstances,
there was a wide preference for short-term
investments with immediate returns rather
than for long-term and low-yield investments such
as were envisaged in dealing with
desertification (25 years or more) to stop the process and to
restore badly degraded land to an acceptable
level of productivity once more. Furthermore,
areas affected by desertification are often
inhabited by pastoral nomads or semi-nomads who
are usually socio-politically marginalized.
Where this is the case, causes of failure include
neglect over past long periods and the lack of
adequate machinery on the ground.
48. Lack of financial resources to undertake
such large-scale activities as proposed in the
PACD was a major cause for the failure at
national level. Because donor-countries and agencies
showed a clear preference for bilateral aid,
developing countries, which tried to marshall
resources for anti-desertification activities,
found themselves changing to short-term "more
fundable" projects, usually those dealing
with agricultural development.
49. Land degradation as a development
issue cuts across many ministries in most
governments in both developing and
industrialized countries. This calls
for co-ordination. The
absence of this co-ordination has often
led to dispersion of efforts at national level. Some
development funds were available nationally
for affected countries of Africa, Asia and Latin
America, and there are examples of successful
projects almost in each country. Efforts to co-
ordinate some of these disparate projects at
the sub-regional and regional levels produced series
of Networks that have been established in the last years.
50. The active participation of the peoples
themselves in the implementation of the PACD
at national level has not been achieved in
the majority of countries affected, although there are
certain examples of massive public participation
in some campaigns, e.g. afforestation
campaigns in Algeria, India and Kenya. In
1988-1989, the grassroots participation or self-help
projects were sponsored by members of IAWGD
in Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea,
Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Sudan,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Several eco-village projects are launched
in China and throughout Africa. The potential for
meaningful and successful action at national
level has now been increased in Africa through a
series of demonstration village projects set
up under AMCEN. This innovative approach is
beginning to attract funds even though donors
still insist on bilateral negotiations.
(V) IMPLEMENTATION OF SPECIFIC
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE PACD
51. Recommendations 1-3: Assessment of
desertification and improvement of land
management
Assessment of desertification is
essential for each affected country.
This requires national
machinery, especially to evaluate how
desertification affects the people, and a programme of
land use planning and management based on
ecologically sound methods. Many developing
countries plagued by poverty could not
accord the priorities required to handle these
recommendations appropriately. Shortage of
human and technical resources prevented many
countries from mounting proper assessment
machineries. In order to institute land use planning,
there should be a tradition of it in the country
in question. It is therefore found that some
countries have gone much further than others
because of their own particular circumstances, for
example where the tradition of land use planning
has been in operation for other purposes like
irrigation or commercial farming. As for
creating public awareness and participation, there is
some evidence of the achievements recorded since
UNCOD. In general, however, there is still
much more to be done.
52. Recommendation 4: Combination of
industrialization and urbanization with the
development of agriculture and their effects
on ecology in arid areas
Industrialization and urbanization, if
properly conceived and pursued, can reduce ecological
pressures on drylands environment, thereby
ameliorating desertification in these lands. During
the last fourteen years, a series of workshops
and training courses were carried out to enable
people from developing countries to study the
problems associated with urbanization and
industrialization as they have an impact on
desertification both in the USSR and China. A
number of publications were issued by UNEP
in this connection. Countries, which are
sufficiently industrialized and urbanized
are nevertheless succeeding in providing a relief to the
hard pressed rural environment, in Latin
America for example. In the Middle East the
development of the oil industry has helped
to relieve rural areas. Much more needs to be done
by UNEP in co-operation with UNCHS (Habitat)
and UNIDO for the realization of this
recommendation.
53. Recommendations 5-10: Corrective
anti-desertification measures
Corrective anti-desertification measures
at national level are of primary importance in
determining success or failure. There has
been a lot of international support over the last
fourteen years in the form of disparate
projects, particularly in Africa, but they are still like a
drop in the ocean in respect of the magnitude
of the problem. A look at the projects shows that
the majority of them consist of studies,
planning and programming missions, seminars and
workshops, with very few field-based actions.
The assumption is that once sensitized the
countries themselves should identify and plan
the anti-desertification field projects. The most
impressive field projects have recently concerned
sand dune stabilization (China, Iran,
Mauritania) water improvement (Burkina Faso),
rangeland rehabilitation and reforestation,
integrated rural development (Niger). Action
to restore degraded irrigated lands is difficult and
costly; it is easier to institute corrective
measures in newly established irrigation schemes.
Failure will always result at the national
level where there is a lack of the tradition of
management, and future efforts should be
directed at assisting the countries to acquire the
knowledge. Frequent and prolonged droughts,
especially in Africa, and rapid population growth
and unplanned demographic changes, including
the problem of the refugees, remained very
serious obstacles for achievement and progress
to be noticed. The results achieved so far seem
to suggest that a broad-based rural development
strategy is the real issue.
54. Recommendations 11 & 16: Monitoring
physical conditions of the land and human
conditions
Certain provisions of these recommendations
were recently implemented in various parts of the
world by establishing different monitoring or
early warning systems at international, regional
and national levels. At global level these are
represented, for example, by the Global
Environment Monitoring System [GEMS] and the
Global Resource Information Database
[GRID] of UNEP, several appropriate
monitoring systems of FAO, WHO and WMO, including
FAO's regular issue of Food Outlook (Global
Information and Early Warning System on Food
and Agriculture) and Desert Locust Bulletin.
At regional level, there is regular FAO
information on weather, food and agricultural
conditions in Africa and in the Sahel in particular.
At national level, an example may be given of
regular issue of Early Warning System Bulletin
of Turkana District in Kenya, another one
being that of the establishment, with financial and
technical assistance from UNSO, of the National
Ecological Monitoring Centre in Senegal under
the Ministry of Nature Protection. Another
development is the initiative of the Government of
France to establish a permanent monitoring
system for North Africa in a large region covering
areas both north and south of the Sahara.
However, all these activities are not very well co-
ordinated, particularly from a methodological
point of view, and do not provide a
comprehensive picture of the state of affairs
on a regular basis. This is a very good start,
indeed, but the efforts should be expanded.
55. Recommendations 12-15: Socio-economic
aspects of combating desertification
As the analysis of numerous reports shows,
social, political and economic aspects of
decertification have been addressed both
nationally and internationally over the last fourteen
years, but not adequately enough to make
significant impact on the problem. Obviously, much
work needs to be done if land degradation is
to be halted.
56. Recommendation 17: Insurance against
the risk and effects of drought
Drought is closely related to
desertification, to such an extent that even
among the scientific
community there is a risk of confusing one
for the other. For industrialized countries which
have large arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid
stretches of their land areas plagued with recurrent
drought, elaborate drought insurance schemes
have been put into practice to cushion their rural
communities from these natural disasters.
Since UNCOD, efforts have been made to ensure
affected populations, particularly those in
Africa, by the institution of "drought early warning
systems" and the establishment of grain
reserves (most of the time imported) to tide affected
populations over the spell of drought.
There are efforts to institute even more elaborate crop
insurance schemes in many of the menaced
countries in the developing world, but the economic
base on which these are built is weak.
The notion of drought risk insurance in drylands should
be even more applicable to livestock and
rangelands, because in the final analysis pastoral
peoples rely more on their livestock than
on their crops. Fourteen years after UNCOD, there
is little evidence of a break-through in
livestock and rangeland insurance against drought risk.
For many of the countries concerned,
particularly in Africa, foreign aid is still the main
insurance against famine during the drought years.
57. Recommendations 18-20: Strengthening
science and technology at a national level
The PACD clearly identified the lack of
scientific and technological capabilities in many
developing countries as an obvious obstacle
to successful national campaigns against
desertification. This issue seems to have
received adequate attention. Probably, the largest
number of anti-desertification projects have
gone to training, education, information and
institution-building. Agricultural research
which is the key to rural development in drylands has
also received much attention. Assistance to
developing countries has come in the form of
advice, technical and financial support, and
training. In the area of energy-related science and
technology, some success has been recorded
particularly in two issues: the use of fuel-efficient
stoves and solar heating to relieve pressure
on the wood-fuel reserves, in addition to the search
for alternative sources of energy.
58. Recommendation 21: Establishment of
national machineries to combat desertification
Only a few countries have established
special machineries for implementing the PACD at
governmental level. The responsibility was
mostly given to existing ministries or departments
concerned with the environment, forestry or
agriculture. Focal points were designated in many
countries to provide the liaison and
co-ordination with both regional or international and
national institutions concerned with the
implementation of the PACD. Nowhere in the world
was a hierarchical national machinery
established that would include provincial and local
authorities, the latter mostly not being
aware of any national plan or programme to combat
desertification. However, a positive example
of coming progress may be found in Kenya where
the Ministry of Reclamation and Development of
Arid, Semi-Arid Areas and Wasteland was
established in 1989. This ministry is
responsible for integrated development and protection and
rehabilitation of the environment in 88% of
Kenyan territory referred to in its name, which
involves 22 districts, 25% of the country's
populations and 50% of the national livestock. The
ministry reports to the Inter-Ministerial
Co-ordinating Committee on Environment and then to
the National Environment Secretariat in the
Office of the President. At local level, the ministry
is planning to establish Arid and Semi-Arid
Lands Centres for Management, Training,
Demonstration and Adaptive Research in each
of the districts to be complemented by Multi-
disciplinary Mobile Extension Teams, which
are envisaged as the key tool in providing the
dialogue between land users and decision makers.
This machinery started functioning by
developing in 1991, the Environmental Action
Plan for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands in Kenya to
be adopted by the Government.
59. Recommendation 22: Integration of
anti-desertification programmes into development
plans
Land degradation (desertification) is a
multi-sectoral in its extent, and it would be pointless to
create a development sector called
"desertification control" and expect it to be funded separately.
Therefore, all actions against desertification
should be included in appropriate sections of
general development programmes or strategies.
The recent assessment and the discussions in
successive sessions of UNEP's Governing
Council and DESCON provided guidance in this
field. Several countries, including Mali,
Mauritania, Senegal, Syria, Tunisia, have since
developed national plans of action to
combat desertification and have managed to integrate them
with national plans of development. Programmes
of action to implement these plans were
submitted to round-table meetings of donors
for support. Unfortunately, no support was found
for considering these plans in their totalities.
60. Recommendations 23-28: International action
These recommendations were implemented
during the past fourteen years at a larger degree.
The PACD, though recognizing that action is
primarily the responsibility of governments with
their national institutions, equally
recognized that co-ordination of national, regional and
international programmes in the general campaign
against desertification was essential. This
is the role that was given to UNEP and its
specific organ, Desertification Control Programme
Activity Centre [DC/PAC]. In this sense,
it was understood that UNEP would work closely
with other United Nations bodies, through
IAWGD, ACC and DESCON. This role in the
Sudano-Sahelian region of Africa was largely
played, on behalf of UNEP, by UNSO having an
appropriate mandate through the UNDP/UNEP
Joint Venture. Their joint role was to elaborate
on desertification assessment and control
methodologies, co-ordinate and support scientific and
technological research and training,
facilitate exchange of information, and provide financial and
technical support for the implementation of the
recommendations outlined in the PACD. The
account of these activities during the past
fourteen years is given in Paras 11-35 above.
(VI)CONCLUSION
61. Unfortunately, it must be admitted
that little evidence of progress emerges from the
numerous reports concerned directly or
indirectly with desertification control, either in relation
to the natural resources situation or to
agricultural production in the affected regions and
countries. Inspite of all development and
desertification control programmes launched during
recent years, the situation has not improved,
although there are some local examples of success.
62. Major efforts in implementing the PACD
were directed to supporting measures rather
than to concrete corrective field operations.
As the present assessment shows, the area of lands
affected by desertification is not decreasing,
although some trees were planted throughout the
world and some areas of shifting sands were
stabilized. Neither major improvement of
degrading irrigated croplands nor control
of soil erosion in rainfed cropland nor substantial
improvement of rangelands were achieved.
The whole rural environment in the drylands of the
world continues to deteriorate adversely
affecting the socio-economic conditions of their inhabitants.
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