PART III
Policy Guidelines and Course of Action for Combating Desert
A. POLICY GUIDELINES
ROLE AND PLACE OF ANTI-DESERTIFICATION
MEASURES WITHIN THE PROGRAMMES FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT AND PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT
1. Sustainable socio-economic development
and protection of the environment are
inseparable pre-requisites of human survival.
This means that anti-desertification programmes
should be managed as integral parts of
socio-economic development of land resources and
societies of the drylands.
2. Prevention of desertification where
it is likely to occur and remedying its consequences
where it has already occurred are the bases
of sustainable development of land resources in
drylands. Protection of land against degradation
under increasing human pressures must
constitute an essential part of the general
strategy for agricultural development. This strategy
should include anticipating and preventing the
expected negative effects of man's action upon
the land. If taken too late, corrective
measures will be too costly or impracticable.
(II)GENERAL GOAL AND PRACTICAL TARGETS
4. The main goal of implementing the
Plan of Action to Combat Desertification remains
the same as it was formulated in 1977 by
the United Nations Conference on Desertification and
endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly, namely :
"The immediate goal of the Plan of
Action to Combat Desertification is to prevent
and to arrest the advance of desertification
and, where possible, to reclaim
desertified land for productive use.
The ultimate objective is to sustain and
promote, within ecological limits, the
productivity of arid, semi-arid, sub-humid and
other areas vulnerable to desertification
in order to improve the quality of life of
their inhabitants. A campaign against
desertification should take place as a priority
among efforts to achieve optimum and
sustained productivity. For the countries
affected, the implementation of the Plan
of Action implied more than a campaign
against desertification, it is an
essential part of the broad process of development
and the provision of basic human needs."
5. To reach this goal, the following
practical targets are set to be achieved by the year
2020, which should be addressed nationally, regionally
and internationally on the basis of
experience gained and taking into account
certain achievements and failures in implementing
the Plan of Action during 1978-1991:
Main environmental/developmental targets :
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 desertified 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.
Targets for the supporting measures :
a. Incorporation of national actions
to combat desertification into broader national
development policies, plans or programmes;
b. Mobilization of national, regional
and international technical and financial resources
needed for the full implementation of the
Plan of Action to Combat Desertification;
c. Mobilization and strengthening of
national, regional and international institutional
capabilities for implementing the Plan;
d. Introduction of land-use, economic
and social policies conducive to sustainable
development of land and water resources;
e. Making land-users the main actors
in designing and implementing the Plan and
ensuring full public participation in
anti-desertification campaigns;
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 (including those for combating
desertification) 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 infrastructures
needed to provide support for the NPACD in areas
affected by, or prone to, desertification.
(III) MAIN PRINCIPLES IN IMPLEMENTING THE PACD
6. The following main principles could form
the basis of the global anti-desertification
strategy:
a. The United Nations Plan of Action
to Combat Desertification as adopted in 1977,
remains valid;
b. National Plans of Action to
Combat Desertification (NPACDs) for all the
countries affected by desertification should
be fully incorporated, including
appropriate financial and institutional
provisions, into national programmes for
development;
c. The current status of desertification
in the territories affected, including the
status of rural population and the state of
land, should be assessed and
continuously monitored. These data
should be taken into account at all stages
of planning and implementing national
development programmes;
d. The way to prevent the exhaustion
of resources of drylands starts with providing
alternative means for meeting basic needs of
affected societies. The people must
be able to satisfy their short-term needs
without over-taxing land resources;
e. Social, political and economic
causes of over-taxing land resources and resulting
physical manifestations of desertification
should be the bases for formulating
appropriate national policies and
courses of preventive and corrective actions;
f. Participation of land users,
including small-scale farmers and pastoralists and
women in particular, should be ensured at
all stages of planning and
implementing the NPACDs;
g. Tangible incentives and short-term
benefits for land-users, including small-scale
farmers and pastoralists, to ensure their
active participation in anti-desertification
campaign should be developed;
h. Ecological stabilization of
agricultural lands through sustainable utilization of
natural resources and appropriate land use
policies should be the focus of the
NPACDs;
i. Ongoing programmes addressing land
resources in areas concerned, e.g. soil and
water conservation, reforestation or
afforestation, agricultural development,
rangeland improvement, etc, should be
co-ordinated and incorporated into the
NPACDs;
j. A small-scale local community-based
approach should be preferred in developing
and implementing the NPACDs in order to
strengthen the role of local
institutions, e.g. village or farmers'
committees, as managers of communal
natural resources and major implementing agencies;
k. Conservation of land and water
resources in drylands that prevents ecological
degradation, reclamation of degraded lands
and development of terrestrial
resources of drylands for agricultural and
non-agricultural uses should
constitute integral elements of
programmes for combating desertification;
l. All NPACDs should contain integrated,
in-built chapters dealing with drought
(relief and insurance measures) that will
complement long-term anti-desertification actions;
m. For countries which have both arid
and humid regions within their
territories, the NPACDs should be transformed
into National Environment Action Plans for
integrated management of natural resources in order to
cover the problem of land degradation for the
country as a whole but with
separate chapters for ecologically different areas;
n. Combating desertification at national
level (a) should involve traditional systems
used by local people to promote popular
participation in programmes of
desertification control and (b) requires
the establishment of effective institutional
machinery for integrating desertification
control programmes into overall
national development plans and priorities;
o. After decades of trying to save the
soil "from the people", a more promising
approach should be adopted: to help land-users
save the soil and water for
themselves, for improved plant production, i.e.
to practice Conservation Farming
and Land Husbandry (Landcare) instead of
Soil and Water Conservation.
p. The following principles, adopted
from the Den Bosh Declaration (1991), should
be followed in the PACD implementation:
• land use practices in drylands
should be restructured in such a way that
demands for sustainable land use and
environmental protection will be met;
• the developed countries
[regions/provinces within the partly affected
countries] should recognize their role
and responsibility for sustainable
land use and socio-economic development in
drylands by improving the
international [national] economic
relations in order to increase and
stabilize incomes for farmers/pastoralists
and hence create incentives for
appropriate investments in drylands;
• the international community
should accept the need to provide technical
and financial assistance in specific
fields to promote the PACD;
• population policies should
be implemented in order to improve, in the
long run, prospects for sustainable
development in drylands;
• governments and society at large
should recognize that agriculture/pastoralism
and rural people of drylands collectively play an
important and in many countries vital
role in ensuring food security and
maintaining the renewable natural
resource base; this recognition must
be reflected in the allocation of
adequate financial resources, pricing
policies, in the decentralization
of institutions and in the empowerment
of dryland people with particular
attention to the poor;
• fair terms of exchange should
be established among drylands producers,
industry and consumers within the countries
affected;
• farmers/pastoralists,
particularly small-scale and resource-poor ones, men
and women, should have better access to
education and training,
appropriate technologies and resources;
• campaigns to increase public
awareness of the need for and approach to
sustainable development of drylands should
be undertaken.
B. COURSE OF ACTION
(I) NATIONALLY
(a) Guiding Policies
7. National Plans of Action to Combat
Desertification (NPACDs) should be prepared on the
basis of the above outlined general Policy
Guidelines and taking into account specific ecological
and socio-economic conditions in different
countries affected by desertification. These Plans
should be fully integrated in national
programmes of socio-economic development and accorded
their appropriate places, priorities, resources,
etc. They may either be (i) a part of the National
Nature Conservation Strategy, or (ii) a part of
the National Environment Action Plan, or (iii)
an independent programme, but in any case they
must be a part of the National Development
Programme. The current World Bank's initiative
of multi-donor National Environmental Action
Plans [NEAPs] which is already being implemented
in some 20 countries of Africa and Latin
Ameica, and which aims to define a time-bound
plan outlining environmental policy needs,
institutional and legal reforms, corrective
measures to on-going development programmes, and
new investment programmes needed in this sector,
could be considered as an important
mechanism in resolving problems of desertification.
8. A useful way to address the causes
of desertification is to construct a multi-level set of
explanations for the cause of land degradation.
Such a "chain of explanations" contains nested
explanations, commencing at the site with
physical symptoms such as falling crop yields or
excessive soil erosion; it continues its
explanation by broadening into land use practices, that
cause erosion such as overstocking; then it
examines the resources, assets, skills and
technologies of the land-users in, for
example, the constraint of supplying additional family
labor; widens further to the nature of
agrarian society in, for example, distribution of land rights
and the general division of labor; continues
with the nature of the state, including conservation
laws, effectiveness of institutions and
government policies; and finishes with the international
world economy which may well in part
explain desertification through foreign debt crises, oil
and food prices and structural readjustment
prepared by international financial institutions.
These are not mutually exclusive explanations.
However, each level in the "chain" may prompt
possible interventions, the success of
which in preventing desertification and rehabilitating its
consequences will depend on their compatibility
with other levels in the chain. These "pressure-
points" for attention should ensure a
balanced addressing of the causes of the problem.
9. The NPACDs should integrate four
closely interrelated elements: (i) prevention of land
degradation in areas prone to desertification
by applying appropriate land use policies and
conservation strategies; (ii) reclamation of
already desertified lands and bringing them back to
their productive state, starting from least
affected and gradually proceeding to more seriously
affected in accordance with an economic and
social feasibility pattern; (iii) full
conservation/reservation of lands most
seriously degraded down to the desert-like condition for
their natural recovery or future rehabilitation
actions, (iv) integrated development of land
resources in drylands for their sustainable
utilization in agricultural and non-agricultural uses.
10. The NPACDs should be prepared taking
full account of national land-use and agricultural
policies. They should aim at reducing conflicts
and competitive demands on land. They should
also aim at achieving the objectives of
agriculture: food sufficiency and security, sustainable
production, employment of the population,
settlement of pastoralists if profitable, etc. National
policies should provide for empowerment of
local communities, so that individual production
units have assured access to land, water
and such resources as are critical for production and
reproduction.
11. The NPACDs should be within national
socio-political policies taking full account of:
(i) equity of public participation, (ii)
balance of urban and rural interests, (iii) organization of
rural populations into community groups or
institutions (to replace tribal structures, for
instance), (iv) self-reliance or dependence
on external aid, (v) national food security or
dependence on international trade and assistance, etc.
12. The above provisions of the NPACDs
should be translated into legislative instruments.
New national environmentally and development
oriented land use policies should be developed,
adopted through appropriate national
legislation and implemented through competent institutions.
These policies should contain, inter alia,
explicit provisions for the following aspects: (i)
security of resource tenure, (ii) extension
of appropriate technologies, (iii) provision of credit,
(iv) sustained extension programmes, (v) reinforced
systems of local food security, and (vi)
support of rural institutions.
13. The implementation of the NPACDs
needs to be managed by an authoritative and
effective national machinery with efficient
institutional infrastructure, particularly at local
grassroots level.
14. The implementation of the NPACDs
should be supported by the effective national
scientific and technological capabilities.
These need to be associated with a national programme
for extension services that provide for the transfer
of scientific and technological knowledge to
the field and the working people, farmers
and pastoralists in particular.
15. In formulating the NPACDs, reference
for detail should be made to specific
recommendations of the Plan of Action
to Combat Desertification as adopted by UNCOD in
1977.
(b) Practical Steps
16. Scarcity of resources often necessitates
that actions required at national level be phased
out by certain priorities which could be different
in different countries. However, some general
priorities might be recommended as follows:
PREVENTIVE, CORRECTIVE AND REHABILITATION MEASURES
Recommendation 1: To introduce improved land use
systems in areas affected by, or prone to,
desertification:
• STEP 1 - to introduce an integrated
approach to the utilization of every piece of land in
accordance with its ecological characteristics,
natural capabilities and constraints; this
should ensure complementarity between farming,
pastoralism and forestry and between
economic and social goals of individual
farmers/pastoralists, local rural communities and
of the country as a whole in the utilization of
the existing land resources, bearing in
mind their limited amount and differences
in natural productivities. For doing this, land-
use planning should be undertaken at all
levels from the farm level through
local/provincial and up to the national level;
• STEP 2 - to introduce improved
land/water/crop management systems based on
innovative or adapted indigenous technologies
in the existing irrigated lands with the
following priorities: (1) prevention of land
degradation on 102 million hectares of non-
degraded or slightly degraded lands; (2)
implementation of corrective measures on 34
million hectares of moderately degraded
lands and (3) reclamation of 9 million hectares
of severely and very severely degraded lands;
these improvements should aim at
enhancing food production, efficient use of
scarce water resources, reclamation of
degraded soils, prevention of water-logging,
secondary soil salinization and/or
alkalinization, prevention of air, water
and soil pollution with excess of agricultural
chemicals; the improvements should be
undertaken line-in-line with the improvement of
the living conditions of the peoples engaged
in irrigated agriculture and of the
infrastructure of these territories; the
development of new irrigation systems for crop
production, particularly for the cash
crops should be considered in view of the
improvements achieved in the existing
irrigation systems;
• STEP 3 - to stabilize rainfed
croplands using the most potentially productive soils and
avoiding marginal ones, particularly those
that better belong to rangelands, and to
introduce improved soil/crop management
systems based on innovative or adapted
indigenous technologies, particularly
using the agroforestry approach, with the following
priorities: (1) prevention of land
degradation on 242 million hectares of non-degraded
or slightly degraded lands, (2) implementation
of corrective measures on 183 million
hectares of moderately degraded lands,
and (3) reclamation of 33 million hectares of
severely and very severely degraded lands;
these improvements should be directed to the
growth of crop production, economical and
effective use of land resources, reclamation
of degraded soils, prevention of water and
wind erosion of soils, prevention of
environment pollution with the excess of
agricultural chemicals; these improvements
should be undertaken in parallel with the
improvement of living conditions of the
peoples affected and of the infrastructure
of these territories; the development of new
lands for rainfed agriculture in drylands
should be discouraged by all means for the time
being;
• STEP 4 - to introduce improved
rangeland/husbandry management systems based on
innovative or adapted indigenous technologies
with the following priorities: (1)
prevention of land degradation on 1,233
million hectares of non-degraded or slightly
degraded lands, (2) implementation of
corrective measures on 1,267 million hectares of
moderately degraded lands, and (3)
reclamation of 2,066 million hectares of severely and
very severely degraded lands; these
improvements should aim at enhancing production,
rehabilitation of exhausted rangelands,
prevention of degradation of soil and plant cover;
the improvements should be undertaken
line-in-line with the improvement of the living
conditions of the peoples affected and of
the infrastructure of these territories; the
establishment of extensive complementary
irrigated pastures instead of intensive crop
production irrigation systems, whenever
appropriate, should be considered within the
general framework of land use improvements;
• STEP 5 - to undertake major
afforestation/reforestation programme throughout areas
affected by, or prone to, desertification,
taking the agroforestry approach whenever
appropriate; this programme should be
directed to the establishment of protective forest
belts for various purposes (around fields,
roads, settlements, processing and other
facilities, etc.) - shelter belts,
windbreaks, etc., and to the creation of
forest plantations;
• STEP 6 - to undertake, whenever
appropriate, a major campaign on stabilization of
shifting sands and for their protection for
natural rehabilitation.
The above measures for improvement of land use
systems in the areas affected by, or prone to,
desertification should be adopted and prioritized
in space and time, within the NPACDs.
Reference here is made to Recommendations 2, 6, 7,
and 19 of PACD-77.
Recommendation 2: To develop and introduce
appropriate and improved agricultural and
pastoral technologies, that are socially and
environmentally acceptable and economically feasible
and compatible with new land use systems. The
new technologies which are to be developed
and adopted need to: (i) address immediate
and short-term needs for food and income; (ii) to
be based on existing practices, i.e. modify
rather than replace; (iii) diversify farming practices;
(iv) minimize capital/resource requirements
and external inputs; (v) provide economic returns;
(vi) meet labor availability.
Reference here is made to Recommendations 6,
7, and 19 of PACD-77.
Appropriate technologies to be considered,
include, inter alia:
• in irrigated farmlands
• provision of adequate drainage
facilities;
• introduction of water
conservation schemes, including efficient systems of water
delivery, water harvesting, broad-bed-and-furrow
systems, ridging and tied-
ridging, small dams;
• irrigation water quality control;
• introduction of new
irrigation-responsive crop varieties;
• biological control of crop pests and diseases;
• introduction of an ameliorative field
into crop rotation;
• watering in accordance
with current plant needs and the state of soil moisture to
avoid soil deterioration and to economize on water;
• reduction of surface soil evaporation;
• reduction of chemical systems
of plant nutrition by introducing adequate
biological systems, use of organic and
green manure and adopting adequate crop
rotation and mixed cropping;
• in rainfed croplands
• introduction of soil-conservation-oriented
cropping and soil cultivation practices,
including anti-erosion technologies as
appropriate, based on reduced requirement
for external input and, at the same time,
increased efficiency of added inputs:
various mechanical structures such as
bench terraces, contour drains, contour
ditches, contour ridges, small hollows
and lunettes, also biological techniques
such as mulching, barrier hedges, etc.;
• introduction of integrated systems
of soil fertility management, where all input
and output factors are manipulated in a
judicious way;
• introduction of new, more productive crop varieties;
• diversification of farming practices in time and
space and crops (mixed cropping);
• reduction of the chemical system of plant
nutrition and plant protection by
introducing appropriate Integrated Plant
Nutrition systems based on combinations
of crop residue mulch, animal manure and
mineral fertilizers with minimum
tillage;
• introduction of crop/land-use rotation
systems as appropriate, e.g. farming-tree
(pasture), farming-tree plantation like
gum-arabic shift cultivation, farming-
grazing-forestry, etc.
• creation of shelter-belts and other
appropriate field protective tree plantations;
• in rangelands
• improvement of rangelands by
reseeding, periodical withdrawal from use, etc.;
• introduction and maintenance of
rotational grazing system;
• limiting the number of animals to
the rangeland carrying capacities;
• introduction of new and more productive
stock varieties;
• creation of animal food supplies
(including reserve supplies) at watering points;
• in mixed farms
• appropriation of specific plots for
every particular land use in accordance with
slope and soil characteristics and the
conditions of water availability;
• introduction of agro-forestry
approach: shelter belts, biomass transfer techniques,
live fences, fodder banks, fuelwood trees
on range, reclamation forestry, etc.
Recommendation 3: To establish adequate communication
infrastructure and sufficient
processing and marketing facilities in
areas affected, or prone to, desertification
in order to provide rural producers with adequate
outlet for increased production thus creating an incentive
for agricultural development. Recommendations 4
and 19 of PACD-77 should be referred to.
Recommendation 4: To develop and conserve
available water resources in areas affected by,
or prone to, desertification and to introduce
improved water management systems with particular
attention to the development of advanced and
efficient irrigation systems. Recommendations
5, 8 and 26 of PACD-77 should be referred to.
Recommendation 5: To reclaim for productive
use or to protect for natural rehabilitation, as
appropriate, severely desertified lands which
became desert recently or were inherited from the
past and originated from the adverse human
impact on the environment. Reference here is made
to Recommendations 9 and 10 of PACD-77.
Supporting Measures
Recommendation 6: To establish or to strengthen
the national institutional capabilities for
implementing the NPACD, including hierarchical
networks up to the grassroots level:
• to establish or to strengthen,
as appropriate, national anti-desertification authority
(Commission, Advisory Board, Department, etc.)
within the Government with access to
the highest executive and decision-making level;
• to establish anti-desertification
commissions-boards within provincial/divisional/district
or other local governing or executive bodies
in accordance with the existing
administrative division in a country;
• to establish land-users'
anti-desertification committees in all
rural communities affected;
• to organize working co-operation
between local authorities, extension services and land-
users committees in planning and implementing
anti-desertification measures including
full-scale technical assistance to farmers
and pastoralists;
• to support existing or newly established
national non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
including co-operatives, women, youth and children
organizations and school
associations in particular, and to
strengthen their working co-operation with the
government and local authorities concerned
with the implementation of the NPACD,
with a view of their active participation
in the national anti-desertification campaign.
In implementing this recommendation,
reference here is made to Recommendations 3, 18 and
21 of PACD-77.
Recommendation 7: To launch nation-wide major
anti-desertification awareness/training
campaign through existing mass-media facilities,
educational network and newly created or
strengthened extension services, fully ensuring
people's access to the knowledge of
desertification and to the Plan of Action to
Combat Desertification:
• to organize a series of demonstration
sites at the existing or newly established
experimental stations, plots, villages
(ecovillages), etc. showing examples of anti-
desertification land use and appropriate
technologies ensuring free access of local
populations to these establishments;
• to publish in local languages and
distribute through national anti-desertification networks
or appropriate extension services locally adapted
varieties of simple but attractive
colorful pamphlets or leaflets related to
the problem of desertification and its combat;
• to establish in all relevant national
and local newspapers, radio and television
programmes a special anti-desertification
regular page or a corner in order to provide the
public and land users in particular with
day-to-day information with specific emphasis
on problems involved in different localities,
technological advice, stories of success;
• to introduce in rural areas
affected by desertification special courses on desertification
in all public schools at an appropriate level of education;
• to organize, through existing or newly
established extension services and anti-
desertification networks, an anti-desertification
in-job training of farmers and pastoralists
in the areas affected by desertification
providing them with appropriate learning
materials.
Recommendation 20 of PACD-77 should be referred
to in this respect.
Recommendation 8: To introduce a
"loop model" in the existing or newly established extension
service in the areas affected by desertification.
The first step in this model is to provide
understanding of the rationale and ecological
stability of traditional resource management
systems and the indigenous knowledge related to
them. The second step is to use external and
local expertise to investigate why these traditional
practices are no longer adequate and to
identify areas where management has to be adjusted.
The third stage, completing the loop,
requires the interaction of local and external
expertise to develop potential innovations which
solve the resource management problems. These
must then be tested in the field with the
communities or producers who have been involved
in developing them, before the large scale
introduction throughout the area. This loop
process requires intensive communication between
the local population, extension service and
research centers. Extension agents should be trained
in how to listen to the people, how to capture
indigenous knowledge, how to learn from the
adaptive strategies that local people have
developed in response to often difficult and
inhospitable environments.
Recommendation 9: To finalize the operative
large-scale local and national assessment of the
current status of desertification, including
(a) the status of rural populations, (b) the state of
lands and physical causes of their degradation,
(c) the trends of local climate changes (d) social,
economic and political causes of underdevelopment
and resulting immediate causes and
processes of desertification, and to
provide the Government with appropriate detailed and up-to-
date information related to desertification.
Recommendation 10: To develop, adopt
through appropriate national legislation and introduce
institutionally new national
environmentally/developmentally oriented land use policy which
would be directed to the improvement of land use,
appropriate management of the commons,
provision of incentives to small farmers and
pastoralists, ensuring the involvement of women,
and encouragement of private investment in
the development of drylands. This policy should
contain, inter alia, explicit provisions for
the following institutional aspects: (a) security of
resource tenure, (b) adoption of appropriate
technologies, (c) provision of credit, (d) sustained
extension programmes, (e) reinforced system of
local food security, (f) support of rural
institutions, (g) appropriate pricing policy.
Recommendations 2, 13 and 17 of PACD-77
should be referred to while tailoring for the
required actions.
Recommendation 11: To develop and
introduce effective national insurance schemes against
recurrent drought and famine.
Recommendation 17 of PACD-77 should be referred to in this
respect.
17. In various countries affected by
desertification the implementation of the above practical
steps will undoubtedly vary in accordance with
differences in ecological, socio-economic and
political conditions. Some countries have
already started their national anti-desertification
campaigns and introduced appropriate programmes
which are being implemented on a scale
compatible with the available resources. Others
are unable to start purposeful action because
of civil strife and political instability.
Still others are even one step back due to recent or
current civil wars. Therefore, the situation
varies greatly throughout the world. Consequently,
a uniform world-wide time frame for the global
implementation of the Plan of Action to Combat
Desertification, cannot be envisaged.
Furthermore, the combat against desertification is a long-
term process and not a one-act operation.
18. Countries affected by, or prone to,
desertification might wish to set their own priorities
in implementing their NPACDs. However, it seems
logic that 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.
19. The full implementation the Plan
of Action to Combat Desertification should result in:
(a) ensuring that objective of arresting
desertification is attained; (b) living, health and cultural
conditions of populations affected will be
substantially improved; (c) the environment of areas
affected will be improved and stabilized;
(d) productivity of affected lands will be sustained;
(e) the economy of areas affected will be
improved and stabilized; (f) populations of areas
affected will be involved in a progressive
socio-economic development.
20. A programme for the implementation of
a world-wide direct action to combat
desertification may be based on one of the
following options:
i. Implement programmes of direct
preventive measures in productive drylands that are nor
desertified or only slightly desertified
(about 30% of the 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 cropland and 25-50%
in rangeland); 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
globally and nationally. They could be modified
as appropriate with the areas concerned.
(II)REGIONALLY
21. The experience of the 80s clearly
indicated that the regional approach to international
co-operation in solving major environmental
and development problems is the most promising
one. This was particularly exemplified by
the achievements of UNSO in the mobilization of
resources needed for combating desertification
in the Sudano-Sahelian region of Africa. Some
practically oriented regional programmes were
recently developed, e.g. by the Arab League
through the Arab Centre for the Study of
Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD), by the African
Ministerial Conference on the Environment
(AMCEN) through the African Deserts and Arid
Lands Committee (ADALCO) and the Inter-governmental
Authority on Drought and
Desertification (IGADD), by the Asian NGO
Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development (ANGOCO), by the Inter-State
Committee for Control of Drought in the Sahel
(CILSS), by the UN Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
through the Regional Network of Research
and Training Centers on Desertification Control in
Asia and the Pacific (DESCONAP), by the
Southern Africa Development Co-ordination
Conference (SADCC). These initiatives
should be fully utilized and further developed.
22. In addition to the above, the concept
of eco-geographical regions of the world should
be fully utilized, preferably combining the
anti-desertification efforts of countries at different
levels of development within united
anti-desertification programmes, e.g. Mexico-USA, China-
Mongolia-USSR, India-Pakistan, Afghanistan-Iran-USSR, etc.
23. Institutional support for regional
co-operation should be provided in order to plan, co-
ordinate and monitor joint regional activities
and to mobilize the resources needed for the
implementation of the regional programmes.
This support should be organized either through
existing inter-governmental regional bodies
or through those newly established for this purpose.
The UN Regional Commissions and the existing
regional inter-governmental organizations
should be fully involved and be responsible
for these regional actions.
24. The UN General Assembly could be invited
to consider the establishment of small sub-
regional offices, probably within UNDP,
analogous to UNSO, for some of the eco-geographical
sub-regions in order to assist the sub-regions
and their countries in the mobilization of the
resources and technical assistance with
possible creation of these as joint ventures between
UNDP, IFAD, WFP, FAO and UNEP whenever appropriate.
(III) INTERNATIONALLY
25. International co-operation at a global
level in implementing the Plan of Action to Combat
Desertification is to be organized on a partnership
basis between all countries of the world as
this environmental/development problem is of a
global magnitude and should not be considered
as just another aid programme of the richer
countries to poorer ones. This co-operation is
needed in the following areas:
• Mobilization of financial
resources and provision of financial assistance
to the countries which cannot cope with the
problem by themselves;
• Development of pricing and trade
policy that would favor agricultural development and
sustainable productivity of drylands;
• Provision of technical assistance
to the countries in need;
• Development of appropriate
anti-desertification technologies and technology transfer to
the needy countries on favorable terms;
• Monitoring and co-ordination of the
anti-desertification campaign at a global level;
• Information exchange;
• International legislation, as appropriate.
26. The first task might be addressed bilaterally
through adjusting the World Bank, UNDP
and UNEP's Global Environmental Facility or
the establishment of a special facility within the
United Nations for funding the implementation
of the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification.
The second task should be more vigorously and
effectively addressed through GATT and other
relevant UN structures.
27. Provision of technical assistance in
combating desertification to needy countries should
be organized bilaterally or through the existing
specialized agencies and organizations of the
United Nations system e.g. UNDP, FAO, WMO, WHO,
UNEP, UNESCO, etc. For this
purpose, all existing technical assistance
or other relevant international programmes of these UN
bodies, e.g. Man and the Biosphere programme
of UNESCO, Environment Action Plan of the
World Bank, Global Environment Facility of
the World Bank/UNEP/UNDP, Tropical Forestry
Action Plan of the World Bank/FAO/UNDP/WRI,
Energy Sector Management Action
Programme of the World Bank/UNDP, Tropical
Diseases Research Programme of the World
Bank/UNDP, World Soils Policy of UNEP, World
Conservation Strategy of IUCN, Programme
of Action of the World Conference on Agrarian
Reform and Rural Development (WCARRD,
1989), International Action Programme on Water
and Sustainable Agricultural Development of
FAO, International Cooperative Programme
Framework for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural
Development of FAO, etc., for the areas and
regions identified as being affected by, or prone
to, desertification should be fully co-ordinated
within national development programmes aiming
at prevention and rehabilitation of desertification
impacts in accordance with the specific
recommendations of the PACD.
28. Development of appropriate
anti-desertification technologies, both
modernized high-input
and indigenous low-input, should be organized
and internationally co-ordinated through existing
national, regional and international research
centers, particularly through the network of the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR) or a comparable network
to be specialized in drylands development and
desertification matters. The transfer of
technology developed internationally to needy
countries should be organized through the
existing international channels of technical
assistance. The transfer of technology developed
nationally on a commercial basis should be
organized with assistance from the above mentioned
environment or anti-desertification funding
facility.
29. A world machinery for monitoring
desertification and its operational assessment by using
remote sensing technology with computerized
data processing should be established. This
machinery could be a section of the enlarged
EARTHWATCH, including GEMS, GRID and the
Desertification Database of DC/PAC in UNEP.
The establishment of a network of the regional
monitoring/assessment facilities should be
considered, that would be co-ordinated and backed-up
by the EARTHWATCH. The existing facilities,
e.g. in Dakar, Ashkhabad, Jodhpur, Damascus,
Nairobi, Lanzhou, etc. could be part of the global
network. It would be important to stress that
the desertification assessment/monitoring
network should not constitute a separate establishment
but, be a part of the general global environment
assessment/monitoring system which would
regularly provide all necessary data on the
status of the natural resources (soil, water, air,
vegetation, animals, etc.) and peoples (number,
health, etc.) of the world. The main immediate
task would be to establish a Global Baseline
Reference Database for future assessments of
changes and trends.
30. World capability for advanced
training in desertification assessment/monitoring should
be substantially strengthened, particularly
in such world centers as FAO; the International
Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth
Sciences in Enschede, the Netherlands; the USA
Environmental Systems Research Institute,
Inc.; Belgian Catholic University in Leuven, etc.
31. Responsibility for over-all global
monitoring and co-ordination of the anti-desertification
campaign should be given to UNEP with its
existing inter-governmental and inter-agency
mechanisms, including IAWGD and DESCON.
32. UNEP and UNDP should, once in five
years starting from 1995, jointly review the
implementation of the PACD and of corresponding
development programmes in the areas
affected by desertification in order to suggest,
in time, necessary corrective measures at an
international level.
33. International legislation concerning
the drylands should be developed: the desert fringes
which are prone to desertification should be
internationally and nationally declared as
"PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE AREAS" with all legal
implications concerning their use and
protection, e.g. prohibition of agricultural
development in dry steppe virgin lands.
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