UN launches International Year of Deserts and Desertification

[gulfcoastliberal]

The United Nations today launched its International Year of Deserts and Desertification to raise global public awareness of the advancing deserts, of ways to safeguard the biological diversity of arid lands covering one-third of the planet and protecting the knowledge and traditions of the 2 billion people affected by the phenomenon.

The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) stressed the importance of recognizing that in addition to the human and environmental cost of the degradation that contributes to the problem, the drylands are the location of some of the most magnificent ecosystems of this world: the deserts.

Summarizing the treaty's goals, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: "I look forward to working with Governments, civil society, the private sector, international organizations and others to focus attention on this crucial issue, and to make every day one on which we work to reverse the trend of desertification and set the world on a safer, more sustainable path of development."

Desertification and drought cause an estimated loss of $42 billion a year from agricultural production, contribute to food insecurity, famine and poverty and can give rise to social, economic and political tensions that can cause conflicts, further impoverishment and land degradation, according to the Convention's Secretariat.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=17076&Cr=desert&Cr1=