land degradation News | Environmental XPRT

Scientists struggling to put land degradation into SDGs

Lack of data and poor communication by scientists may be keeping land degradation and desertification off the sustainable development agenda, experts warned the UN Convention to Combat Desertification's (UNCCD) 2nd Scientific Conference last week (9–12 April). The fear is that these challenges could cause land management issues to be under-represented in the UN's next set of development ...

Apr. 16, 2013

By SciDev.Net

Combating desertification could help tackle other global crises

While global attention is focused on crises ranging from energy to food security to climate change, a senior United Nations environmental expert highlighted the “silent” crisis of desertification or land degradation, which, if tackled properly, can actually help address these other issues. “The land can be… an opportunity to solve most of the ongoing global crises,” Luc Gnacadja, Executive ...

Oct. 30, 2008

By United Nations

UNCCD COP11 ends with significant advances

The eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (COP11) ended Saturday morning in Windhoek, Namibia, with several major breakthroughs. The eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (COP11) ended Saturday morning in Windhoek, Namibia, with several major breakthroughs. The Science Policy ...

Sep. 28, 2013

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Wind, salt and water are leading indicators of land degradation in Abu Dhabi desert lands

Desert environments are characterized by poor vegetative cover, strong winds, dry, non-cohesive sandy soils, and hyper-arid conditions. In this context, the land resources of Abu Dhabi Emirate in the United Arab Emirates are subjected to various land degradation stresses, including wind erosion, salinization, waterlogging, landfilling, and overgrazing. To sustain the land resources of Abu Dhabi ...

May 7, 2009

By Harvard Apparatus

UN meeting reaches agreement on measuring desertification

The world's countries have agreed to a minimum set of indicators for monitoring and assessing the extent of desertification, drought and land degradation in what a United Nations official has called a “groundbreaking achievement” in the battle against a problem afflicting nations on every continent. After two weeks of negotiations involving hundreds of scientists, government ministers and ...

Oct. 5, 2009

By United Nations

Land degradation on the rise, according to FAO

Land degradation is intensifying in many parts of the world, according to a study using data taken over a 20-year period, FAO announced this week. Defined as a long-term decline in ecosystem function and productivity, land degradation is increasing in severity and extent in many parts of the world, with more than 20 percent of all cultivated areas, 30 percent of forests and 10 percent of ...

Jul. 2, 2008

By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Coordinating global action to combat desertification and land degradation

An informative video outlining the PRAIS initiative has been launched. Unique amongst the Rio Convention, PRAIS utilises an interactive online portal to collate information from 192 countries on quantifiable actions towards the UNCCD's 10 Year Strategy for poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. Desertification, land degradation and drought affect over one and a half billion people ...

Mar. 4, 2011

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Message by the Secretary-General on the World Day to Combat Desertification

Land degradation and desertification undercut human rights, starting with the right to food. Nearly 1 billion people lack adequate nutrition, and those living off degraded areas are among the most affected. Their situation could worsen if land degradation, as projected, reduces global food production by 12 per cent by 2035. Food security is also impacted by the decline in water resources. Due to ...

Jun. 17, 2015

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Media invitation to participate in the UNCCD conference and committee meetings in Bonn, Germany

Scientists, governments and civil society organizations will converge at the World Conference Center in Bonn, Germany, from 9-19 April to carry out the first ever comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of desertification, land degradation and drought. Also, for the very first time, governments will provide concrete data on the status of poverty and of land cover in the areas affected by ...

Mar. 25, 2013

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

UN launches decade-long efforts to tackle desertification

The United Nations is launching the Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification (2010-2020) today, an 11-year long effort to raise awareness and action to improve the protection and management of the world's drylands, home to a third of the world's population and which face serious economic and environmental threats. 'Continued land degradation - whether from climate change, ...

Aug. 16, 2010

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Business commits to UNCCD capacity building for soil leadership

UNCCD today launched a Soil Leadership Academy with support from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and leading WBCSD member Syngenta and called on other business and stakeholders to join. The main goal of the joint initiative is to fill the gap in capacity building opportunities for policy makers to address land management issues, through distilling and sharing the ...

Sep. 24, 2013

By Syngenta

If you eat, this affects you - UNEP Deputy Executive Director, Ibrahim Thiaw`s speech at the `Land Solutions: An Economics of Land Degradation` event

Good morning Excellencies, representatives from the German Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development, the European Commission, UNCCD, Esteemed Experts, Fellow Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. We are having these discussions today to launch a new report, which points out, in no uncertain terms, the scale and complexities of land degradation, erosion and desertification in the world, ...

Sep. 24, 2015

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

2008 World Day to combat desertification and drought

Message from Mr. Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on the Occasion of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought - 17 June 2008: This year’s theme for the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, “Combating land degradation for sustainable agriculture,” underscores the significance of land and its management for ...

Jun. 18, 2008

By United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

Turning the land degradation tide on world desertification day

Improved varieties of the tropical, nutritious 'Sahel Apple' tree allied to the setting up of market gardens and community nature reserves are helping to turn the tide of land-degradation and desertification in some African countries, a new study shows. In other countries on the Continent, communities are testing the re-introduction of extinct grass species, the deployment of rainwater ...

Jun. 18, 2009

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Satellite data instrumental in combating desertification

With land degradation in dryland regions continuing to worsen, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification has agreed on scientist-recommended indicators for monitoring and assessing desertification that signatory countries must report on. The landmark agreement was reached after two weeks of negotiations involving hundreds of scientists and government ministers attending the Ninth Session of the ...

Oct. 7, 2009

By European Space Agency (ESA)

Following up on Rio+20 – Delivering on land degradation

Conference "Land and soil degradation – post Rio+20", Brussels Ladies and gentlemen, As we approach the end of the first part of this morning’s session, allow me to start by welcoming you again to this Conference. It is a pleasure to see so many eminent experts present here today. We have a very important task. We are here to start painting the first layers of the “future we ...

Nov. 16, 2012

By European Commission, Environment DG

Developing nations have `more to lose` from loss of drylands

Developing countries have much more to lose from land degradation than developed ones, as the economic value of dryland ecosystems — determined by factors including food and raw material production, ecosystem services and tourism — is far greater there, according to a study. This value in Africa and Latin America is more than double that in Europe and more than 30 times that in North ...

Apr. 15, 2013

By SciDev.Net

Building the African green wall, piece by piece

When village people and local authorities in southern Niger won back over one hundred hectares of degraded land, they added one extra piece to a mosaic being laid across the Sahel and the Sahara aimed at tackling desertification and land degradation. Ibrahim Dan Ladi, a 47-year-old farmer from southern Niger, remembers that his village of Kouloumboutey used to be surrounded by thick forest. The ...

Jul. 18, 2013

By Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Mediterranean land degradation threatens food security

Climate change, tourism and population growth are all accelerating land degradation in the Mediterranean region, according to recent research. This can have severe impacts: the amount of available agricultural land per capita in the region could have dropped by half by 2020, compared with 1961, the study estimates. The Mediterranean region covers about 850 million hectares in 22 countries across ...

Oct. 30, 2014

By European Commission

UN chief appoints Monique Barbut of France as head of convention to combat desertification

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Monique Barbut of France as the head of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Ms. Barbut has extensive experience on sustainable development issues coupled with international diplomatic and political experience. Since 2012, she was Special Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of the Agence ...

Sep. 16, 2013

By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)