No 68 January 2006.1
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No 68 January 2006.1
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UNO Resolution
2006 : International Year
of Deserts and Desertification
In December 2005 Montreal was the host of thousands
of delegates from all over the world; they came to search for solutions to global
warming. One noted the impact of climatic changes in the poorest countries.
Generally third world countries are often rightly considered as the victims
of those changes. In many regions of the world, as in the Sahelian countries,
this warming seems to aggravate the phenomena of drought and desertification.
The launching of the 2006 International
Year of Deserts and Desertification that took place concurrently with the 60th
session of the General Assembly of the United Nations was the object of a debate
conference. The theme is of the highest importance all the more so that grave
dangers like drought and the advance of the desert are threatening a large part
of the world population; this has consequences in terms of food insecurity,
migration and an increase of the causes of desertification.
This why Kofi Annan has declared 2006
the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. This UNO resolution will
play a preponderant role in the efforts that the international community deploys
to eliminate poverty, reach a lasting development and reach the objectives of
the millennium for development.
Desertification engenders obvious and
serious risks. It undermines soil fertility which in certain regions loses 50%
of its productivity. It contributes to food insecurity, hunger and poverty,
creates social, economic and political tensions which in turn lead to conflicts
and a worsening of poverty and of soil degradation. According to present projections
means of subsistence of more than a billion persons are compromised by desertification
and consequently 135 million people risk being forced to abandon their land.
The poor of rural regions are particularly vulnerable especially in the developing
world.
The desert
For most people the word “desert” calls
to mind sand dunes undulating under hot winds or again some nomads roaming in
the immensity. But there are many other types of deserts where dunes are not
customary. Thus the Antarctica or the far North is a barren area because water
has frozen. As for arid regions that are found under ever hot climates, as in
Arabia, and also under climates with cold winter, as in the steppes of central
Asia, their common particularity is that there is on average less rain than
the amount of water that evaporates and life has to adapt to this deficit. Where
rain is nearly lacking, in the Sahara or the desert of Gobi, there is practically
no life, except if one can extract water from rivers coming from elsewhere like
in Egypt, Iraq or the region of Indus that long ago saw the great “hydraulic
civilizations”, except also where one can draw from underground fossil waters
that can be exploited only for a limited amount of time like to-day in Libya.
Where there is enough rain to allow for grazing or even for a few dry cultures,
one speaks of semi-arid regions: there are many in Africa, India, Argentina
and Australia.
Algerian Chérif Rahmani, minister for
Environment and National Development and president of the foundation Deserts
of the World announced a high level world summit in Algeria in October 2006:
the chosen theme in correlation with the international year will bear on “the
desertification and the fight against poverty and migration”. There will also
be next year the inauguration of the Institute of the deserts of the world,
at Ghardaïa. The General Assembly of the United Nations is profoundly preoccupied
by the worsening of desertification particularly in Africa and by its repercussions
of a considerable weight on the realization of the objectives of development
set out in the Declaration of the Millennium, in particular as regards the elimination
of poverty; it has therefore decided to declare 2006 the International Year
of deserts and desertification. The aim is also to heighten public awareness
and to protect the biological diversity of deserts. It is also hoped to preserve
the traditional knowledge of populations affected by this phenomenon. More than
110 countries have arid soils that are potentially threatened by desertification,
not least in Africa, Asia and Latin America; a third of emerged countries of
our globe (4 billion hectares) are thus threatened with more than 250 million
people directly affected. 24 billion tons of fertile soils disappear each year.
Desertification has effects on all aspects of life: the environment and means
of subsistence are interdependent.
The fight against desertification in Africa
It is in Africa that desertification
is most acutely felt. Barren and arid zones cover two thirds of the continent.
Africa has vast areas of arid agricultural lands three quarters of which already
suffer from degradation at diverse stages. The region experiences frequent and
severe droughts. Many African countries have no coasts, are going through widely
spread poverty: they need important external help and are dependant on natural
resources in order to survive. Their socio-economic situation is difficult,
their institutional and juridical structures are lacking, their infrastructures
are weak and their scientific, technical and educational means are insufficient.
This difficult situation explains why African countries devoted so many efforts
in order to persuade the international community of the necessity of a “Convention
on the fight against desertification in countries gravely affected by droughts
and desertification, particularly in Africa”.
The desertification of Africa is closely
linked to poverty, migration and food insecurity. In many African countries
the fight against desertification and the promotion of development represent
the same struggle due to the economic and social importance of natural resources
and of agriculture. When populations live in poverty, they have no other choice
than overexploitation of their lands. When the soil, in the long run, cannot
give enough profit, people are often obliged to migrate either within their
own country or even outside. These migrations risk in turn to aggravate the
pressures on environment and to provoke tensions and social and political conflicts.
It is important to have already established a link with migration in order to
have the international community admit that desertification is a real problem
of global dimension as are climate changes and the reduction of biological diversity.
Finally food security can be threatened when populations that already live in
precarious conditions have to face grave droughts and other catastrophes.
African countries have had a good start,
but the essential remains to be done. To succeed in their endeavor, those countries
affected must give absolute priority to the fight against desertification. They
must create a favorable environment by adopting appropriate juridical, political,
economic, financial and social measures. It is possible for example that they
have to modify their regulations on the occupancy and ownership of lands, to
decentralize public administration and reinforce political rights at local level.
At the same time external partners must prove unfailingly their commitment by
forming productive relations with the countries concerned. Finally efforts must
be redoubled, especially in terms of strengthening financial capacity and help,
so that NGO and civil society may remain active partners all along the implementation
of those programs.
Women and desertification
“It is estimated that each year desertification
and drought cause agricultural losses of $42 million. In many arid agricultural
regions, for instance in the major part of Africa, it is the women who, traditionally,
give their time and energy to farm work”, says the General Secretary of the
United Nations. In developing countries women represent 70% of the agricultural
workforce and produce between 60 and 80% of the food. It is mainly women who
manage, run and commercialize the foodstuff for their family. Confronted to
the degradation of their milieu, among other problems, they have learned to
face them and have acquired a precious experience. “But despite their efforts
and accumulated knowledge, those women from arid regions are often among the
poorest of the planet and have scarcely any means to change their condition
in depth”, affirms again Kofi Annan.
The implementation of the Convention
of the United Nations on the fight against desertification in countries gravely
affected by drought or desertification, particularly in Africa, rests for a
great part on the action of women. However as it is the men who possess the
land and the livestock and who make decisions, women are often excluded from
conservation projects, land development, activities of agricultural vulgarization
and the working-out of general policies. But some progress is perceived. In
many countries women begin to have access to land ownership and to take part
in decision making. Member states of UNO recognize more and more that the fight
against desertification is up against the lack of financial means. This evolution
opens for women new possibilities of changing their lives, their society and
their environment.
Care of the environment
Deserts have not been created by man,
one sometimes hears, but man contributes to desertification. Particularly nowadays
an increased demographic pressure and too intensive an agriculture and animal
breeding provoke an accelerated degradation of the soil and more severe drought
in the semiarid regions of the Sahel for example. Human activity could modify
the evolution of arid regions by some other means. It is estimated that the
accumulation in the atmosphere of carbonic gas from cars, heating and other
gas of industrial and agricultural origin can lead to a warming of the globe
through the greenhouse effect. Consequences on the regional scale of such a
warming cannot yet be predicted, but it is possible that in some odd dozens
of years, some arid regions will be more so, whereas others will be less so.
Man could thus trigger off an important climatic change, comparable to those
that were produced in the course of geological history.
On 4 October 2004, feast of saint Francis
of Assisi, Patron of Ecology, the bishops of Canada published a pastoral letter
on ecology. “We human beings are presently destroying creation”. They were thus
calling Catholics to take care of the environment and to respect the marvels
of the globe. The text enumerates certain excesses and aberrations that the
human hand inflicts on nature: disfigurement, shameful pollutions, excessive
exploitation, waste of resources, unauthorized appropriation. Problems linked
to water preoccupied the bishops particularly. “The Bible speaks of living waters,
of the call to become a source of living water, of justice that flows like a
powerful river. But how can one speak of living waters if those waters cannot
nourish life any more? Without water, there is no life. Water is the blood of
life on our planet.”
Bringing out the close links between
solidarity and ecology, the pastoral letter invited Catholics to adopt ways
of eco-justice. “To fast from actions that
pollute, accept drawbacks that come from a ‘greener’ life style, reduce our
consumption of fossil energy, deduct a “tithe” from time, money and talent to
the service of environmental causes, all of which can constitute elements to
this solution. We can contest the market hold over our lives by conscious efforts
to avoid over consumption and by making use of our purchasing power to the benefit
of earth-friendly enterprises.” In this message the bishops wanted not only
to incite reflection among the faithful, but also to lead them to pose concrete
gestures to safeguard and protect the environment. “The whole creation is the
work of the Lord and it is not yet completed. We are called upon as co-creators
to join God’s action and to heal those wounds that our ecological sins have
inflicted on creation. We are also called to engage in creative actions of solidarity
with those who have less easy access to the advantages of God’s superabundant
creation. This ‘master who loves life’, who has come so that all may have life
abundantly, continues to offer us occasions to renew the face of the earth.
How could we refuse to take up this challenge?”
Michel Fortin, M.Afr.