ENV/DEV/555

FOURTH SESSION OF CONFERENCE OF PARTIES TO UN CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION TO TAKE PLACE IN BONN, GERMANY, FROM 11 TO 22 DECEMBER

(Reissued as received.)

BONN/NAIROBI, 8 December (UNEP) -- "The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNCCD) must be given its proper importance among UN Conventions", says Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). "While some of the immediate effects of desertification and drought are experienced only by a few countries, the long-term effects will have far-reaching consequences for all of us", he said.

The fourth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification will take place in Bonn from 11 to 22 December. Government representatives will discuss further action needed to halt land degradation in the world's drylands. Land degradation in its worst form is desertification: the transfer of arable land into unproductive, dead soil.

Land degradation is about people. People cause and suffer from it. Unsustainable land management practices caused by either inadequate techniques or increasing population pressure will enhance degradation of land especially in susceptible drylands. Around 40 per cent of the world�s land surface is drylands and thus prone to land degradation. About 65 per cent of all arable land has already lost some of is biological and physical functions.

The UNEP, being one of two United Nations agencies headquartered in Africa, has witnessed the consequences first hand. Environmental refugees, who flee the miserable conditions created by the vicious cycle of unfertile land, droughts, decreasing production and subsequent over-use of land, are the first victims of desertification. More than 40 per cent of Africa's population lives in the susceptible drylands. Numbers are equivalent for Asia and South America. Desertification affects, in total, the lives of one sixth of the world's population.

Climate change could have a crucial impact on land degradation. Since the drylands are already hot and dry, they will be particularly vulnerable to any future reduction in rainfall or increase in temperature. As a result, many of the world's drylands are expected to suffer more from drought due to global warming.

"Industrialized countries still partly believe that desertification is a regional problem that is happening somewhere else", continued Mr. Toepfer. The serious impact of climate change as well as the close link of global trade in

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agricultural commodities and land degradation unequivocally demonstrate the global character of the problem.

The United States has announced its intention to ratify the Convention. Its decision is considered a very positive signal towards a global commitment to really combat desertification.

The Convention secretariat is located in Bonn. Official documentation on the meeting can be found at its Web site; www.unccd.int.

For more information, please contact: Michael Williams at UNEP's Information Unit for Conventions in Geneva, tel: (41-22) 917-8242, fax: 797-3464, e-mail: [email protected];

or Tore J. Brevik, Spokesman/Director of Communications and Public Information, UNEP, Nairobi, tel: (254-2) 623292, fax: 623692; e-ail: [email protected].

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