ERC/02/5

1. Desertification was defined in Chapter 12 of Agenda 21 (UNCED, Rio 1992) as land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. Desertification affects about one sixth of the world's population and 70 percent of all drylands amounting to 3.6 billion hectares and one quarters of the total land area of the world. Desertification and land degradation during the last decade have been aggravated quite substantially also in the European Region, due to a number of factors.
2. The Member Nations of the European Region therefore decided that the issue of desertification and land degradation should be included in the agenda of the 23^rd FAO Regional Conference for Europe. The Member Nations also decided that the item should first be discussed at the technical level at the 32^nd Session of the European Commission on Agriculture (ECA) and that the relevant conclusions and recommendations should be conveyed to the Regional Conference for consideration. Two documents were prepared and submitted to the ECA¹

3. The two documents were welcomed by the ECA and the item gave rise to an interesting and lively debate, during which Member Nations :

"(a) recognised that land desertification and degradation should be understood as complex issues and that socio-economic factors should also be considered. Land and soil constitute the most obvious natural resource for the livelihoods of human societies, serving as a substrate for agriculture, housing, water, biological diversity and the supply of raw materials among others;
(b) emphasised that more integrated and coherent action to combat land degradation and desertification was necessary on the part of governments;
(c)Stressed that to prevent soil and land cover degradation, the three UN Conventions on climate change, biological diversity and desertification (UNFCC, UNCBD and UNCCD) should be implemented under an integrated approach. This would be indeed among the most effective ways of mainstreaming environmental considerations into development agendas, including the consideration of the results and proposals of the international policy dialogue of the UN Forestry Forum;
(d) highlighted that land degradation was not only limited to Mediterranean countries, but also affected northern and Central European Countries and that action and effective dialogue on land degradation issues are taking place in these countries in the context of framing agriculture policy; it was noted that many countries of Central Europe were affected and should be considered in any regional programme;
(e) underlined that many significant linkages existed between the objectives of the UNCCD, those of EC development cooperation and the FAO overall activities to combat desertification, not solely in the European region, but also in other areas of the world severely affected by land degradation such as ACP countries, Latin America, Asia and the Southern Mediterranean Basin;
(f) called for National Action Plans essential to the implementation of UNCCD to be developed and implemented in countries affected by desertification and land degradation both Annex IV and Annex V countries (see Appendix 1);
(g) called for provision of training and capacity building in member countries for the implementation of the Convention and related National Action Plans;
(h) noted experience gained by some countries in conservation agriculture and minimum tillage which had some interesting potential for land degradation control, and emphasised that further research and new developments on the engineering side were necessary. The EC research programmes related to land degradation/desertification in the 5^th Framework Programme or future activities under the 6^th Framework Programme could represent a way of collaboration between the EC and FAO, in particular in the Mediterranean basin in support to the UNCCD;
(i) indicated that forest fires were among the main causes of land degradation and soil losses, and that legislation to prevent them and discourage any profit accruing from illegal speculation involving fire, as well as enhanced regional cooperation in the subject were necessary;
(j) urged that cooperation between countries, organizations and NGOs be strengthened in order to achieve synergies, as well as to improve monitoring;
(k) encouraged the existing collaboration of FAO and the UNCCD, particularly in the context of Annex IV of the Convention for the European Region, and observed that thematic networks being implemented in the Annex IV countries could also be complemented and extended by FAO to other Mediterranean and Annex V countries, especially for conservation projects;
(l) encouraged a reinforcement of the Silva Mediterranea network using FAO as a bridge between the three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa.

4. Two Member Nations emphasised that olive farming in Southern Spain and Portugal was a well appropriated agriculture practice and did not lead to desertification and soil erosion. It was a traditional and adapted way of farming to prevent desertification even in intense modern plantations when minimum conservation measures are taken. Both delegations requested appropriate amendment of paragraph 19 in the document (ECA/32/02/2)².

5. The Commission furthermore considered that FAO had a very important role to play in combating desertification, taking advantage of its technical experience in agricultural and forestry matters.

6. The Commission endorsed the recommendations of the document (ECA 32/02/2). In addition, it considered that besides the Mediterranean, the Balkans and the Caucasus countries, FAO should also formulate for Central European Countries a broadly-based regional umbrella project to strengthen national efforts to combat land degredation and the effects of drought in cooperation with interested agencies.

7. The Commission forwarded the following recommendations to the 23^rd FAO Regional Conference for Europe:

(i) FAO should be ready to assist those countries needing advice in the formulation and implementation of their NAPs, and should also provide assistance to countries in the Region which need guidance in order to start pilot activities and demonstration projects in affected areas, taking into account approaches, successful techniques and best practices, and building on the experience obtained in the Region;
(ii) FAO should actively follow-up the recommendations of the Fire Action Plan, and in particular foster the establishment of fire agreements, establishing partnerships between countries in the prevention and combat of wild forest fires;
(iii) As reflected in some of the reports from European countries to COP-4, there is need for external assistance in establishing and implementing state-of-art monitoring and information systems on desertification. The project on Land Degradation Assessment (LADA), being implemented by FAO in cooperation with the UNCCD Secretariat and other partners, could provide a standard approach and a common frame of reference for the assessment of desertification, as a step forward in determining the real extent and the magnitude of biophysical impacts of desertification processes;
(iv) Information systems and clearing houses are most helpful for the definition of common strategies and for technical and scientific co-operation. Among the various potential areas, Annex IV countries have proposed the creation of a network to gather, evaluate and disseminate information about traditional knowledge and practices for safeguarding the quality of the regional landscape. FAO, in cooperation with other partners, should assist in the development of this network to gather, evaluate and disseminate information about traditional knowledge and practices for safeguarding the quality of the regional landscape.
FAO, in cooperation with other partners, should assist in the development of this network, and in classifying and evaluating traditional knowledge, as well as innovative, environmentally- sound and cost- effective practices. The same approach should be considered for the newly agreed upon Annex V and other affected European countries.
(v) FAO should intensify efforts to foster new approaches and strategies for Sustainable Agriculture in Europe in a view to prevent, and even reverse, land degradation and consequent loss of productivity that resulted from some negative effects of agricultural industrialisation in Europe. To that end, the potential of conservation agriculture, and the sustainable management of water and livestock resources need to be reassessed and strengthened in cooperation with all concerned stakeholders. The public and private sectors, as well as the civil society, should all be involved in the framework of revitalised environmentally friendly policies of the European Commission."³

8. The Conference may wish to endorse the above recommendations.

Appendix 1:
List of Countries beloging to UNCCD Annexes IV and V***

_____________________________________
* France and Monaco are observer of annex IV.
** Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia are interested in the consultation process for Annex V.
*** There are still 7 Central and Eastern Countries which are not yet members of CCD (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, The Russian Federation, Ukraine and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

¹ ECA/32/02/2-Rev.1 and ECA/32/02/2-Sup.1

² The paragraph has been amended accordingly, the reason for issuing ECA/32/02/2-Rev.1

³ The text in quotes is the extract of the ECA/02/REP.