Annex 3
Statement by a representative ofUNCCD

The need to strengthen support to an integrated land degradation assesment

The central focus of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is to address the underlying causes of desertification and drought and to prevent and reverse the problems of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions through the instruments of National, Sub-regional and Regional Action Programmes (NAPs, SRAPs and RAPs).

To contribute to this effort, article 21 of the Convention established the Global Mechanism (GM), whose main mandate is “…to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of existing financial mechanisms …and to promote actions leading to the mobilisation and channelling of substantial financial resources, including for the transfer of technology,… to affected developing country Parties”.

Our experience shows that is not enough to develop and implement technical solutions to the dryland management problems but it is equally important to address the root causes of land degradation in order to secure good results of investments in projects and programmes. It is important to emphasise the relevance of an enabling environment, in terms of policy issues, institutional and legal frameworks, to sustain credibility for investing in land degradation.

Although desertification has been a cover-page issue, there is still the need to harmonise methodologies for measuring and assessing desertification and land-degradation processes and to apply this knowledge to a concrete action that contributes to implementation mechanisms at the national and subregional levels.

In the past three years, several affected countries, sub-regions and regions have approached the GM to establish a partnership in the development of desertification-monitoring systems. In this context, the GM has collaborated with UNEP/GEF, FAO and the UNCCD Secretariat in the development of the Land Degradation Assessment for Drylands (LADA) project. In particular, the GM has provided catalytic funding to facilitate the linkage between regional networks on desertification monitoring and LADA, and to support the consultative process that took place in December 2000.

An important distinctive feature of the LADA project is its global nature, the implications of which bears great relevance to major events that will pave the way for a world-wide assessment of the progress made to fulfil UNCCD principles and their linkages to developmental issues addressed by other conventions.

We look forward to forging strategic alliances with other Institutions promoting initiatives complementary to the LADA project. In the framework of the GM support to country parties and the civil society, I would like to mention here few examples of our substantial contributions. One of these examples is the Asia Regional Thematic Programme Network on Desertification Monitoring and Assessment (TPN1) hosted by China; another example is our work in Fouta Djallon as well as the subregional programme of El Gran Chaco, in which Argentina plays a distinctive role. All the aforementioned initiatives will be subject to a presentation during the LADA workshop and we are pleased to anticipate the evolution of a strong collaboration with the involved Institutions so as to increase efficiency and efficacy of our partnerships.

We stand at a pivotal moment for UNCCD implementation. We must continue to foster joint efforts in order to strengthen the acquisition of knowledge bearing in mind its applicability at the local level under the UNCCD’s principles.