As a follow--up to the United Nations Conference on Desertification (1977), the Commission considered the issue of desertification at its sixth session (1979) and adopted resolution 71(VI) on combating desertification in the ECWA region, which emphasized the need to identify and implement a set of action-oriented, problem-solving activities.
Pursuant to the above resolution, the Expert Meeting on Management, Conservation and Development of Agricultural Resources was held in Damascus in 1981 in cooperation with FAO and ACSAD (Arab Centre for the Study of Arid Zones and Dry Lands). This meeting resulted in a set of important and concrete recommendations, which formed the basis of ESCWA work in the area of desertification control.
The Agriculture Division, which has served as the ESCWA focal point for desertification since the convening of the United Nations Conference on Desertification, has been focusing its attention on studies on the assessment and integrated development of areas prone to desertification, preparing national plans of action to combat desertification, formulating specific desertification control projects, and conducting training in resource conservation and management.
The convening of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3 to 14 June 1992 represents a watershed in the United Nations activities to combat desertification and promote the development of sustainable resources. In the light of the deliberations and recommendations of this Conference which culminated in Agenda 21, it seems appropriate to review the work of ESCWA in the area of desertification control and to realign targets for future work in this important area.
Before dwelling on the regional context, which is the focus of this paper, it would be appropriate to highlight the global impact of desertification, as pinpointed by the United Nations Conference on Desertification.
Desertification affects:
- One sixth of the world's population (900 million people);
- One fourth of the world's total land area;
- Seventy per cent of all drylands, amounting to 3.6 billion ha.
Desertification degrades:
- Seventy-three per cent of the drier
rangelands, amounting to 3.3 billion ha;
- Soil fertility and soil structure of 47 per cent of the dry
land areas constituting marginal rainfed cropland;
- Irrigated cropland, amounting to 30 per cent of the dry land
areas with a high population density and agricultural potential.