Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 15 • 7th September 2007

UN DESERTS MEETING LOOKS TO THE FUTURE

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UN DESERTS MEETING LOOKS TO THE FUTURE

Participants at a major international meeting on desertification are staking out a plan for efforts to combat the problem over the course of the next ten year. Taking place in Madrid from 3-14 September, the eighth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is focusing on the strategic plan, which aims to address some of the Convention’s key challenges and create a new, revitalised common ground for all UNCCD stakeholders based on concrete actions to combat desertification.

According to Gregoire de Kalbermatten, officer-in-charge of the UNCCD, "The ten-year strategic plan comes at a significant time, on the eve of the 16th and 17th sessions of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, which will focus on Africa, agriculture, rural development, land degradation, desertification and drought." In addition, recognition of the interlinked problems of desertification and climate change is growing.

In addition to the COP, UNCCD parties are also meeting to review of the implementation of the Convention by the parties, as well as in a committee that focuses on science and technology. Additional events include a dialogue among high-level officials on "Desertification and adaptation to climate change" on 12-13 September.

Deliberations on the strategic plan

Close to 2000 conference participants from 191 countries and a number of intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations are hoping to create a new 10-year strategic plan on how to stem desertification that sets measurable objectives as well as a timeline for achieving them.

In the negotiations so far, many countries expressed their support for the draft ten-year strategic plan and called for the need to address several issues, including financial resources and the establishment of measurable objectives and indicators. For example, Morocco, Chile, Iran and other delegations said that a mid-term programme with measurable targets and quantitative indicators with programme costs and financial contributions was necessary. Uganda, on behalf of the African Group, highlighted that the draft plan does not have budget, timeline and priority actions and recommended that the COP prepare and adopt a costed implementation plan through identifying priority actions for the first four years. However, on the following day, Brazil objected to global targets for the plan, saying they would burden developing countries without the provision of financial support from developed countries. Some developing countries, such as India, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Tunisia, stressed the need for resource mobilisation for the implementation of the strategic plan to enhance the convention.

The draft text of the ten-year strategic plan considers trade as a tool to achieve different operational objectives that will guide the action of all UNCCD stakeholders and partners. The document acknowledges the need for desertification and land degradation to be addressed in relevant international forums such as those pertaining to agricultural trade at the WTO. It also considers the identification of innovative sources of finance and financing mechanisms to combat land degradation in market-based mechanisms and trade.

A number of non-governmental organisations present at the meeting expressed concern at the slow pace of progress in implementing the UNCCD and said they hoped the Madrid conference would be a "turning point." The groups issued a joint statement saying that "If this does not happen, the silent death of the convention is imminent."

The COP-8 of the UNCCD will last until 14 September. The next issue of the BioRes will cover the final outcome, including issues related to trade.

Additional resources

Daily reports by IISD’s Earth Negotiations Bulletin are available at http://www.iisd.ca/desert/cop8/

Documents of the COP8 of the UNCCD are available at http://www.unccd.int

ICTSD reporting; "UN holds desertification summit in Spain," EDIE NEWSROOM, 7 September 2007; "UN conference sounds warning on spread of deserts," AFP, 4 September 2007.