ore than 250-million people are directly affected by desertification. Additionally, about one billion people in more than 100 countries are at risk. These people include many of the world’s poorest, most marginalised and politically weak citizens.
Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. It does not refer to the expansion of existing deserts.
Some of the consequences of desertification include the reduction of the land’s resilience to natural climate variability and soil that become less productive. Essential resources — fertile topsoil, vegetation cover and healthy crops — are the first victims of desertification. The people themselves begin to suffer when food and water supplies become threatened. In the worst cases they endure famine, mass migration and massive economic losses.
Desertification is considered a major global environmental issue largely because of the link between dry-land degradation and food production. If desertification is not stopped and reversed, food-yields in many affected areas will decline.
The degradation of dry-lands is caused primarily by unsustainable human activities and climatic variations. The most commonly cited forms of unsustainable land use are overcultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and poor irrigation practices.
The conference is the product of a two-year process of meetings and exchange visits between communities in Southern Africa. With productivity of natural resources decreasing throughout the region, the almost month-long conference is expected to create awareness on desertification and its implications. It will provide a wealth of scientific and applicable information related to combating desertification at the community level. Examples of how communities living in dry-lands in developing countries have taken advantage of research and development inputs to improve their livelihood will be highlighted.
Participants will learn about the hardships of the Paulshoek community who rely heavily on local resources in this region of Namaqualand that receives about 200mm of rain a year and their plans to improve their livelihood. The communities of Suide Bokkeveld from the Northern Cape and Wupperthal on the eastern side of the Cedarberg Mountains will share information about the production of organically grown rooibos tea.
Participating communities from Namibia include the Topnaar people of the Namib Desert who rely on the !nara, an endemic desert fruit. The Gibeon and Grootberg communities from the south and north-west of the country will share information on alternative income-generating schemes in areas where elephant, giraffe, kudu and gemsbok still run wild.
The secretary general of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desert- ification, Arbo Diallo, and South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Valli Moosa, are expected to attend the conference. About 200 delegates and speakers from the Southern African Development Community, India, Iran, Sudan, Mexico, Italy, Argentina, Mongolia, Tunisia, Libya, Senegal, Uganda and Kenya will also take part.
The conference coincides with the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Desertification and the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development — better known as the Earth Summit. Out of these conferences the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was born, emphasising the importance of part- icipation at the community level in planning, decision-making and implementation of actions needed to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought. The convention is implemented through national action programmes — one of the topics that will be discussed at the conference.
The conference kicks off with a training component in Cape Town from April 2 to 5 at the National Botanical Institute of South Africa, Kirstenbosch Conference Centre. The International Symposium (April 8 to 10) will be in the Old Mutual Conference and Exhibition Centre at Kirstenbosch. Following the symposium, participants can visit one of the five communities from April 11 to 17. The conference will end with a synthesis workshop (April 18 to 20) at the Gobabeb Training and Research Centre of the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia in the Namib Desert.
The Desertification Conference 2002 is organised and partially sponsored by a wide range of international organisations, governments, research institutes and NGOs.
For more information on the conference and the participating communities visit www.drfn.org.na/des2002/