UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION

The Convention on the web: http://www.unccd.int

Desertification was mentioned in the Agenda 21, but not addressed in form of an UN convention. Pressure of affected countries, most notably from Africa, at the end of UNCED led to a process that in 1994 resulted in the adoption of the Convention to Combat Desertification. The convention acknowledges that desertification has many and complex causes ranging from global economic patterns to unsustainable land use by local communities.

It aims at closely examining the causes of desertification and its interlinkages. Its overall goal, to combat desertification, is to be implemented through regionally adapted action programmes that would involve close co-operation with local stakeholders, giving the programmes a strong "bottom-up" character.

The convention suffered from the beginning from unbalanced interests of the different parties and has failed to attract international support for implementing its objectives, resulting in a lack of funding. The convention has been given a low priority by both affected and donor countries. To date, it is uncertain what the convention would eventually contribute to effectively combat desertification.