Dryland biodiversity is of tremendous global importance, being central to the well-being and development of millions of people in developing countries. In June 2012, at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (or “Rio+20”), global leaders from governments and civil society reaffirmed the intrinsic value of biological diversity and recognised the severity of global biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystems. Although drylands were implicitly recognised, there continues to be inadequate attention to this major biome that covers such a vast part of our world’s terrestrial surface.

The challenges and threats of water scarcity to dryland populations are set to increase in magnitude and scope. As the world’s population has swollen to well over 6 billion people, some countries have already reached the limits of their water resources. With the existing climate change scenario, almost half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030, including between 75 million and 250 million people in Africa. In addition, water scarcity in some arid and semi-arid places will displace between 24 million and 700 million people (WWDR 2009).

Parmi l’éventail des mesures souvent mises en avant dans l’approche genre dans le cadre de la lutte contre la désertification, la dégradation des terres et de l’atténuation des effets de la sécheresse, figurent l’amélioration de la participation des femmes à la prise de décision, le renforcement des capacités des organisations féminines, l’élimination de l’illettrisme féminin, l’allègement de la charge de travail des femmes et l’élimination des disparités hommes-femmes au travail, dans l’accès aux ressources et à la propriété.

El conjunto de medidas a menudo señaladas desde la perspectiva de género para revocar la desertificación y la degradación de las tierras y atenuar los efectos de la sequía (DLDD) incluye: la mejora de la participación de las mujeres en la toma de decisiones, la creación de capacidad de las organizaciones de mujeres, la erradicación del analfabetismo femenino, la disminución de su carga de trabajo y la desaparición de las disparidades de género, tanto en el trabajo como en el acceso y posesión de recursos.

Dryland mountains are among the least-known environments in the world, and certainly one of the most overlooked by decision- and policy-makers.

Dryland mountains have an outstanding strategic value. They act as water towers for surrounding dry lowland areas, as shown by the examples of the Rocky Mountains of North America, the Central Andes, the mountains of the Mediterranean Basin, the Sahara and Sub-Saharan Africa, West Asia, and Central Asia

Land is the foundation for all life-sustaining processes on Earth. Through its physical, chemical, and biological attributes, land underpins a wide range of ecosystem goods and services that humanity depends on for survival.

As the world reviews its progress in tackling global poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), drylands can no longer be ignored. Drylands account for more than a third of the world’s land surface and more than 2 billion of its people. Yet for too long, drylands and their inhabitants have been neglected in development processes.

More than two billion people depend on the world’s arid and semi-arid lands. Preventing land degradation and supporting sustainable development in drylands has major implications for food security, climate change and human settlement. This report, issued at the beginning of the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification, sets out a shared strategy by UN agencies to rise to the challenge of addressing the special needs of these vital zones.

La terre — une ressource vitale pour la population mondiale

Often, when people think of drylands, they think of deserts and hostile living conditions, economic hardship and water scarcity. But that is not what drylands are all about. If managed well, drylands are often fertile and capable of supporting the habitats, crops and livestock that sustain the entire global population.

Human activities have resulted in unprecedented phenomena and severe impacts for the 21st century such as land degradation, natural resources scarcity, climate change, and a rapid decline in biodiversity. These alterations engender secondary effects such as political conflicts, disputes over resources, social disruptions and sudden shocks of catastrophic weather events which are becoming more frequent in critical regions of the world, particularly in drylands; and exacerbate threats for human, national and international security.

The Kyoto Protocol negotiated in the mid-1990s to address climate change adaptation and mitigation will expire in 2012. This protocol represents one of the two milestones that the multilateral negotiation of climate change has delivered. Ten years after its adoption, the climate change negotiators decided upon the second largest milestone when they approved the Bali Action Plan at their 2007 meeting in Bali.