p.213-221

This report presents a panorama of the environmental status of the world’s deserts: their location and extent, uniqueness and vulnerability, biodiversity and natural resources. The report provides a balanced picture of deserts as ecosystems which form a special part of the world’s natural and cultural heritage, and not simply as land that is the end result of the process of desertification.The Global Deserts Outlook is the first thematic assessment report in the Global Environment Outlook (GEO) series of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

This paper reports on a workshop held in Ethiopia in 2004, targeting stakeholders involved in implementing Ethiopia’s National Action Plan (NAP) for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The workshop was based on international, national and regional experiences, principles and practices related to dryland management and combating desertification to the development of community driven processes.

It is clear from the failure of our efforts in many countries to halt the desertification process - deserts are now advancing at a rate of nearly 15,000,000 acres a year worldwide (Worrall 1984) (that something was missing in our knowledge of the problem). Four discoveries have been made that enabled us to design a simple holistic model to manage resources successfully in a sustained and economic manner.

This paper seeks to analyse some of the problems of degradation persisting in the dryland regions with particular reference to Sub-Saharan Africa, and describe the processes that aim to tackle them.It identifies the threat to dryland regions as a complex mixture of degrading soils, continuous exposures to frequent droughts and political and economic marginalisation which is putting poor people living in the drylands at risk.

The objectives of this study are to analyze and synthesize the experience of the World Bank and other agencies in dryland management, with special emphasis on Africa.Recommendations are provided on "good policies and practices" in drylands management, which can support actions to fulfil obligations arising from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) for member countries and for international organizations, such as the World Bank.

Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) are disadvantaged in a myriad of ways and they have special needs which require special attention. Challenges such as undiversified economies, vulnerability to climate change and climate variability, land degradation and desertification, among others, are undermining the economic potential of many LLDCs. This has been exacerbated by weak export base of many LLDCs centered on a few primary agricultural and/ or mineral commodities.

Full text of the Convention to Combat Desertification, which was elaborated by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INCD) and signed in June 1994.Also available from the CCD WWW site in French and English

World grain production is a basic indicator of overall food security at the global level. Since 1984, world grain production has expanded more slowly than the world’s population. By the early years of the 21st century, consumption has outstripped production. Could these trends herald a new "politics of scarcity"?In this article, the author sets out the evidence for his assertion that the world faces a future food security crisis.First, based on current trends, demand for grain will increase significantly over the coming years.