Fact sheet on land restoration activities of Action Against Desertification. Action Against Desertification is an initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) in support of the Great Green Wall initiative and UNCCD national action programmes to combat desertification, implemented by FAO and partners with funding of the European Union.

Agricultural activities and their complex effects on nature conservation, and the services that ecosystems deliver to humans are controversial. We present an overview of land abandonment, its driving forces and its consequences for landscape, biodiversity and humans. A descriptive metaanalysis of independently published studies highlighted the fact that the abandonment of agricultural land is a phenomenon mostly driven by socio-economic factors such as immigration into areas where new economic opportunities are offered to rural people.

This document focused on the land and environmental degradation and desertification in Africa; issues and options for sustainable economic development with transformation.

The countries of circum-Sahara Africa adversely affected by desertification, their sub-regional organisations, their Northern partners and the concerned international organisations of the United Nations System have created the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) in May 1992. OSS's mission is conducted within the international framework of the Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) and Agenda 21 and aims to favour the development and the optimisation of its African partners' information wealth, for an optimal use of the means for combating desertification.

La sécheresse peut frapper les cultures dans les tropiques semi-humides et humides pondant la saison sèche si au cours de la dernière saison pluvieuse la pluviométrie totale a été loin d'atteindre le niveau normal.

The project was first conceived as a “Transnational project on the Management of Major Regional Aquifer in N.E. Africa” during the UNCOD held in Nairobi in 1977 and that it had been taken up by ADALCO in 1987. He pointed out that the sandstone aquifer occupying an area of about 2,000,0000 sq. km underlines the common border areas of Sudan, Egypt, Libya and Chad. Environmentally, it was observed that the zone has a relief characterized by a vast sandy plan, which is occasionally interrupted by scattered flat topped Nubaian plateaux and escarpments.

The report is a result of input solicited from Member States and regional partners, and extensive desk review of available documentation and internet resources on drought and desertification, as well as information exchange with and comment from various

organizations and individuals. It is in no way meant to be exhaustive but it brings out the main findings obtaining from the above sources on the subject matter.

The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) at its Sixteenth Session 1. (CSD-16) to be held in 2008, will focus on the assessment of the progress made in implementing programs and actions on sustainable development under the thematic cluster of issues covering agriculture and rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa.

It soon became apparent that soil degradation in the Ethiopian Highlands may be posing a threat not only in terms of the physical loss of soils, but also in terms of deteriorating, soil chemical fertility. This study has therefore emphasized both the physical and chemical deterioration of soils due to degradation.

Les effets des conditions climatiques défavorables et la persistance de la sécheresse et de la désertification sont ressentis de plus en plus profondément par plus de 60 p. 100 des pays africains. Les autres pays, y compris ceux que l'on croyait bénéficier d'un climat équatorial ou tropical, sont menacés par la sécheresse et la désertification. La persistance de la sécheresse, compromet sérieusement les activités productives nécessaires au développement socio-économique équilibré du continent.

The mission held discussions with several members of staff of the SADC-ELMS on current and planned programmes and activities of ELMS with emphasis on issues related to combating desertification and the mitigation of the impacts of drought. Amongst those interviewed in Maseru included the technical advisor, a training officer and environment officer of the ELMS and the UNDP Resident Representative. In Namibia and Botswana the interviews and discussions centered on possible institutions that could be entrusted with the responsibility of coordination of SRAP activities on behalf of SADC ELMS.