UN to continue search for solution to desertification

Accra (Greater Accra) 18 June ?99

The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, said on Thursday that the United Nations system will not lag behind in its search for concrete solutions to combat desertification.

Mr Annan said this in a statement released to the media in Accra by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to mark the celebration of the Fifth World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.

The Day commemorates the adoption in 1994 of the UN convention to combat desertification.

He said: "today, June 17, we have an opportunity to reaffirm our support for all initiatives taken to combat desertification at all levels as well as our commitment to join forces to overcome the obstacles to sustainable development for all, including the degrading of arid lands and all its consequences, environment, social and political".

The secretariat of the convention will continue to encourage all organisations concerned to join in the search for concrete solutions worked out not only with governments but also with civil society as provided for under the convention.

Mr Annan said more than 110 countries are affected by desertification and it would be a big mistake to think that this is a problem that concerns only developing countries.

He said North America and several countries in the European Union are also affected, adding that desertification has repercussions on biological diversity, climate and fresh water supplies against which no country in any part of the world can protect itself.

Mr Annan said desertification leads directly to the loss of fertile lands and a decline in agricultural productivity which in turn is reflected in famine, population displacement, social and political conflicts.

He said ecology and the well being of populations, environment and sustainable development are linked.

The number of parties to the convention last year rose from 125 to 151, showing how committed the international community is to a process that specifically addressed the commitments made at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.