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International Year on Deserts and Desertification 2006

Print version What are the implications of desertification for human well-being?

Brussels, 21 December 2006. The International Year on Deserts and Desertification 2006 focuses the world’s attention on desertification and its implications for human well-being. Although 2006 is coming to an end, desertification persists, as shown by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) in Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Desertification Synthesis.

This report is now available in a popularised version on www.greenfacts.org/en/desertification/ in English, Spanish, and French. GreenFacts has faithfully summarised the leading report on desertification and presented the information in its user-friendly Three-Level Structure of increasing detail.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) was launched by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2001 to provide scientific information concerning the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being and options for responding to those changes. It involved over 1300 scientists from 95 countries and produced a series of assessment reports.

“Only by understanding the environment and how it works, can we make the necessary decisions to protect it” said Kofi Annan in a message to launch the MA reports. “The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is an unprecedented contribution to our global mission for development, sustainability and peace.”

Highlights of the Desertification Synthesis

The report identifies desertification – the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems – as one of today’s greatest environmental challenges that constitutes a major barrier to meeting basic human needs in drylands. Desertification affects biological productivity as well as the livelihoods of millions of people. It is caused by a combination of human and natural factors that contribute to an unsustainable use of scarce natural resources.

Today, some 10 to 20% of all drylands are estimated to be degraded, and the ongoing desertification threatens the world’s poorest populations. Various scenarios that explore the future of desertification and human well-being in drylands show that the global desertified area is likely to increase.

According to the report, prevention is the most effective way to cope with desertification, because later attempts to rehabilitate desertified areas are costly and tend to deliver limited results. Combating desertification yields multiple local and global benefits and helps fight biodiversity loss and global climate change.

The report concludes that efforts to reduce pressures on dryland ecosystems need to go hand in hand with efforts to reduce poverty as both are closely linked. Effectively fighting desertification will help reduce global poverty and will contribute to meeting the Millennium Development Goals that aim to improve human well-being by 2015.

About GreenFacts asbl/vzw

GreenFacts asbl/vzw is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes faithful on-line summaries of scientific consensus documents on environment and health matters in several languages on www.greenfacts.org. These summaries are presented as questions and answers in a copyrighted Three-Level Structure of increasing detail, making the scientific consensus easily accessible to non-specialists.

GreenFacts was created in 2001 by individuals from scientific institutions, environment and health organisations, and businesses, who called for wider access to unbiased information on environment and health topics.

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For further details visit www.greenfacts.org or contact

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