It's day 3 of our free virtual World Forum on Desertification! Today, there will be an exciting discussion on the intersection of desertification and gender, facilitated by Fidaa Haddad of the IUCD (International Union for Conservation of Nature).
There's still time to participate in today's discussion by heading over to http://theglobalcitizensinitiative.org/.
The past two days have been a great success! Thanks to everyone who has participated. If you missed it, here are some highlights:
The forum kicked off Monday morning with an online webinar, beautifully introduced by EarthAction's founder, Lois Barber. Here is a brief excerpt of her introduction:
"As we look at that beautiful blue marble photograph of the world, we can say, this land is my land. It feeds us, sustains us, provides us with shelter,and a place for our communities, cultures, and spirits to grow. But much of our land is fragile, and in danger of being unable to support life. Especially at risk, are the dry lands that cover over 40% of the Earth's surface, and are home to more than 2 billion people today."
The webinar then featured an interview with Luc Gnacadja, the Executive Secretary of the UNCCD. The interview evokes many bits of food for thought, including this salient point:
"We know nowadays that the majority of the violent conflict in the world is occuring in the drylands. It means that the scarcity of water, the scarcity of productive land, are actually fueling conflict, and making those areas be conflict prone. So not only for food security, but for basic human peace and human security, we need to invest in combatting desertification."
Yukie Hori of the UNCCD secretariat then led a 20-minute Q & A session with participants from around the world. In case you missed it, click here to access a recording ofthe webinar.
In the forums, we asked, "What does desertification mean to you?" One of our participants gave this moving response:
"Desertification has played an important role in my life. I am coming from a place in north-central Mexico drylands where people suffer from desertification and land degradation. They must carry water by their own means, sometimes from distant wells . Last year was the driest in the past 70 years. 100% of their crops were lost and a vast majority of households lost cattle heads out of starvation. Heavily degraded lands characterize their natural landscape. Unfertile soils and rangelands, unemployment, poor access to market, to credit, to proper education, training and a high cost of resources for farm improvement such as seed and equipment cause a disability to make a living in their own villages. In this case migration to big cities or USA becomes the dominant tool for livelihood improvement."
On Day 2, the forum shifted gears to focus on Desertification, Food Security, and Water Scarcity. Here are a few highlighted comments from the discussion:
"According to the Global Drylands Report (2011) drylands become degraded when water and land are used unsustainably. These effects are exacerbated by climate change. Desertification is the primary process by which drylands become degraded, currently affecting 6 million km2."
"Dryland degradation reduces the gross domestic product of some developing countries by as much as 48%. "
"In advocating for setting this target ("Zero Net Land Degradation", a strong endeavour is needed by the UN system and its partners, as well as directly by countries already affected by land degradation to ensure its mainstreaming (in Rio+20 outcomes and beyond) and to explain why this is needed when committing to sustainable land stewardship at the global level."
"In my opinion, desertification is highly related to the growing number of displaced people. The number of refugees is on the rise, and this is definitely a world phenomenon that all countries must take responsibility for because it is inevitable that these problems will affect everyone on a global scale."
Thanks again to everyone who has participated! Forum discussions are occuring every weekday until next Tuesday. The last webinar will be occuring next Tuesday, March 6 at 8am New York time.
Click here to access EarthAction's Action Kit on Desertification.
Click here to find out how to participate in the rest of this week's Forum.
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