ISSUE46: JUNE-AUGUST 2007
network of research and training centres/programmes
FRONT PAGE | ARCHIVE |
UNU experts provide briefing on land degradation
Affecting 2.6 billion people in more than 100 countries and costing an estimated $US65 billion annually, land degradation is one of today's most pressing global problems. The UNU Office in New York organised a briefing meeting March 27 to raise awareness about the human impacts of land degradation and its links to global climate change.
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Three expert speakers addressed the need for sustainable land management to tackle rampant land degradation and protect essential ecosystems.
Professor Michael Stocking, vice chair of the Global Environment Facilility scientific and technical advisory paneland senior ddvisor on land management to UNU, spoke on the Global Impacts of Land Degradation, highlighting the fact that it is a local process as well as a worldwide phenomenon.
As GEF emphasized in a recent report, land degradation has triggered large-scale population movements, disrupted economic development prospects and aggravated regional conflicts. The main objectives of GEF is to put sustainable land management in the mainstream of development policy and practice at regional, national and local levels, as well as generate mutual benefits for the global environment and local livelihoods by increasing its sustainable land management investments.
In a presentation called Knowledge, Capacities and Networks for Sustainable Land Management, Dr. Libor Jansky, senior academic programme officer with UNU Environment and Sustainable Development Programme (UNU-ESD), said that the ESD programme focuses on the interactions between human activities, the natural environment and their implications for sustainable human development.
Networking and capacity building, are given high priority in UNU projects in different regions of the world, such as China, Mexico, Brazil and Ghana. The goal is to upgrade the knowledge, communication and managerial skills necessary to address emerging issues in sustainable land management and to promote information dissemination among local communities, policy makers, academics, researchers and other institutions.
UNU-ESD programme associate Nevelina I. Pachova addressed the acute problem of Land Degradation in the Pamir Alai Mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, one of the region’s critical water towers, carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots.
The Pamir Alai Mountains ecosystems are endangered by international hunting, habitat destruction, overexploitation, pasture degradation, and deforestation. This region is very vulnerable due to political instability, slow economic recovery, growing populations, natural hazards and climate change. Moreover, the lack of adequate legal and policy frameworks and effective governance and institutions makes the problem of land and resources degradation very relevant in this area.
UNU-ESD has undertaken a project Sustainable Land Management in the High Pamir and Pamir Alai Mountains, which aims to restore, sustain and enhance the productive and protective functions of the trans-boundary ecosystems of the Pamir Alai Mountains, so as to improve the social and economic well-being of the rural communities and households utilizing the region’s ecosystem resources, while preserving its unique landscape and globally important biodiversity.
© 2007 United Nations University