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Filipino scientist takes on global desertification
09/15/07
By INQUIRER.net
THE CONFERENCE of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) recently elected Dr. William D. Dar as the new chair of its Committee for Science and Technology (CST). He was nominated as a distinguished Filipino by the cluster of Asian states on behalf of the region at the 8th COP session in Madrid.
A TOYM awardee for agriculture, Dr. Dar was Secretary of Agriculture and Presidential Adviser on Rural Development in the Estrada government, the first alumnus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) to assume the position.
After the Estrada government, he became the first Filipino and Asian Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Andhra Pradesh, India — a global institute serving Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Since leading ICRISAT, Dr Dar has intensively advocated a Grey to Green Revolution in the dry tropics of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa through Science with a Human Face. Towards this, he spurred the development of a new vision, mission and strategy for the Institute. In pursuing it, he has strengthened strategic partnerships with an array of stakeholders — NARS, ARIs, NGOs, development agencies and the private sector. These initiatives led to a stronger ICRISAT working for a food-secure semi-arid tropics.
Moment of opportunity for UNCCD
In a widely perceived “moment of opportunity within the UNCCD” and its new ten-year plan for fundamental reform and re-invigoration of the global desertification pact, Dr. Dar urged the COP to be “demand-driven, based on open and transparent consultations with as wide a range of stakeholders as possible.”
He also challenged the committee to “breathe new intellectual life by opening our doors to the best brains we can find anywhere in the world, and to those at the grassroots and on the front lines of sustainable dry land development.”
While elected as a Filipino citizen, Dr. Dar’s achievements as ICRISAT Director General helped propel him to new global responsibility. He will serve as a link of the Alliance of CGIAR Centers to the UNCCD.
CGIAR Centers carry out research highly relevant to the UNCCD such as the “Oasis,” an ICRISAT-led CGIAR Challenge Program candidate.
The Committee for Science and Technology is responsible for advising the UNCCD on all scientific issues relating to its mission on desertification, land degradation and drought. Signed by 191 countries, the UNCCD embodies the world’s commitment to combat desertification and land degradation.
Its creation was an outcome of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), popularly known as the Rio Earth Summit. Its importance was underscored by the 2000 Millennium Summit which issued the Millennium Development Goals and by the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. The Philippines is a signatory to the three Rio Conventions.
Proud and challenging moment
“It is a proud moment for me to be representing the Philippines,” Dr. Dar said in his acceptance speech. “Although the UNCCD has successfully anchored desertification in the global development debate, what is needed is a strongly networked mechanism, delivering state-of-the-art science on environmental scarcity, land and water degradation and creating a global consensus on the need for action.
“The CST also needs to pursue a bottom-up way of producing and using knowledge, thus making the connection to particular environments. The process of mapping out the UNCCD’s policy goals should also include setting out thematic issues to be addressed during the coming ten-year period to avoid the missed opportunities. UNCCD must achieve the same level of scientific strength as the biodiversity and the climate change conventions.”
Besides the TOYM, Dr. Dar has received a slew of awards for his scientific and outstanding management work in both the Philippine government and private sector.
Posted in Desertification, UNCCD
