GEF, SIP, TerrAfrica, SLM: concerted actions for Sub-Saharan Africa (IISD / Linkages Africa)

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Linkages Africa: Edition #5: 21 June 2007

GEF COUNCIL APPROVES FUNDING BOOST FOR FIGHT AGAINST LAND DEGRADATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

15 June 2007: Over 28 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa will launch activities to fight land degradation, thanks to an innovative US$150 million program approved by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Council in June 2007. Called the Strategic Investment Program (SIP) for Sustainable Land Management for Sub-Saharan Africa, the program aims to restore soil fertility in a large part of the African continent, helping boost food security, increase farm incomes, maintain ecosystem services, and engage local communities in better managing their lands. The SIP will provide a strong financial and technical boost to the TerrAfrica initiative (www.terrafrica.org <http://www.terrafrica.org/> ) – a partnership that aims to address land degradation by scaling up harmonized support for effective and efficient country-driven Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices in sub-Saharan African countries – and will bring together, under one umbrella, six agencies including the World Bank, for concerted results-oriented actions.

Source: GEF <http://www.gefweb.org/interior.aspx?id=18280>

Desertification, an unacknowledged crisis (Google Alert / TerraDaily)

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Google Alert for Desertification

TerraDaily

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/World_Desertific

World Desertification Day Puts Spotlight On Neglected Crisis

by Anne Chaon
Paris (AFP) June 15, 2007

The United Nations on Sunday sounds a loud alarm about desertification, warning that global warming is helping to drive the onward march of parched land and, in years to come, millions of people could be driven from their homes. Of six billion humans, nearly a fifth are threatened directly or indirectly by desertification, experts warn ahead of the UN’s annual World Day to Combat Desertification.

MEA Bulletin No. 28 (IISD – RS)

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Earth Negotiations Bulletin <enb@iisd.org>

Subscribe to IISD Reporting Services’ free newsletters and lists for environment and sustainable development policy professionals at http://www.iisd.ca/email/subscribe.htm 

Multilateral Environmental Agreement List <mea-l@lists.iisd.ca>

MEA Bulletin – Issue No. 28

IISD RS is pleased to announce that the newest issue of MEA
Bulletin is now available. The 28th issue of MEA Bulletin includes reports on recent meetings of the Montreal Protocol and the Global Environment Facility Council.

Balakrishna Pisupati’s guest article explores the Role of
Biodiplomacy in Implementing MEAs.

MEA Bulletin is a publication created by the International
Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), in cooperation
with the United Nations Environment Programme’s Division
of Environmental Law and Conventions (UNEP DELC).

Namibia: Fighting And Protecting Deserts (Google Alert / allAfrica)

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Google Alert for desertification

allAfrica

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706150583.html

Namibia: Fighting And Protecting Deserts

New Era (Windhoek)

15 June 2007
Posted to the web 15 June 2007

Catherine Sasman
Windhoek

The Namib Desert on the western coastline stretches from the Olifants River in the Cape Province of South Africa to the San Nicolau in southern Angola, at an average width of around 200 kilometres. The area is characterised by shifting sand dunes and frequent balls of fog that roll in from the cold Atlantic Ocean. Along the eastbound border lies the Kalahari Desert, a large arid to semi-arid stretch of sandy terrain. The central highlands of the country are pockmarked with meadows and pastures, forests and woodlands in the far eastern tip and a barren landscape in the south. It is a country of picturesque, wide open spaces and diversity in topography, but of sparse rainfall that comes increasingly later and which is getting less with each passing rainy season. Naturally arid areas are especially prone to land degradation, making the threat of desertification and the general under-appreciation of the desert environments of particular relevance to Namibia, where a rapid population growth imposes increasing pressure on the largely waterless environment.

IFAD’s combat of land degradation (Google Alert / allAfrica)

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Google Alert for Desertification

allAfrica

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706110378.html

Africa: ‘IFAD Has Made Land Degradation a Central Part of Its Work’

Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)

INTERVIEW
11 June 2007

Farhana Haque-Rahman
Cotonou

With the World Day to Combat Desertification set to take place shortly (Jun. 17), efforts are gearing up to highlight the threats posed by land degradation in much of Africa — as well as initiatives to safeguard against desertification.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is at the forefront of the fight against desertification: this United Nations agency has embarked on related projects throughout Africa, and in other parts of the world. Globally, desertification threatens the livelihoods of more than 1.2 billion people in 110 countries. Media relations head Farhana Haque-Rahman told Michee Boko of IPS more about IFAD’s concern with issues linked to land degradation.

Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa (IISD / ENB / Linkages Africa)

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Earth Negotiations Bulletin <enb@iisd.org>

Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) <http://www.iisd.org/&gt;

Distributed exclusively to the AFRICASD-L <http://www.iisd.ca/email/africasd-L.htm&gt; list by IISD Reporting Services <http://www.iisd.ca/&gt;

For more information on the African Regional Coverage Project visit
http://www.iisd.ca/africa
LINKAGES AFRICA

Reporting on Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa

Issue # 4:   7 June, 2007
KEY EVENTS

AFRICAN WATER MINISTERS ADOPT BRAZZAVILLE DECLARATION

………..

SECOND AFRICA FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT DISCUSSES ENERGY SECURITY

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AFRICAN BANKERS FORUM ADDRESS CLIMATE INVESTMENT

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WORLD CELEBRATES AFRICA DAY

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AFRICA PARTNERSHIP FORUM AGREES ON AFRICA CLIMATE MESSAGE FOR G8 SUMMIT

………….

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK CONCLUDES ANNUAL MEETINGS: ADDRESSES CLIMATE CHANGE

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8TH EU-AFRICA MINISTERIAL TROIKA MEETING ADDRESSES CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY

……………

PAN AFRICAN PARLIAMENT DISCUSSES CLIMATE CHANGE, DESERTIFICATION AND TOXIC WASTE

14th May 2007: The Seventh Ordinary Session of the Pan African Parliament dedicated a component of its work to the issues of desertification, toxic waste and climate change. During the discussion a number of MPs spoke about environmental issues, with many agreeing these issues need to be mobilized at the continental scale. Members also stressed the need to set-up national, regional and continental action plans which must hold account of the non-governmental organizations involved in this challenge. At the conclusion of its work the Parliament adopted the report of the Committee on Rural, Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment.

……..

Desertification: The Committee also presented a report on a workshop on desertification held in Algiers, where it was recommended that on the national level, an appropriate budgetary item be included in national budgets for actions to fight against desertification and poverty as well as strengthen national organs and coordinating action programmes to combat desertification and make sure that decentralization measures are improved to guarantee their efficiency at the local level. It also urged African countries to better involve themselves in the research and monitoring of the desertification phenomenon and improve communication between scientists and political decision makers so as to better promote the results of scientific research. On the Regional level, the Committee recommended the establishment of a synergy between African scientific research institutions related to protecting the environment in general, and combating desertification in particular, as well as  to implement the Sirte Declaration on the creation of centres of excellence on the environment and their networking. Among other recommendations, it also called for the strengthening of regional and continental cooperation to face up to the serious environmental phenomena through the establishment of an African Environment Protection Observatory (AEPO) and support regional initiatives. At the world level, the Committee recommended for improved cooperation in the framework of implementing the Convention on Desertification by granting sufficient and foreseeable financial resources to combat desertification, notably as regards the Global Environment Facility (GEF). It also called for increased investments in favor of the rural population in the fight against desertification and poverty to turn the present tendency around and also to strengthen international cooperation in scientific research and technology transfer, relating to the use of clean and renewable energy, as well as the use of space tools to help in making decisions to fight against desertification and climate change.

Source: Pan African Parliament <http://www.pan-africanparliament.org/Documents/PR5.pdf&gt;

Two-faced climate and desertification at Guantanamo (Google Alert / IPS)

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Google Alert for desertification

IPS – Inter Press Service News Agency

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37804

ENVIRONMENT-CUBA:
Guantánamo’s Two-Faced Climate

Patricia Grogg

GUANTÁNAMO, Cuba, May 19 (Tierramérica) – Nature is hard to pin down in Guantánamo. The salty and eroded soils and infrequent rains in the south mark a clear contrast with the lush green of the northern coast of Cuba’s eastern-most province.

“Baracoa has the best of it. The tourists stay there,” says a young man who is trying to sell hand-made shoes along a street in the provincial capital Guantánamo City, 929 km from Havana. Baracoa, on the province’s northeast shores, was founded in 1511 by the Spanish Conquistadors, led by Diego Velázquez. It is known for its virgin forests that are bursting with native plants and animals, and for its crystalline waters and beautiful beaches. The Sagua-Nipe-Baracoa mountains mark the climate difference between the north and south sides. While the province’s north is Cuba’s wettest region, with more than three metres of rainfall per year, the south is the driest, with less than a half-metre. The lack of rain, say experts, has aggravated erosion and desertification in this semiarid region, which extends across 1,752 square km and includes a strip along the province’s southern coast. Desertification is a gradual process of the soil’s loss of productive capacity, and of the thinning of an area’s plant coverage, whether from human activities or climate variations. The phenomenon affects 14 percent of Cuba’s agricultural land, or more than 1.5 million hectares.