Combating desertification

Desertification, along with climate change and the loss of biodiversity were identified as the greatest challenges to sustainable development during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. In 1994, the United Nations responded by establishing the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The Convention specifically addresses the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found. The Convention between 195 parties/ countries specifies that its goals are to work together and forge a global partnership in order to reverse and prevent desertification/ land degradation in order to support poverty reduction and environmental sustainability.

The Convention works to improve the living conditions for people in drylands, to maintain and restore land and soil productivity, and to mitigate the effects of drought in affected areas. It is particularly committed to a bottom-up approach, encouraging the participation of local people in combating desertification and land degradation. It facilitates cooperation between developed and developing countries, particularly around knowledge and technology transfer for sustainable land management. As the dynamics of land, climate and biodiversity are intimately connected, the Convention collaborates closely with different institutions to meet these complex challenges with an integrated approach and the best possible use of natural resources.

Desertification

Desertification is defined in the first Article of the Convention as land degradation in drylands resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities; with 'land degradation' being a reduction or loss of the productivity and complexity of rainfed crop-land, irrigated crop-land, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands (UNCCD 1994). These depletions result from land (mis)uses or from a combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns, such as:

soil erosion caused by wind and/ or water
deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of soil
long-term loss of natural vegetation

Across the world, around 25% of usable land is highly degraded, leading to biodiversity loss, food insecurity, scarcity of clean water and pest increase. This results in the affected areas’ populations becoming more vulnerable to climate change. As the global population continues to grow, so too does the risk that usable land may not be able to meet its demands. It is therefore essential to work together and reverse land degradation wherever possible, restoring degraded ecosystems and managing land resources sustainably.

Land degradation is becoming an increasingly high-profile issue at the international level. Desertification has its most significant effects in Africa, where two-thirds of the continent is desert or drylands. However, one of Africa’s solutions is the implementation of the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative for the Sahara and the Sahel (AUC 2012). Globally, the Bonn Challenge (2011) and the New York declaration on Forests (2014), together aiming to restore 350 million hectares of degraded land by 2020, are practical actions that support land degradation neutrality.

Kew’s contribution to combating desertification

Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) has banked seed collections of about 36,000 species since the start of its international programme in 2000, giving a priority to the drylands of Africa, Australia and Latin America where there is pressing need to conserve biodiversity and vulnerable species. This makes it one of the largest ex situ collections of wild species in the world. From 2007 onward, by focussing on enabling the use of these collections, the MSB has supported seed and seedling planting and livelihoods restoration of agrosylvopastoral systems, involving rural communities in Africa in particular (see UPP & GGW projects).

One of the successes has been removing technical impediments to wild species propagation and facilitating their domestication and restoration, using and transferring the scientific knowledge generated from these seed collections. By the provision of technical advice and training, Kew through its African partners, has contributed to the planting of 203 forest tree species in eight countries in 2010, to celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity (Kew Scientist, 2011). Kew’s contribution to planting various sites ranged from places such as the village of Tsetseng in the Botswana Kalahari, to Bankass, Mali, in the Sahel on the outskirts of the Sahara. Kew has provided support and scientific information on species germination and propagation to hundreds of communities for their woodlot establishment and restoration.

Great Green Wall Initiative

Since 2013, Kew has been engaged in the restoration programme of the GGW, one of the largest scale dryland restoration initiatives ever. The programme spreads across the continent from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and is developing under the auspices of the African Union and backed by several major facilitating international organisations including the UNCCD, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the European Union and the World Bank. Its overall aims are to tackle the damaging impacts of land degradation in the Sahara and the Sahel.

Through this initiative, Kew has devised a model for restoration success in these dryland areas threatened by desertification. As part of the model, Kew is working to bring together Kew's new and existing long standing partners in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal to create a network of collaborators, from local community groups and environmental non-government organisations (NGOs) to forest seed bank and forestry officials and government officers. Now in its third year, this pilot intervention has directly benefitted over 100 communities/ villages, providing these communities with over 50 requested, economically useful, and locally well-adapted species, covering in total over 1,000 ha of formerly degraded and under-utilised land in the Sahel. It now aims to scale up and expand to other countries to prevent desertification and biodiversity losses while supporting food security and the livelihoods of people. The model is now being deployed to cover other countries outside Africa and reach out to Haiti and Fiji through the Action Against Desertification programme.

Sustainable development through restoration of natural capital

With more lands around the world facing increasing deterioration and degradation, Kew as a global resource for plant knowledge can further contribute to promoting actions that will secure the long-term ability of drylands to provide value for the wellbeing of humanity. Plant-based solutions in restoring natural capital are key to sustainable development in the drylands. Scientific expertise, efficient technology transfer and capacity building in plant knowledge are the backbone of such actions.

World Day to Combat Desertification

The UN's World Day to Combat Desertification is held on 17 June each year. The focus for 2015 is 'attainment of food security for all through sustainable food systems'. A global observance event, which is free and open to everyone, will be held at the Expo Milano in Italy.

Kew’s GGW pilot project is funded through a grant from the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation.

References

AUC/PAGGW (African Union Commission / Pan African Agency of the Great Green Wall). (2012). Harmonized regional strategy for the implementation of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel initiative. Available online

Sacande, M. & Hargreaves, S. (2014). Africa’s Great Green Wall: An African partnership to Combat desertification and the Effects of Climate change. Trees: Journal of the International Tree Foundation 71: 14-15. Download article

Sacande, M., Berrahmouni, N. & Hargreaves, S. (2015). Community participation at the heart of Africa's Great Green Wall restoration model. (under revision – FAO World Forest Congress 2015).

Sacande, M. (2011). Tree planting in Africa. Kew Scientist 39: 1.

St. Barbe Baker, R. (1954). Sahara Challenge. The Camelot Press Ltd., London.

Ulian, T., Sacande, M., Hudson, A. & Mattana, E. (2015). Plant conservation for the benefit of local communities: The MGU - Useful Plants Project. (in press – UNESCO Conference proceedings Botanists of the 21st Century).

World Bank (2010). World Development Report—Development and Climate Change. The World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.