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PLANET EARTH:OUR LOVING HOME
Saving Drylands: COP10 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification - P1/3
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Caring viewers,
welcome to Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
From October 10 to 21,
2011, the 10th Session
of the Conference
of the Parties
to the United Nations
Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD)
was held in Changwon,
South Korea.
One of three major
United Nations
environmental agreements,
the Convention
was adopted at the 1992
United Nations Conference
on Environment
and Development,
and established in 1994
to address the issues
of desertification,
land degradation and
drought and to promote
sustainable development
in the world’s drylands.
During the Conference,
approximately 6,400
scientists, experts,
government officials
and non-governmental
organization staff members
from 156 countries
discussed strategies
to halt desertification.
Today, we’ll present
part one of a three-part
series featuring
Supreme Master
Television’s interviews with
Conference participants.
In terms of
sustainable development,
drylands are arid,
semi-arid and
dry sub-humid regions,
generally excluding deserts,
and are characterized
by sparse, irregular
precipitation, large daily
temperature variations
and soil with
little organic matter.
Drylands cover 61.5-million
square kilometers
or 41.3% of Earth’s
land surface,
a huge proportion
considering that
the rest of the planet’s land
includes mountains
along with arable regions.
Drylands also contain
about 44% of
the world’s farmed areas,
where plant species
endemic to arid climates
account for
30% of the crops
currently being cultivated.
In addition,
drylands are home
to 2.1-billion people,
90% of whom live
in developing countries.
Such major cities as
Cairo, Egypt,
Mexico City, Mexico
and New Delhi, India
are located in drylands.
Thus, sustainable
management and
development of drylands
are essential measures
for governments to address.
Desertification,
as we all know,
is a serious problem
affecting the whole world
and has caused
a lot of low production
in our soils.
The term desertification
refers to the degradation
of land in arid, semi-arid
and dry sub-humid regions
due to climatic variations,
human activity
and other factors.
Over 100 countries
are affected
by the phenomenon.
Africa is the world’s
driest continent, where
two-thirds of the surface
area is desert or drylands,
and frequent,
acute droughts severely
threaten many nations.
The Sahara Desert
is expanding at a rate
of 48 kilometers a year.
And the Sahel,
a 1,000 kilometer belt
of semi-arid land
that is marked
by the Sahara Desert
to the north
and savanna to the south
is being severely affected
in parts of Burkina Faso,
Chad, Djibouti,
Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Mali, Mauritania,
Niger, Nigeria,
Senegal and Sudan.
Niger is one of the
countries most affected
by the problem
of desertification.
It's a landlocked country
with no outlet to the sea,
where three-fourths
of the territory,
the land surface is desert.
Desertification
in my country, because
I come from Burkina Faso,
it is a phenomenon
that is much related
to the issue of droughts,
the extreme phenomena
of climate change.
Asia is another continent
with areas prone to
desertification, including
1.7-billion hectares
of land ranging from
the Middle East
to Central Asia
and the Pacific Coast.
Land degradation
is expanding deserts
in China, India, Iran,
Mongolia and Pakistan,
as well as the sandy regions
of the Middle East.
In fact, Asia is
the continent being
most seriously affected
by growing deserts.
The desertification rate
has increased in Mongolia
because Mongolia
is a landlocked country
and it has
a mainland atmosphere.
Secondly,
according to the altitude,
many Mongolian regions
are located over 1,000
meters above sea level.
About 70% of all the land
of Mongolia
is being affected
by desertification
with different rates
in different regions.
Some regions have
a higher rate
of desertification,
some have a middle rate
and some have a lower rate.
Last year at the point
where desertification
has occurred
in the Gobi Desert area,
we held
a parliament session
to make the whole world
focus on desertification.
Kazakhstan has vast
territories, more than
272-million hectares.
And more than 70%
are pastures.
The battle
with soil degradation
and desertification
has great significance
for our country.
Climate change aggravated
by rapidly increasing
greenhouse-gas emissions
has a hugely
detrimental impact
on our Earth’s drylands
through increased loss
of water from the soil
and sparse or erratic
precipitation.
On the other hand,
drylands are
significant carbon sinks
that store 46%
of global carbon.
When land degradation
occurs,
it releases carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere.
The principal causes
of this desertification are
the climate factors, which
make it a very arid zone.
Then, the human factors
are linked to degradation
due to the use
of natural resources.
It is also clear
that our country,
the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, is suffering
from the pressure
of climate change.
This is really obvious
in regions located
to the north and the south,
I would say mainly
the region of Katanga,
where before
the rainy season lasted
six to seven months.
Now we are starting to see
periods of five months
and this is really serious.
And also we have to add
the climate variability,
which renders all
the agricultural programs
no longer suitable.
Over the past 40 years,
analysis shows that
due to global warming,
the impact
of climate change
has influenced Mongolia
more than three times
than the world.
More clearly,
while the average
atmospheric temperature
of the world increased
by 0.74 degrees Celsius,
the Mongolian temperature
has risen by
2.10 degrees Celsius.
So it is a main, leading
driver of desertification.
Adding to this, vegetation
is affected by the impact
of climate change.
Climate change
is affecting all countries.
We have desertification
in some areas
due to climate change.
Many years before,
we didn’t face the problem
that we have.
The amount of rain
is becoming less
due to climate change.
And even if we have
the amount of rain
which is enough, now
we are getting the water
in a very short period
during the year.
This is affecting our region
in the Middle East
in general.
The ecological system
of a dryland region
is extremely fragile.
If land degradation
proceeds, desert-like
conditions are created.
Data from
the United Nations shows
that approximately
12-million hectares
of land, an area
larger than Bulgaria,
are succumbing to
degradation each year.
And 70%
of Earth’s drylands
are already degraded
to some degree.
This trend
has been exacerbated
by rapid deforestation.
I believe
that the main cause
is the human being.
The human being
is the main cause,
because cutting the trees,
the forest fires, and
the land degradation,
mostly is due to
human beings.
Of course, land erosion,
water, floods, other
weather conditions also
cause desertification.
The rate of degradation
in Indonesia
is quite high, actually.
And the ability of
the country to rehabilitate
cannot match
the rate of degradation.
Currently,
the deforestation situation
has become
more and more serious
because of the exploitation
of the forest
by private enterprise.
And also, the population
has this source
of revenue, the forest.
So there is a strong stress
by the population
on the forest.
The land is also
equally degrading
across the country
because of
this human pressure.
In fact, the cultural
practices being used
are not compatible
with methods
that preserve the land.
And this phenomenon
is strongly felt
around big cities where
usually after big rainfalls,
there are landslides.
The problem is really
serious in the cities
concerning
land degradation.
The desertification
of land degradation
in Guatemala
is very serious
because we have a
high population growth.
We don’t have
clear development plans
for using the land and
having access to the land.
Therefore there are many
regions in the country
which have degraded
very fast, and we are
losing also the forest.
We would like to thank
all the attendees
of the Conference
for determinedly working
to end desertification.
May we ensure further land
does not become desert
through better stewardship
of our planet.
For more information
on the 10th Session
of the Conference
of the Parties
to the United Nations
Convention to
Combat Desertification,
please visit
www.UNCCD.int
Please join us again
next Wednesday
for Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home and
part two of our feature
on the Conference.
Eco-conscious viewers,
thank you for watching
today’s program.
May all lives be imbued
with divine love
from Heaven.
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