FROM THE NEWS HEADLINES

LAND SCAN - What's New – JANUARY 2015
UNCCD Library information service - All about desertification, land
degradation, drought, drylands, sustainable land management,
and more related issues compiled from the Web
FROM THE NEWS HEADLINES
 Inception Meeting of the UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality Project
15 country delegates arrived in Bonn to launch the much-anticipated Land
Degradation Neutrality Project. This ground-breaking initiative will explore and take
the world’s first practical steps towards achieving the goal of Land Degradation
Neutrality.
The initiative will investigate bottlenecks to implementing sustainable land
management (SLM), and will develop strategies to navigate these and create a
streamlined planning process. It will also devise methods for scaling up SLM to
regional and national levels.
The Land Degradation Neutrality Project (‘LDN Project’) will comprehensively
investigate how the results of SLM; namely avoided land degradation and land
rehabilitation, can achieve land degradation neutrality. This information will
significantly assist UNCCD in convincing countries to take up the goal of land
degradation neutrality in their national policies, and to promote it further in the
international arena. The meeting took place 14-16 January .
http://www.unccd.int/en/mediacenter/MediaNews/Pages/highlightdetail.aspx?HighlightID=355
http://www.unccd.int/en/media-center/MediaNews/Pages/default.aspx
 World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD) 17 June
With the slogan "No such thing as a free lunch. Invest in healthy soils", this year's
WDCD focuses on attainment of food security for all through sustainable food
systems http://www.unccd.int/en/programmes/Event-andcampaigns/WDCD/wdcd%202015/Pages/default.aspx?HighlightID=358
 Du mieux grâce aux migrations/Monique Barbut Secrétaire exécutive
de la Convention des Nations unies sur la lutte contre la
Désertification
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Les débats actuels sur les migrations internationales n'ont-ils pas oublié un point
essentiel ? Le changement climatique est en train de saper la position des pauvres
dans le monde en détruisant leurs ressources naturelles vitales et en leur enlevant la
capacité à décider de leur propre destin. Les transferts monétaires et les savoirsfaire des migrants sont en train de devenir vitaux pour la survie de leurs
communautés d'origine, mais ils sont aussi cruciaux pour la paix et la stabilité
politique de nombreux pays d'émigration.
Depuis 50 ans, nous avons négligé de traiter la question de la dégradation des
terres. Maintenant, des groupes extrémistes et des gangs criminels profitent de la
situation dans les régions en voie de désertification.
http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/monique-barbut/du-mieux-grace-auxmigrations_b_6349510.html
 Europe is launching a major diplomatic push for an ambitious deal on
global warming, mobilising A-list celebrities and tens of thousands of
diplomats to exert “maximum pressure” on key countries in
international climate negotiations.
The EU plan, endorsed by ministers in Brussels, will see 90,000 diplomats in over
3,000 missions lobbying to win new pledges on carbon cuts from countries ahead of
a crunch UN climate summit in Paris this December.
European stars, of a calibre of US public figures such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Al
Gore, will front a push to make climate action a “strategic priority” at G7, G20 and
Major Economies Forum summits.
The action plan, seen by the Guardian, calls for a ‘Climate Action Day’ in June and a
‘100 days to Paris countdown’ event later in the year.
The aim is to raise the EU’s profile and cement alliances by winning new pledges for
greenhouse gas cuts – intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) in UN
jargon, the backbone of any deal in Paris – before June at the latest.
“The EU has enormous soft power and we must use that to push for an ambitious
agenda in Paris,” the Danish foreign minister Martin Lidegaard told the Guardian. “I
have urged my colleagues to commit to including climate diplomacy in their activities
in the run up to COP21 [the Paris summit] – and the EU’s foreign service to work
more on this. We should focus our efforts on the major growth economies and
climate financing.”
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/20/eu-to-launch-diplomaticoffensive-ahead-paris-climate-talks
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 Radical shift in agriculture critical to making future food systems
smarter, more efficient – UN
19 January 2015 – Climate change and increasing competition for natural resources
have essentially rendered the agriculture model of the past 40 years unsustainable,
the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has stressed, calling for
a ‘paradigm shift’ in food production.
Food systems need to become smarter and more efficient if they are to feed the
future, urged FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva at the Global Forum for
Food and Agriculture this past Friday as part of ‘Green Week’ held in Berlin.
The topic of this year’s forum was ‘The Growing Demand for Food, Raw
Materials and Energy: Opportunities for Agriculture, Challenges for Food
Security?’
“Business as usual would mean a huge and simultaneous increase in the need for
food, energy and water in the next decades: 60 percent more food, 50 per cent more
energy and 40 percent more water by 2050,” Mr. Graziano da Silva said in a
statement from his Office.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsId=49835
 From dust bowl to bread basket: digging the dirt on soil erosion
Poor soil quality has seen agricultural productivity in Africa decline when it drastically
needs to increase. Will 2015’s International Year of Soils help? Poor soil quality has
seen agricultural productivity in Africa decline when it drastically needs to increase.
Will 2015’s International Year of Soils help?.
Soil degradation is not restricted to Africa. A study shows that 2,000 hectares of
farm soil are being lost every day to salt-induced degradation.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionalsnetwork/2015/jan/13/soil-erosion-africa-asia-international-year-of-soils
 Eight steps to straight As in food security
Food security can be improved with loans for farmers, investment in
infrastructure and working with NGOs and the private sector
The potential of African agriculture is undoubtedly bright, but food security depends
on the four As - the essential combination of availability (is there enough),
accessibility (in the right place), affordability (for the whole population) and
adequacy (for a nutritious, balanced diet).
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With populations booming and urbanising at an unprecedented rate without the
supporting national infrastructure, fulfilment of the four As becomes an ever steeper
uphill struggle. Both large-scale agriculture and unlocking the potential of
smallholders will play a crucial part in feeding the World Bank’s estimate of over 9
billion people by 2050.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionalsnetwork/2015/jan/05/eight-steps-to-straight-as-in-food-security
Prepared by UNCCD LIBRARY
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