World Day to Combat Dessertification

“Desertificaton and Climate Change – One Global Challenge”

 June 17 is the annual date to mark the efforts that are being made to halt the advance of desertification around the world. The purpose of this day is to promote the urgent need to curb the process of desertification and to strengthen the visibility of this serious dry lands issue on the international environmental agenda of the day.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the coordinating body for the global efforts that are being made to halt and reverse this threat. Desertification impacts countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Northern Mediterranean and Central and Eastern Europe.

At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the concept of the (UNCCD) came into being. The Convention was adopted in Paris on 17 June 1994. It entered into force on 26 December 1996, 90 days after the fiftieth ratification was received.

The United Nations is a far from perfect entity but it is the only one that exists that can handle problems on a global scale. This year’s World Day to Combat Desertification will also focus on another global problem, climate change.