''Desertification threatens the livelihoods of 1 billion people, particularly in rural areas. Over 630 million rural poor live at risk in areas suffering from severe water stress. The solutions are embodied within the framework of the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).''

Mr Lennart Båge, President of IFAD, Statement to the Fifth Conference of Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP-V, UNCCD), 1-12 October 2001.

Over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification. One billion people in over 100 countries are at risk. Fighting desertification is essential to ensuring the long-term productivity of inhabited drylands. Unfortunately, efforts to combat the ever-increasing problem have often failed and, as a result, land degradation continues to worsen. The main causes are climate change, inappropriate agricultural policies and practices, deforestation and overgrazing.

What is the solution?

Rural poverty alleviation is inextricably linked to tackling desertification. IFAD's Rural Poverty Report 2001: The Challenge of Ending Rural Poverty states that 75% of the poor live in rural areas and make a living largely through agriculture and related services. Because the poor often farm degraded land that is increasingly unable to meet their needs, desertification is both a cause and consequence of rural poverty. Combating desertification must therefore be an integral part of our common effort to eradicate poverty and ensure food security on an environmentally sustainable basis.

Collaboration with global environmental initiatives

The Convention to Combat Desertification defines desertification as ''land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities''.

We all ultimately depend on the capacity of our planet's land and water to produce food, but rural residents are more directly dependent on this capacity than any other segment of the population. When that capacity declines, their very lives and livelihoods are at risk. Environmental degradation - whether the result of natural causes or human misuse - is one of the most pressing problems facing humanity today. Nowhere is it more pressing than in the world's drylands, where climatic conditions, increased population pressure, deforestation, inappropriate farming practices and overgrazing are transforming once-productive areas into wasteland at an alarming rate.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) was adopted by governments in June 1994 and came into force in December 1996. As the third convention envisaged by the Earth Summit, (the other two deal with biodiversity and climate change), the CCD aims to combat desertification and reduce the effects of drought in dry areas, particularly in Africa, the most severely affected continent.

In October 1997, IFAD was selected to house the convention's Global Mechanism. Based at IFAD's headquarters in Rome, the Global Mechanism acts as a broker between affected countries, the donor community and the private sector, mobilizing resources for anti-desertification programmes.

The Global Mechanism is essentially the hub of a network of partners to marshal resources for poverty alleviation and sustainable dryland development. Since its establishment, the Global Mechanism has supported governments, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs in mobilizing significant contributions from donors, technical cooperation agencies, regional and international financial institutions, and United Nations agencies.

Over the past 23 years, IFAD has committed over USD 3.5 billion to support dryland development and combat land degradation throughout the world. About 70% of IFAD-supported projects are located in ecologically fragile, marginal environments.