Land degradation affects more than one billion people and 40 per cent of the Earth’s surface. When this degradation occurs in drylands, it is called desertification.

Desertification directly affects the lives of more than 650 million people in 110 countries and threatens more than one billion people. The hardest hit are rural poor people who depend on land for survival. Desertification forces people from their lands and homes. Today, more than 135 million people worldwide are at risk of forced migration due to the problem. Caused mainly by climate change, inappropriate agricultural policies and practices, deforestation and overgrazing, desertification affects the world’s poorest and most marginalized populations.

The World Day to Combat Desertification, celebrated each year on June 17, is part of an international campaign by the United Nations to tackle global environmental deterioration, in particular the degradation of drylands. The day marks the anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. This year’s theme is “water resource management and desertification'.

Fighting desertification is essential to ensuring the long-term productivity of drylands where people live. Each year, 12 million hectares are lost to deserts. That is enough land to grow 20 million tonnes of grain. Unfortunately, efforts to combat this growing problem have often failed.

The eradication of rural poverty is closely linked to the fight against desertification. The majority of the world’s poorest people – 900 million men, women and children - live in rural areas of developing countries, where they depend on agriculture and related activities for their survival. IFAD’s long experience in some of the poorest and most marginalized areas in the world shows that even the poorest farmers know the importance of protecting the environment and they are eager to adopt practices that encourage the sustainable use of land and water. However, the poor are often forced to take desperate measures to survive.They often farm already degraded land that is increasingly unable to meet their needs. Desertification is therefore both a cause and a consequence of rural poverty.

Global environmental initiatives and IFAD

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was adopted by governments in June 1994 and came into force in December 1996. It was the third convention envisaged by the Earth Summit, held in Rio in 1992 – the others dealt with biodiversity and climate change. Since 1997, IFAD has hosted the convention’s Global Mechanism, which acts as a broker for a network of partners, including affected countries, donors and the private sector - helping to focus their resources, energies and knowledge to combat desertification. It also mobilises financial resources and ensures that funds are used efficiently and equitably.

As the executing agency for the Global Environment Facility (GEF), IFAD works with governments to develop and implement projects that address global environmental concerns. The GEF was established in 1991, following the Rio Earth Summit, as the designated financial mechanism for international agreements on biodiversity, climate change, and persistent organic pollutants. Land degradation has become a new area of focus for the GEF. Following its annual Assembly in China in 2002, the GEF has become the financial mechanism for the UNCCD, which means that countries affected by desertification and land degradation will have direct access to its funds.

IFAD is well-placed to link these global environmental initiatives to projects dealing with sustainable land and water management, and poverty. Working with impoverished communities in some of the most remote and harsh environments in the world, IFAD promotes community-based approaches to natural resource management.

Over the past 25 years, IFAD has committed more than 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.