World Environment Day is celebrated on 5 June each year to focus public attention on the importance of protecting the Earth's natural resources. This year, the theme is climate change and its impact on polar ecosystems and communities, reflecting the fact that 2007 is International Polar Year.

Climate change has profound consequences, not just for the animals and people living in polar regions, but for the entire world. Its implications are most profound for poor people living in rural or coastal communities.

There is no longer any doubt that human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests, are having a dramatic impact on our planet's climate. IFAD’s target groups – landless people, farmers whose plots are too small to provide for their needs, nomadic herders, small-scale fishers and indigenous peoples – are not the chief contributors to global warming, but they are the most vulnerable to its effects.

Average temperatures are now heading to levels not experienced for millions of years, according to the president of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Scientists are observing rapidly melting glaciers, rising sea levels, shifts in species ranges, and more frequent incidents of weather extremes. "As droughts, heat waves, floods, wildfires, and severe storms intensify, damages to ecosystems and human society are growing apace," John Holdren, AAAS president, wrote recently.

As temperatures and precipitation levels change, crop yields and quality will decline, especially in tropical and semi-tropical regions where many of the poorest countries are found. Desertification will be exacerbated by changes in rainfall and intensified land use. Rising sea levels will threaten the livelihoods of people living in coastal communities. For example, the Lateu settlement in the Vanuatu island chain in the Pacific has had to be relocated because of rising sea levels. Poor rural people can expect to see lower crop yields, increased incidences of droughts and floods and higher prevalence of disease.

Global warming is a very real threat to meeting the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. Farmers in some regions are seeing changes to their growing seasons. Africa is especially vulnerable. Climate change is already having an impact on the landscape of sub-Saharan Africa and is expected to lead to further land degradation and more hunger.

Yet some of the worst effects of climate change can be prevented if appropriate international action is taken. The topic of international action on climate change is in the news this week as world leaders gather this week in Germany for the Group of 8 (G8) meeting. Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the meeting could lay down principles for starting formal negotiations on a long-term climate pact beyond 2012, when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends. World leaders will get together at a United Nations meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in December to discuss what will come after 2012.

“I still think that this G8 can fulfil a very important role,” said de Boer, if leaders can agree on a need to launch negotiations in Bali for sharp emission cuts, based on the latest scientific findings about global warming.

Climate change and environmental issues are already addressed, directly and indirectly, in many IFAD projects. IFAD works with impoverished communities in some of the harshest and most remote areas of the world, promoting sustainable water use and land management to help protect the environment. Every IFAD programme and project is subject to an environmental screening before approval.

IFAD is also increasingly involved in projects specifically designed to tackle the challenges posed by climate change. One such project in the pipeline aims to rehabilitate coastal ecosystems affected by the tsunami of 2004 in Sri Lanka.  One of the project's key objectives is to reduce vulnerability to climate change along the East Coast of Sri Lanka. It will be funded jointly by IFAD and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Another programme is in the Xingjiang Uygur autonomous region of China, where solar systems are being set up to help poor households make use of the abundant sun light in the area.

IFAD’s commitment to protecting natural resources and combating desertification is reflected in its partnerships with global institutions, such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an independent financial organization established in 1991 to provide grants to developing countries for projects with global environmental benefits. IFAD was selected as an executing agency of the GEF because of IFAD’s recognition of the links between poverty and the environment, its expertise in addressing land degradation and its crucial role in the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Since 2003, IFAD has had access to GEF funds for projects addressing sustainable land management. In 2005, IFAD signed an agreement with the GEF secretariat and the International Bank for Rural Development to formalize direct access and to expand funding to any project addressing land degradation.

IFAD also hosts the Global Mechanism and the secretariat of the International Land Coalition. The International Land Coalition is a global alliance of organizations dedicated to working with poor rural people to increase their secure access to natural resources, particularly land. It does this by building alliances between development partners, including NGOs, intergovernmental, governmental and civil society organizations.

The Global Mechanism is a subsidiary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification with a mandate to increase financing for sustainable land management. It is hosted by IFAD in recognition of IFAD's focus on rural development, agriculture and sustainable land management.

By working together to share our strengths and expertise, we will be able to promote sustainable land management and help communities adapt to a changing world.