Desertification resources

Blogs

Willem Van Cotthem
Desertification and poverty

Case studies

BothEnds

Local contribution to operationalising UNFCCC, UNCBD and UNCCD (based on hope for the horn operation)

Center for Environment and Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Deforestation and desiccation in China

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Agro-ecological land resources assessment for agricultural development planning. A case study of Kenya. Making land use choices for district planning

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

• Gender and desertification: expanding roles for women to restore drylands
• Nepal: fighting poverty and land degradation with leasehold agreements
  (PDF version | Full version)

International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR)

Evaluating research on natural resource management: the case of soil fertility management in Kenya

Land Degradation Assessment in Dry Areas (LADA)

• Case studies on the impact and costs of land degradation
• Egypt with emphasis on salinization
• Land degradation in China: its extent and impact
• Land degradation in Ethiopia: its extent and impact
• Land degradation in Mexico: its extent and impact
• Land degradation in Uganda: its extent and impact
• Saline and sodic soils in the drylands of Kenya
• Salt-affected soils of Malaysia
• Salt-affected soils: South Africa
• Uzbekistan with emphasis on salanization

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• Africa: best practice and success stories
• Africa: case studies

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Drought assistance to Karakalpakstan: a successful community-level investment

World Bank

Land degradation in Tanzania: perception from the village

 

Evaluations

Global Mechanism of the UNCCD

• Conference of the parties (COP5) independent evaluation report
• Independent evaluation of the Global Mechanism

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

• Burkina Faso: special programme soil and water conservation and agro-forestry in the Central Plateau
• Evaluation du programme spécial pour les pays d’afrique subsaharienne touchés par la sécheresse et la désertification (EPSA,1998)
• Ghana: upper East region land conservation and smallhoder rehabilitation project
• Jordan: agricultural resources management project – Interim evaluation
  (Executive summary | Full document)
• Tunisia: integrated agricultural and rural development project in the Governorate of Siliana

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

Survey and evaluation of existing networks, institutions, agencies and bodies relevant to implementation of the UNCCD

 

Glossary and FAQ

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Definitions of aid targeting the objectives of the convention to combat desertification

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

• Explanatory leaflet
• Fact sheets on the UNCCD
• FAQ
• Glossary

 

Lessons learned

 

Financial Information Engine on Land Degradation (FIELD)

Lessons learned

Global Mechanism of the UNCCD

Experiences of and lessons in sustainable forest management

Global Mechanism of the UNCCD/World Bank

• Assessing the extent, cost and impact of land degradation at the national level: findings and lessons learned from seven pilot case studies
• The Global Mechanism partnership with Tunisia in the context of the implementation of the national action programme to combat desertification: what are the lessons learned?

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

IFAD's exhibit: fighting land degradation and poverty

International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

Dealing with drought

World Bank

The role and effectiveness of development assistance

 

Newsletters

 

Desertification.net

Articles

International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

Caravan

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

• Haramata – Bulletin of the drylands
• Sustainable Development Opinion: If you want to get the job done, you need the right tools – Next steps for the UNCCD

International Year of Deserts and Desertification (IYDD)

Press releases (2006)

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

• Press releases
• Newswatch

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Courier on desertification

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• The Environment Times
• World Environment Day 2006 – Deserts and desertification: don’t desert drylands

World Bank
Arid lands newsletter

World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies
Newsletter

 

Photos

Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Gateway to Science (ABC)

Desertification

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

• Desertification
• Drylands

International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

Photo gallery

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

Photobanks

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Desertification

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• Desertification
• Photo gallery

 

Publications

 

ARID net: a research network for studies of global desertification

Publications

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

Publications

Drylands Coordination Group (DCG)
Publications

Desertification, Drought, Poverty and Agriculture: a research consortium (DDPA)

DDPA research themes

European Commission: Land Management & Natural Hazards Unit

Publications in journals

Financial Information Engine on Land Degradation (FIELD)

Publications

German Competence Network for Research to Combat Desertification (Desert*Net)

Publications

Global Environmental Facility (GEF)

• A network of global partners
• Creating synergies
• GEF’s country partnership program for sustainable land management
• GEF land degradation linkage study
• GEF support for sustainable land management in LDCs and SIDS
• Promoting sustainable land management
• Removing barriers to sustainable land management
• Sustainable land management: global challenges and local realities
• What kind of world? The challenge of land degradation 2003

Global Mechanism of the UNCCD

• Combating desertification: an operational strategy for the GM
• GM: mobilizing resources to combat land degradation and poverty December 2000
• GM-SADC partnership for UNCCD implementation in Southern Africa
• List of GM publications
• The Central Asian experience: a partnership approach for financing UNCCD implementation
• Preserving our common ground – UNCCD 10 years on

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

• Desertification factsheet
  English | French | Spanish
• Environment and natural resource management: IFAD's growing commitment
  PDF version: English | French | Spanish
• Eradicating rural poverty is one of the first steps to fighting desertification
  PDF version: English | Spanish
• Gender and desertification: expanding roles for women to restore drylands
• Gender and desertification: making ends meet in drylands
• IFAD in the Near East and North Africa region | Arabic
• Tackling land degradation and desertification. GEF-IFAD Partnership
  PDF version: English | French | Spanish
• The rural poor - Survival or a better life?
  English - PDF | French - PDF | Spanish - PDF

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

Drylands publication series:

• Drylands issue paper
• Drylands paper
• Land tenure and resource access in Africa
• Land tenure and resource access in West Africa
• Managing Africa’s soils
• Pastoral land tenure
• Securing the commons

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
Strategies for Sustainable Land Management in the East African Highlands

The World Conservation Union (IUCN)

• Ecosystems and human well-being – Desertification synthesis
• Extractive industries in arid and semi-arid zones: environmental planning and management
• Reducing West Africa’s vulnerability to climate change on water resources, wetlands and desertification: elements for regional strategy for preparedness and adaptation
• Drylands publications

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

• Global alarm: dust and sandstorms from the world’s drylands
• List of publications
• Preserving our common ground - UNCCD ten years on
• Prevention and control of dust and sandstorms in northeast Asia
• Promotion of traditional knowledge
• UNCCD science and technology interlinkages - Desertification and disaster
• Women of the earth – Nurturing the future

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - Drylands Development Center

Publications

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• Planet magazine: deserts and drylands
• Trishna and the dream of water
• Tunza magazine: deserts and drylands
• Women and desertification: a dynamic relationship
• World Environment Day - Deserts and desertification: don't desert drylands!

World Bank

• Combating desertification in Western China: a policy perspective, paper
• The convention to combat desertification and the role of the World Bank
• Desertification: implementing the convention, a World Bank view
• Enhancing World Bank support to the convention to combat desertification
• The global environment benefits of land degradation control on agricultural land – Global overlays program
• Good practices in drylands management
• Integrating dryland issues into country assistance strategies: a review
• New opportunities for development: the desertification convention
• Sustainable woodfuel supplies from the dry tropical woodlands

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Climate and land degradation

 

Reports and working papers

 

Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)

Desertification of arid lands

Eden Foundation

• Desertification: a threat to the Sahel
• Eden think tank

European Commission: Land Management & Natural Hazards Unit

Research reports

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

• Desertification and drought - extent and consequences proposal for a participatory approach to combat desertification
• Role of domestic livestock in desertification control
• Sustainable development of drylands and combating desertification
• Trees outside forests: an essential tool for desertification control in the Sahel

German Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ)

Report by the Federal Republic of Germany on measures taken to assist the implementation of the UNCCD in affected African country parties

Global Environment Facility (GEF)

GEF land degradation linkage study (2001)

Global Mechanism of the UNCCD

• Convention to combat desertification - Report to the seventh session of the conference of the parties (2005)
• Facilitation committee documents
• The Global Mechanism's financial information engine on land degradation: FIELD
• Reports to the COP (Conference of the Parties)
• Technical advisory group documents

Land Degradation Assessment in Dry Areas (LADA)

• Agro-ecological zoning and GIS applications in Asia
• Progress report (2002)
• Progress report (2003)
• Report on the second meeting of the technical advisory group and the steering committee (2004)
• Selected papers on environmental and sustainability indicators – experience from Central America, CIAT, World Bank, UNEP
• Workshop proceedings (2004)

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

• Climate change and sustainable development strategies in the making: what should African countries expect?
• Co-ordination with multilateral institutions and support for global conventions
• Expert meeting on soil erosion and soil biodiversity indicators (2003)
• Integrating the Rio conventions into development co-operation
• Poverty-environment-gender linkages

United Nations

Reports submitted by United Nations organizations on activities in support to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

• Official documents
• Reports submitted to the COP/CRIC
• Responses to the report of the United Nations Board of auditors for the 2002–2003 biennium
• Reports submitted by developed country parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
• Review of the management, administration, and activities of the secretariat of the UNCCD (Conference of the Parties, 7 th session)
• Ten African experiences

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Future of world’s arid regions chronicled in landmark UN environment report

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

Desertification

The World Conservation Union (IUCN)

• Promoting equality between men and women through multilateral environmental agreements
• World conservation learning network
• Reports of the WSSD side events on drylands (2002)
• Sustainable drylands management

 

Toolkits, guidelines and manuals

 

Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)

A guide to land-use and land-cover change

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

CGIAR and desertification – combating desertification through science

FIELD (Financial Information Engine on Land Degradation) toolkits

• FIELD classification matrix
• FIELD input forms
• Questionnaire for submitting data to the Global Mechanism

Global Environment Facility (GEF)

Land degradation and the GEF: a guide to developing project proposals and accessing project funding from the Global Environment Facility for sustainable land management

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Agri-environmental indicators

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

CRIC 5: Updated help guides and explanatory notes for:

• Developed country parties
• Down to earth: a simplified guide to the convention to combat desertification
• UNESCO teacher’s kit

The World Conservation Union (IUCN)

Enhancing social sustainability in activities to combat desertification: a manual for reflection

 

Training

International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

Training

Mediterranean Training Programme (MTP)

Activities objective

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

Transboundary desertification control in Central Asia - A policy dialogue and training programme arranged by InWEnt, Germany

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

• Teaching resource kit for dryland countries
• Training to combat desertification

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