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Each year, 12 million hectares of farm land is lost to desertification. This BBC World Debate, “Advancing Sands: Deserts and Migration,” features six internationally renowned panellists who discuss some of the root causes of desertification, its economic and social impact, and to what extent it contributes to conflict and migration. Moderated by BBC World presenter Zeinab Badawi and including a video-taped intervention from IFAD President Lennart Båge.

The panel:

• Ibrahim Thiaw, Acting Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN),
• Sunita Narain, Director of the Centre for Science and the Environment ( India ), and
• Martin Sommer, Director Natural Resources and Environment Division, Swiss Development Corporation
• Fatima Jibrell, Executive Director of Horn Relief ( Somalia )
• Rosamund McDougall, member of the Advisory Council of the Optimum Population Trust
• Christian Mersmann, Managing Director, Global Mechanism of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification

Watch debate: QuickTime | Real Player | Windows Media Player

Diramo is 70. She lives in the village of Siminto in Ethiopia where she was born. She grew up as a herder, moving with her family’s animals to find water and food, feeding her children with the milk and meat. But now the abundant grasslands that the cattle fed on are gone and the people are no longer able to migrate in search of pasture. They grow what crops they can but droughts are frequent.

Earnings from these activities empowers these women to purchase food and medicine for their children, reinvest in their businesses, and contribute to household incomes.

A landscape that previously looked liked craters on the moon, with huge open pits surrounded by small gardens, has now been transformed into field after field of sweet peppers.

"The Tigray Region of northern Ethiopia suffers from severe soil erosion and land degradation. It is also subject to the vagaries of Ethiopia's rain, which is often inadequate or, many years, fails altogether. At best, many small farmers get only one harvest a year

- Sixth Session of the Conference of Parties of UNCCD

During this drought the first of the problems was the lack of water; it finished the livestock. These days the rainy seasons are dodging the pastoralists; the droughts are not changing into rains.

The International Year of Deserts and Desertification, 2006, aims to create an awareness of desertification, which it describes as a “major threat to humanity compounded by both climate change and loss of biological diversity”. But it also celebrates “the unique ecosystem and cultural diversity of deserts worldwide”.

is the slogan for this international year of deserts and desertification as environmental degredation changes the face of the planet and the lives of thousands...

The exchange of information is a powerful weapon in the fight against locusts; workshops in 10 West African countries have trained more than 600 agricultural experts to control the threat of another desert locust invasion, with a special focus on human health and the protection of the environment.

Duration:  6' 30''

Location: Mauritania, Niger
Producer: Boudicca Downes

“Aberra Chane from Kunchamedeb village in the northern Ethiopian highlands, once battled to provide enough food for his family, and often had to rely on government food aid.”

“My name is Aicha Mahjoub. I am 34 years old and live in the community of Tissaf, close to an oasis in the desert of Eastern Morocco”.

“The problem here is drought. For the last three or four years we haven't been able to harvest any maize because we don't have water”.

“As elsewhere on the dry continent of Africa, getting what water there is available to the field can make the difference between a reasonable crop and no crop at all”.

The wet season rice crop can easily be jeopardized by erratic rainfall during the dry spells of July and August, when rice is at tillering stage and crop water requirements are high.

Land degradation is one of the most serious problems facing Ethiopia today.

Watch a video report on the drought in Kenya courtesy of BBC News, plus an interview about the crisis with WFP spokesperson Peter Smerdon.

Video News Releases

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“Beside their poor endowment in natural resources, drylands bear the brunt of disabling economic, political, social, and cultural structures that shape the world today”.

Bedouin entrepreneurs prosper on the harsh northwest coast of Egypt.