Dryland Ecosystems

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United Nations University

Institute for Water, Environment and Health

(UNU-INWEH)

175 Longwood Road South, Suite 204, Hamilton Ontario L8P 0A1 CANADA

Phone: 1-905-667-5511
Fax: 1-905-667-5510
Email: contact.inweh@unu.edu

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Project Links

Ensuring Impacts from SLM (KM:Land)
Sustainable Management of Marginal Drylands - 2 (currently being updated)
Joint MSc Programme on Integrated Drylands Managment
Previous Initiatives

Dryland Ecosystems at a Glance

Drylands – comprising deserts, grasslands, and woodlands – cover about 41% of Earth’s land surface and are inhabited by more than 2 billion people (about one-third of the world’s population). Many of these dryland areas face severe land degradation, in which marginal areas are turned into wastelands and natural ecosystems are altered through destruction of surface vegetation, poor management of water resources, inappropriate land use practices, overuse of fertilizers and biocides, and disposal of domestic and industrial wastes. As a result, dryland populations on average lag far behind the rest of the world on human well-being and development indicators. In the absence of any remedial measures, the situation is likely to get worse over time due to population increase, land cover change, and global climate change.

UNU-INWEH’s programme on drylands assists developing countries in dryland areas to better manage their land resources and to achieve sustainable use of their water and biodiversity resources. This is done through capacity development at various scales, ranging from community-based efforts to national training initiatives. The capacity building efforts are closely interlinked to knowledge management to support national policy development, particularly in relation to poverty-reduction strategies and better integrated natural resource management.

News & Events

Highlights

At the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), UNU-INWEH staff promoted the establishment of a Fellowship Programme that would link four UNU institutes along with other partners via joint training courses and field visits. Richard Thomas stated that “if the proposal is accepted by UNCCD parties there should be a large shift in opportunities to access education and training in land management in affected regions”. The sister UNU institutes are; the Land Restoration training Programme in Iceland, the Institute for Sustainability and Peace, Japan and the Institute for Natural Resources in Africa, Ghana.

INWEH staff gave four presentations in different side events at the COP10 relating to; how best to organise scientific advice for the UNCCD, plans to establish a multi-partnership fellowship programme, a report on progress of a working group on the economics of sustainable land management as part of DesertNet International and the rationale for a ‘Stern type’ report on the economics of land degradation as a member of the consortium “Offering Sustainable Land management Options or OSLO.

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Photo: Members of DesertNet International discuss “Dryland ecosystem functioning and resilience at a side event of the UNCCD COP10 held in Changown, Korea Oct 10-21, 2011”. Left to right: Prof. Paolo Roggero, University of Sassari, Italy, Dr. Mariam Akhtar Schuster, University of Hamburg, Germany, Dr. Lindsay Stringer, University of Leeds, UK, Dr. Richard Escadafal, CESBIO, France and Dr. Richard Thomas, UNU-INWEH

United Efforts to Develop a Fellowship Programme to Combat Land Degardation

Side Event at UNCCD COP10

Changwon, Republic of Korea

11 October, 2011 @ 8:00

What can be done for the UNCCD Fellowship Programme? A new Partnership being led by the UNU proposes offering short-term training courses by partner institutions in affected countries as part of a larger programme for building capacity into affected areas.

Read about the proposed Fellowship Programme

See the Side Event Programme

At the Cutting Edge: Channelling Core Scientific Advances into the UNCCD Process

Side Event at UNCCD COP10

CHangwon, Republic of Korea

13 October @ 13:00

The recent United Nations General Assembly High-level Meetings on Desertification highlighted the urgent need to address land degradation and desertification issues at the global level. To do this, it will be essential to “Strengthen the scientific base of the UNCCD and foster the establishment of a global authority on DLDD” (Background Paper A/66/50).

UNU-INWEH and DesertNet International will look at options for doing just that: developing a science-policy platform on land.

Read the Policy Brief “Fertile Ground? Options for a Science-Policy Platform on Land”

New Publication:

Guidelines for Reporting on Indicators

Following on the lessons learned through a pilot testing exercise in Dominican Republic, Namibia, Senegal and Tajikistan, the KM:Land project produced a set of guidelines for project managers to report on measuring impacts at the project level through a set of four selected indicators.

Download a copy of “Guidelines for the Preparation and Reporting on Globally-relevant SLM Impact Indicators for Project-level Monitoring”