As part of the efforts to stem the accelerated desertification process faced by more than 100 countries and to mitigate the impacts of global warming in arid and semi-arid regions of the world, the United Nations launches today (August 16) - at the opening of the Second International Conference: Climate, Sustainability and Development in Semi-arid Regions (ICID 2010) - the Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification. The ICID 2010 will be held in Fortaleza (Ceará), from August 16 to 20.
The global launch of the Decade will be made by the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Luc Gnacadja, in the presence of the Executive Secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, José Machado. The coordinator of the ICID, Antônio Rocha Magalhães, and other authorities also take part in the event. "It will be a decade of discussions, debates and searches for solutions to the problems faced by many countries in the world", says Gnacadja.
The UN Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification aims to be an opportunity to discuss the alarming dimensions of desertification around the globe and to promote cooperation between developed and developing countries, and among the public and the private sectors, in the preparation of public policies to prevent and adapt to climate change in areas considered at risk.
The UNCCD considers 'areas at risk of desertification' the arid, semi-arid, sub-humid and other regions (except the polar and sub-polar regions) with aridity index between 0.05 and 0.65. Thirty-three percent of the planet's surface is in that range, affecting about 2.6 billion people.
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