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On Thursday, 11 April, discussions at the UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference continued in parallel sessions and one joint plenary session. Parallel sessions in the morning addressed: catastrophic shifts in drylands – how can we prevent ecosystem degradation? How to overcome the difficulties of successful engagement of non-scientific stakeholders; adapting to climate change and disaster risk reduction through sustainable land management (SLM) – experiences in Tajikistan, East Africa, US, Argentina and Mongolia; good practices in SLM and lessons learned; scaling up SLM – bridging the science-policy-practice divide, making the case through valuation of ecosystem services; and desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) and climate change.
The plenary session on “Drivers of change and resilience increase” focused on identifying the underlying drivers of change and policies that increase the resilience of ecosystems and people dependent on them, as well as the capacity of individuals, communities and systems to survive, adapt and grow in the face of change, even catastrophic incidents. Elena Maria Abraham, CONICET, Argentina, called for a new sustainable development paradigm that recognizes the opportunities provided by dryland ecosystems’ strong capabilities for “regeneration and sustenance.” Dennis Garrity, UN Drylands Ambassador, characterized the interlinkages among drought, environmental degradation, poverty and insecurity as a “perfect storm of challenges” with global implications. He highlighted successful practices of farmer-managed natural regeneration in Africa, including agroforestry, which he highlighted offer entry points for building more productive and drought-resilient livelihood systems at scale. Mohammed Sessay, UNEP, suggested that the challenge was in managing this resource properly and ensuring that revenues generated are used to addressing the challenges of drylands. Ephraim Nkonya, IFPRI, discussed the drivers of cropland changes in poor countries of sub-Saharan Africa, examining such factors as land tenure security, agriculture research and development, time to urban areas, land suitability and government effectiveness.
In the afternoon, discussions continued in parallel sessions on the following topics: agroecology as a powerful tool for the development of drylands; macro-economic policy drivers of land management; traditional knowledge related to DLDD/SLM; tackling key challenges in the economic assessment of desertification, SLM and resilience of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, perspectives from DesertNet International’s Working Groups; indicators for DLDD and SLM; towards a land-degradation-neutral world, from science to policy; integrated modeling of climate impacts on food and farming at regional to supra-national scales; and methodologies and tools for assessing DLDD.
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Daily web highlights
(click on the following links to see our daily web pages)
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UNCCD resources
 Second Scientific Conference website
Second Scientific Conference programme
Second Scientific Conference documents
CST S-3 website
CST S-3 documents
CST S-3 provisional agenda
CRIC 11 website
CRIC 11 documents
CRIC 11 provisional agenda
IISD RS resources
IISD RS coverage of the Tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the UNCCD, 10-21 October 2011, Changwon City, Republic of Korea
IISD RS summary of the Second Special Session of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST S-2) of the UNCCD and CRIC 9, 16-18 and 21-25 February 2011, Bonn, Germany (English: HTML - PDF) (French: HTML - PDF)
IISD RS coverage of the Ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 9), 21 September - 2 October 2009, Buenos Aires, Argentina
IISD RS coverage of UNCCD CST S-1 and CRIC 7, 3-14 November 2008, Istanbul, Turkey
Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) coverage of desertification negotiations
LAND-L - A news and announcement list on land policy issues
Land Policy & Practice - A Knowledgebase of International Activities Addressing Sustainable Land
Linkages Update - Bi-weekly international environment and sustainable development news |
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UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference, Third Special Session of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST S-3) and Eleventh Session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 11)
