General Assembly Official Records Sixty-Sixth Session
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United Nations A/66/PV.6 General Assembly Official Records Sixty-sixth session 6th plenary meeting Tuesday, 20 September 2011, 9.30 a.m. New York President: Mr. Al-Nasser .................................... (Qatar) The meeting was called to order at 9.35 a.m. Desertification, Mr. Luc Gnacadja, on this important issue. I would also like to thank Member States for High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on their tireless efforts in bringing the issue of the theme “Addressing desertification, land desertification to the agenda of the General Assembly. degradation and drought in the context of The role of the Group of 77 and China deserves sustainable development and poverty eradication” particular appreciation in this respect. Agenda item 19 Desertification is one of the most complex challenges of our time. It has serious environmental, Sustainable development economic, political and social impacts that affect (e) Implementation of the United Nations people, most of whom are poor. According to estimates Convention to Combat Desertification in Those by the United Nations Environmental Programme, one Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or quarter of our Earth’s land is threatened by Desertification, Particularly in Africa desertification and the livelihoods of over 1 billion people in more than 100 countries are jeopardized by The President (spoke in Arabic): I now declare desertification. open the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on addressing desertification, land degradation and Desertification also threatens to critically drought in the context of sustainable development and undermine gains achieved in sustainable development. poverty eradication, held in accordance with resolution The economic, social and human cost of desertification 65/160, of 20 December 2010. I extend a warm is tremendous. I therefore call upon the international welcome to all participants. community to take immediate and decisive action to address its impacts and to take measures for both its Statement by the President prevention and its reversal. The President (spoke in Arabic): It is my distinct A silent killer, drought has hit East Africa this honour to welcome all participants to this historic year, and once again the world has seen unimaginable High-level Meeting on addressing desertification, land human suffering. Countries in this region are degradation and drought in the context of sustainable experiencing the worst drought in 60 years. In the past development and poverty eradication. three months alone, this famine has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Somali children under the age I would like to take this opportunity to of five, and it has caused possibly permanent social acknowledge the leadership role of the Secretary- disruption as people have been forced to leave their General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and of the Executive communities, villages and towns. This is the most Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room U-506. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum. 11-50534 (E) *1150534* A/66/PV.6 severe food crisis in the world today, and it still Food security is an urgent issue before us today. requires urgent and concerted action at the global level. Food insecurity has an impact on a daily basis on people in arid countries in particular. Many of them Global attention to addressing land degradation face severe malnutrition and undernourishment, and and the scarcity of natural resource has no doubt been their health is compromised as a result. Malnutrition on the increase, particularly in connection with the has a particularly lasting impact on children, as their challenges of climate change and the food crisis. development and growth are stunted. However, our common efforts thus far have fallen short. Arid countries have begun to understand the importance of building their own country-led Major innovative policy interventions and shifts initiatives that aim to address the root causes of food in sustainable land management strategies will be insecurity. They are also collaborating to form South- needed to address the impacts of desertification. Such South, triangular and global alliances that would allow interventions require moving towards an ambitious them to share technological and policy solutions to quantitative target and a zero net land degradation rate. combat desertification and the degradation of lands in Effective restoration and rehabilitation of degraded all ecosystems. lands and drylands requires the development of new policies and technologies that promote sustainable use I am pleased to observe a small but growing of resources, as well as predictable financial resources number of such initiatives aimed at addressing food to support domestic initiatives. These strategies must insecurity in Africa, Asia and South America. These ensure the active engagement of all stakeholders and initiatives include a proposal made by the State of local communities. Qatar in September 2010, during the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly, at the special side event A number of important global conferences on entitled “Global Dry Land Alliance: Partnering for sustainable development will be held this year. In Food Security”. The proposal is for a group of dryland October, the international community will meet in the countries to join together to form a global dryland Republic of Korea at the tenth session of the alliance. The innovative solutions and best practices Conference of the Parties to the United Nations developed by such an alliance could be shared broadly Convention to Combat Desertification. Today’s with dryland countries throughout the world. discussion among world leaders is an excellent opportunity to help stimulate efforts aimed at reaching Another example is the African Union’s Great a decisive outcome at the Conference. Green Wall Initiative, which aims to tackle both environmental and poverty-related challenges and to The twentieth anniversary of the Earth Summit, address the effects of land degradation, increasing which was held in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, is also aridity and desertification in the African Sahara and the around the corner. I urge Member States to ensure a Sahel drylands by planting a wall of trees across forward-looking outcome at the Rio+20 Conference Africa, from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east. that reaffirms the balance between the economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development. Initiatives such as these are designed to support I would also encourage Members States to reaffirm in and complement efforts towards tangible progress in their deliberations the fulfilment of commitments to the achieving the Millennium Development Goals United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (MDGs), particularly MDG 1, which is to eradicate and its 10-year strategic plan and framework, and to extreme poverty and hunger. further enhance the implementation of the Convention. Land is life, and our life depends on land. We Effectively addressing desertification and land must stop the deadly process of desertification, restore degradation can be done only in the context of other health and vitality to our precious Earth and protect the major global challenges, such as climate change, livelihoods of people worldwide. This is our poverty eradication, food security, deforestation and responsibility. biodiversity loss. I would like to address one of these I now give the floor to His Excellency the issues in particular today: food security. Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon. 2 11-50534 A/66/PV.6 The Secretary-General: Today, the drylands of communities in the arid regions of Namibia, where the Horn of Africa are experiencing the most severe conventional farming is impossible. food crisis in the world. More than 13 million people in In other areas, biofuels grow where little else can. Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are in urgent The potential of dryland solar and wind resources has need of humanitarian aid. The United Nations and our barely been tapped. Timely action on our part can partners are working hard to save lives and alleviate unlock these riches and provide solutions to a number suffering. of global challenges, from food insecurity to rural But let me be frank. Drought does not have to poverty, energy insecurity, biodiversity loss, climate become famine. Too often, the international community change, political instability, geopolitical conflict and reacts too late. Too often, decisions are taken based on forced migration. false economies. In the end, we count the cost not just But to do this, we need enhanced investment in in human lives but in the extra expense of responding halting desertification and reclaiming degraded lands. to crises that could have been averted for a fraction of Success stories can point the way, and success stories the price. abound. From restoring ancient terraces in the Peruvian The world’s drylands are too often an investment Andes, to planting trees to hold back the encroaching desert, seen by Governments and the international Saharan sands, from rehabilitating watersheds in India community as a lost cause. Nothing could be further to using summer floods to reduce salinity in China, from the truth. I thank the General Assembly for there are examples from all continents of Governments holding this High-level Meeting to highlight the fact and communities reversing desertification and that drylands hold the potential — both immediate and improving the productivity of the land. long-term — to drive national economic growth and But we must also acknowledge that land sustainable human development. degradation is not just a dryland issue. Studies show Forty per cent of the Earth’s land mass is that land degradation is occurring in humid, tropical characterized as arid or semi-arid.