19 December 2006 ENGLISH/RUSSIAN ONLY UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION COMMITTEE FOR THE REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION Fifth session Buenos Aires, 12–21 March 2007 REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONVENTION AND OF ITS INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS, PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 22, PARAGRAPH 2 (a) AND (b), AND ARTICLE 26 OF THE CONVENTION, AS WELL AS DECISION 1/COP.5, PARAGRAPH 10 REVIEW OF THE REPORTS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF AFFECTED COUNTRY PARTIES OF REGIONS OTHER THAN AFRICA, INCLUDING ON THE PARTICIPATORY PROCESS, AND ON EXPERIENCE GAINED AND RESULTS ACHIEVED IN THE PREPARATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTION PROGRAMMES Compilation of summaries of reports submitted by affected Asian country Parties 1. In accordance with decision 9/COP.7, the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention at its fifth session will review the reports on implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification by affected country Parties of regions other than Africa, including Asia and the Pacific. By its decision 11/COP.1, the Conference of the Parties requested the secretariat to compile summaries of such reports. Decision 11/COP.1 also defined the format and content of reports and, in particular, required summaries not to exceed six pages. 2. This document contains 31 narrative summaries of reports as submitted by affected Asian country Parties as at 17 November 2006, and document ICCD/CRIC(5)/MISC.1/Add.1 contains 26 tabular summaries; these are reproduced without formal editing. The secretariat has also made these reports available in their entirety on its website <www.unccd.int>. ICCD/CRIC(5)/MISC.1 GE.06-65882 CONTENTS Page Afghanistan .................................................................................................................... 3 Bangladesh ..................................................................................................................... 4 Bhutan............................................................................................................................ 9 Cambodia ....................................................................................................................... 15 China.............................................................................................................................. 17 Cook Islands................................................................................................................... 18 India ............................................................................................................................... 21 Indonesia ........................................................................................................................ 36 Kazakhstan ..................................................................................................................... 40 Kiribati ........................................................................................................................... 42 Kyrgyzstan ..................................................................................................................... 43 Lao People’s Democratic Republic ................................................................................. 45 Lebanon.......................................................................................................................... 46 Malaysia......................................................................................................................... 50 Micronesia (Federated States of)..................................................................................... 54 Myanmar ........................................................................................................................ 58 Nepal.............................................................................................................................. 62 Niue................................................................................................................................ 63 Palau............................................................................................................................... 66 Papua New Guinea ......................................................................................................... 66 Samoa............................................................................................................................. 73 Saudi Arabia................................................................................................................... 74 Sri Lanka........................................................................................................................77 Syrian Arab Republic...................................................................................................... 79 Tajikistan........................................................................................................................ 87 Thailand ......................................................................................................................... 92 Turkmenistan.................................................................................................................. 96 Tuvalu ............................................................................................................................ 98 Uzbekistan...................................................................................................................... 102 Viet Nam........................................................................................................................ 104 Yemen............................................................................................................................ 107 2 AFGHANISTAN Afghanistan has an area of 65.22 million ha. Great mountain ranges (Pamir and Hindukosh) divide the country with a high area of plains in the north, a mountainous central area, mountains and foot hills in the east and south east and low land to the south and west. According to DAI/EARTH Sat only 10 per cent of land area is agricultural. Half of this is rain-fed and half is irrigated. Afghanistan has an extremely low level of forest cover. The conifer and oak forests in the south east and pistachio forests in the north cover 1.9 million ha of the total land area. Rangeland covers about 45 per cent of the territory. Forest and woodlands, throughout Afghanistan are being cut down without consideration of their ecological, environmental, and economic worth. It is observed that entire plant covers are moved for fuel wood and the land is converted for dry land cultivation. Thus the process of deforestation combined with overgrazing and drought lead to increase soil erosion, landslide, watershed degradation, loss of biodiversity, loss of livelihood sources, desertification, land degradation and reduced ecosystem services. Due to loss of stabilizing vegetation, sand dune movement has occurred (in the north and south west parts of the country). The sand dunes are presently moving onto agricultural land as well as into human settlements. The above-mentioned environmental degradation has caused drought, floods, decrease in production, increase in prices, unemployment, and lack of access to health care, as well as internal displacement and depletion of wild life habitat. These are presently typical economic and environmental shocks in the country. People have lost their household assets, income generating opportunities and finally, the control over their normal living conditions. The London Conference held on 31 January and 1 February 2006 provided an opportunity for the Government of Afghanistan to present the Interim National Development Strategy, which sets out its political and economic plans and priorities for the next five years. Thus, environment is under one of the three pillars “Economy and Social Development”. Afghanistan Compact states “… in line with Afghanistan’s MDGs, environmental regulatory frameworks and management services will be established for the protection of air and water quality, waste management and pollution control, and natural resource policies will be developed and implementation started at all levels of government as well as the community level”. This is given importance to sustainable land management. To combat desertification the following effective (multi-actor) approaches are recommended: 1. Governmental institution shall focus on: • Issue and maintenance of law, order and social justice. • Preparing national programme concerning desertification and its prevention. • Creation of a policy/strategy framework such as legal system for allocation of user rights over forests and rangeland to communities, forestry law, etc. • Facilitating programmes and project implementation. • Attraction of international donor assistance for sustainable land management. 3 • Create a suitable mechanism among the relevant government and non-government organization to implement Afghanistan’s obligation towards the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. • Establishment of an information system to address desertification and land degradation issues. • Establishing community-based institutions. 2. Strengthening the capacities of Provincial Councils for: • Establishing committees for the planning and organization of implementation. • Decision making concerning local strategy for combating desertification. • Provision of organization and labour for conducting field activities. • Local monitoring and evaluation 3. Utilizing