Brussels, 02/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - Some twenty heads of state and over 110 ministers met in La Havana on 1 and 2 September for the sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, which entered its political phase on Monday. One of the tasks for the delegates was to see how the Convention could be made into an instrument of the millennium development objectives for the eradication of poverty and for food safety, and how the promotion of sustainable development in arid ecosystems could be financed.
Poul Nielson, European Commissioner for development policy and humanitarian aid, sees in this conference the opportunity for the Union to make its contribution to the fight against poverty and to realising sustainable development. In a press release, he says: "drought, desertification and poverty go hand in hand. Delivering on sustainable development and poverty alleviation inevitably involves doing something about land degradation. This is what the UN Convention on desertification is all about and why it is so important. Since the adoption of the Convention in 1994 much energy has been put into defining the objectives. With this work well on track now is the time to deliver, to turn our intentions into concrete results for the poor. This will require that sustainable land use is made an integral element of Poverty Reduction Strategies in developing countries and that the Convention's objectives are effectively mainstreamed into development policy. The 6th Conference offers and ideal opportunity to address these challenges. I also see the 6th session of the Conference as an opportunity for close ACP-EU co-operation in the combat against drought and desertification".
WTO should worry about impact of trade negotiations on drylands, says Friends of the Earth
The environmental NGO Friends of the Earth International is calling upon the heads of state and ministers present in La Havana to guarantee that the WTO ministerial, to open in Cancun on 10 September, gives priority to concerns about desertification and the rights and interests of communities living in dryland areas. Pointing out that desertification and land degradation are devastating global environmental problems for millions of people living in rural areas- especially for small farmers- and that, according to the secretariat of the Convention on desertification, land degradation costs the international community up to 40 billion US dollars per annum, the NGO warns those taking part of the potential negative impact of multilateral trade negotiations on drylands.
"Agricultural trade liberalisation as currently proposed by the US and European Union at the WTO will place an additional burden on dryland populations. Most dryland communities consist of small farmers who are unable to compete on a world market. The trade proposals by the EU and US leave their direct and indirect support structures for export-oriented agriculture virtually untouched, while they would force developing countries to open up their agricultural markets for these subsidised products. The results would be devastating for dryland producers and for the lands these communities manage", says the NGO.
Friends of the Earth is also concerned at the privatisation of water initiated by the General Agreement in Trade in Services under the WTO, which, it believes, will create an extra burden. "Water is a common good in many arid zones, and few rural farming and pastoralist communities are able to pay for privatised water sources. Water privatisation schemes have already led to disastrous effects in countries like Niger and Northern Mali, where rural people living in deserts and drylands have been faced with water bills that are taking up between 12 and 70% of their income", recalls Friends of the Earth.