UN Convention to Combat Desertification

Geography glossary

Also called: UNCCD · Topic: Soils of India: Types, Degradation and Conservation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is a world treaty, adopted on 17 June 1994 in Paris, under which countries work together to stop land in drylands from losing its fertility and to reduce the harm caused by drought.

  • It matters because degraded land grows less food and holds less water.
  • India hosted its COP14 in 2019 and promised to restore 26 million ha of degraded land by 2030 [1]. This makes it a frequent Prelims and Mains topic.

Explanation

What the convention fights: desertification

  • Desertification means land degradation in drylands.
  • Drylands are arid (very dry), semi-arid (fairly dry) and dry sub-humid (dry for much of the year) areas.

  • Land degradation means the soil, plants and water on the land get worse, so the land produces less.

  • Two main causes:

  • changes in climate

  • human activity, such as overgrazing, over-irrigation and mining

  • What it is NOT:

  • It does not mean sand dunes moving forward.

  • It means dry land that once grew crops or grass loses its fertility.

  • How it builds up, step by step (the soil example):

  • Too many animals eat the grass, or the fields get too much water.
  • The soil is left bare, or it gets soaked and salty.
  • Wind or water carries the topsoil away, or a salt crust forms on top.
  • The land stops producing. In a dry area, this is desertification.

The treaty: key facts

  • Adopted: 17 June 1994, Paris.
  • Came into force: 1996.
  • 17 June is marked every year as Desertification and Drought Day.
  • It is one of the three Rio Conventions:
  • UNFCCC: climate change
  • CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity): biodiversity, the variety of plants and animals

  • UNCCD: desertification, land degradation and drought

  • COP (Conference of the Parties) is the meeting of all member countries. The COP makes the treaty's decisions.

The main goal: land degradation neutrality (LDN)

  • Land degradation neutrality (LDN) means the total area of healthy, productive land stays the same or grows over time.
  • New damage in one place is balanced by restoring land somewhere else.

  • It is SDG target 15.3. SDG means Sustainable Development Goal.

  • LDN does not mean no land is ever damaged. It means the overall balance does not fall.

COP14 in India (2019)

  • Place and dates: Greater Noida (Delhi NCR), 2–13 September 2019 [1].
  • Size and theme: 197 Parties. The theme was "Investing in Land, Unlocking Opportunities" [1].
  • Presidency: India held the COP Presidency for two years after COP14 [1].
  • New Delhi Declaration (2019) [1]:
  • It made achieving LDN by 2030 a national target for each country.

  • It also covered:

    • land tenure: secure rights over land
    • gender equality in land rights
    • drought

  • Drought decision:

  • COP14 adopted a decision to reduce and manage drought risk.

  • It recognised that climate change will make droughts more frequent and more severe [1].

  • India's pledge:

  • India will restore 26 million ha of degraded land by 2030.
  • This raised its earlier target of 21 million ha [1].

Where it occurs

  • Where it applies: the drylands of the world, which are arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas.
  • Who runs it: the member countries (Parties), through the Conference of the Parties. 197 Parties took part in COP14 [1].
  • Key places in its history:
  • Paris, where it was adopted (1994)

  • Greater Noida, Delhi NCR, where COP14 was held (2019) [1]

  • India: how big the problem is

  • The Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India (2021) was made by ISRO's Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, using satellite data.
  • In 2018-19, about 97.85 million ha was degraded. That is roughly 30 per cent of India's land.
  • The biggest causes, in order: water erosion > vegetation degradation (loss of plant cover) > wind erosion.

  • Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Odisha are among the states with the largest degraded areas.

  • India: hotspots by cause

  • Overgrazing: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra. These are the dry western and central states.
  • Over-irrigation, which leads to waterlogging and salinity: Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh. The Indira Gandhi Canal command in the Thar Desert of western Rajasthan is also affected.

  • Thar Desert edge: the Aravalli Green Wall is a green belt being planted along the Aravalli hills to stop the desert spreading east.

  • World examples of irrigation-caused degradation in dry lands: the Indus basin of Pakistan and the Aral Sea basin of Central Asia.

Don't confuse with

  • UNFCCC COP8 (2002, New Delhi): that was the climate convention's meeting. The desertification convention's COP14 was held in Greater Noida in 2019.
  • UNFCCC and CBD: these are the other two Rio Conventions. They deal with climate change and biodiversity. Only the UNCCD deals with desertification and drought.
  • Desert expansion (sand dunes moving): desertification is loss of fertility in dry land. It is not the forward march of sand.
  • ISRO-SAC Desertification Atlas (2021): this is India's own satellite map of degraded land. It is not a UNCCD document, but India uses such atlases to track progress on its UNCCD targets.

Prelims Hooks

  • UNCCD: adopted 17 June 1994, Paris. It came into force in 1996. 17 June is Desertification and Drought Day.
  • Rio Conventions (3): UNFCCC, CBD and UNCCD.
  • COP14: Greater Noida, 2–13 September 2019, 197 Parties. Theme: "Investing in Land, Unlocking Opportunities" [1].
  • India's target: raised from 21 million ha to 26 million ha of land to be restored by 2030 [1].
  • LDN = SDG target 15.3. The New Delhi Declaration made LDN by 2030 a national target for each country [1].
  • Trap: UNCCD COP14 was held in India in 2019. UNFCCC COP8 was held in New Delhi in 2002. A question may swap the two.

Mains Points

  • Scale and regional causes (GS-III):
  • About 30 per cent of India's land (97.85 million ha in 2018-19, ISRO-SAC Atlas 2021) is degraded.
  • The causes differ by region: mining on the Chotanagpur and Chhattisgarh plateaus, overgrazing in the dry western and central states, and over-irrigation in the north-west plains.

  • So meeting the UNCCD target needs a different fix in each region: mine reclamation, grazing control, or water management.

  • India's policy response:

  • The UNCCD commitments (LDN by 2030, restoring 26 million ha [1]) are backed by the Aravalli Green Wall, watershed development and the Soil Health Card scheme.

  • Progress can be tracked with ISRO-SAC satellite atlases.

  • Link to drought and climate (GS-III disaster management):

  • Land degradation and drought feed each other. Bare, damaged soil holds less water, and drought damages the land further.
  • The COP14 drought decision noted that climate change will make droughts more frequent and more severe [1]. Drought-risk planning must therefore be part of land restoration.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1UN Sustainable Development blog, "COP14 reaches major breakthroughs" (2019)un.org · tier 2