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ABOUT 4 billion hectares or one third of the earth’s land surface is threatened by desertification, directly affecting more than 250 million people and putting at risk one billion more people in at least 100 countries.

Although a global problem, the situation is especially acute in Asia, where, two fifths of the 4.3 billion hectare land area is prone to desertification and the most number of people in the world are affected.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) defines desertification as “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activity.”

Nine developing countries in Central and South Asia, as well as the People's Republic of China (PRC) have large land areas within these kinds of zones threatened by desertification. In the latter, more than a quarter of the land mass is "desertified," almost 400 million people live in areas prone to desertification, and the economic loss is estimated at around $6.5 billion a year.

The human actions that can cause desertification are agricultural practices such as overgrazing, which removes the vegetation cover that protects against erosion; over-cultivation, which exhausts the soil; and deforestation, which destroys the trees that bind the land to the soil. Poor irrigation practices raise salinity, and sometimes dry the rivers that feed large lakes.

Problems of land degradation and poverty are therefore inextricably interlinked in Asia, with many vulnerable communities dependent upon arid lands subject to periodic droughts and desertification processes. Even in the humid tropics, deforestation and other actions are reducing the productivity of soils upon which poor rural communities depend for their livelihoods.

Without access to the techniques, services, credit and technology to work the land in a sustainable way, many poor farmers find themselves contributing to the degradation of the very lands upon which they depend for food and income.

UNCCD was established as the principal international agreement to organize an international response to these problems. With this year marking its 10th anniversary, the UN has declared 2006 as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.

As a development agency in Asia and the Pacific dedicated to reducing the region’s poverty and ensuring its development is environmentally sustainable, ADB works with its partners at the country and regional levels to address land degradation problems.

For example, in cooperation with the Global Environment Facility, a financial mechanism of the UNCCD, and the countries of East and Central Asia, ADB has helped to establish three partnerships for combating drought and desertification.

PRC-GEF Partnership on Dryland Ecosystems Management: ADB has joined with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, World Bank, and others to reduce poverty, arrest land degradation, and restore dryland ecosystems in the Western region of the PRC. See site

Prevention and Control of Dust and Sandstorm in Northeast Asia: In the PRC and other countries of Northeast Asia, dust and sandstorms represent serious transboundary environmental concerns, and have become almost regular phenomena, adversely affecting health and economies. Through a technical assistance ADB and its partners have produced a regional master plan, an early warning system with monitoring and forecasting capacity, and an investment strategy which are also trying to address the root causes of the storms in Mongolia. Read brochure.

Central Asian Countries Initiative for Land Management: Land degradation is of particular concern in Central Asia, arising from abuse and over-exploitation of the natural resource base. Supported by a regional grant from ADB, the Central Asian countries are working with ADB and the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD to spearhead the Central Asian Countries Initiative for Land Management (CACILM) to combat land degradation and improve rural livelihoods. Visit the CACILM website.

“It is appropriate that World Environment Day this year is focusing on deserts and desertification which is a serious problem in Asia and is threatening the lives of millions of people,” says Nessim Ahmad, Director of ADB’s Environment and Social Safeguard Division. “ADB is committed to working with UNCCD and other partners for the sustainable management of land on which so much of Asia’s population depends.”

See photo essay on desertification.

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