17/08/2010 - "The
Second International Conference: Climate,
Sustainability and Development in Semiarid
Regions (ICID 2010) is an opportunity for
researchers, technicians, politicians and
society to review concepts and build a new
pact to combat desertification",
said the executive secretary of the Brazilian
Ministry of the Environment, José
Machado, on Monday (August 16) at the opening
of the conference, in Fortaleza (CE).
Combating deforestation
through inspections and sustainable activities
are combined measures which can help to
curb desertification. "The forest degradation
is leading the world to desertification.
And desertification means losing richness",
stressed Machado. "We lose every year
thousands of hectares of land because of
unsustainable practices", he added.
Also at the opening
of ICID 2010, the executive secretary of
the United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD), Luc Ganacadja,
launched the UN Decade for Deserts and the
Fight against Desertification. For him,
this is a long-term initiative to combat
desertification around the world.
The ICID 2010 gathers
around 2,000 people, including researchers,
experts on climate change, social scientists
and policy makers from over 90 countries,
until Friday (August 20).
For further information, visit the ICID's
website: www.icid18.org
+ More
UN launches the Decade
for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification
16/08/2010 - As part
of the efforts to stem the accelerated desertification
process faced by more than 100 countries
and to mitigate the impacts of global warming
in arid and semi-arid regions of the world,
the United Nations launches today (August
16) - at the opening of the Second International
Conference: Climate, Sustainability and
Development in Semi-arid Regions (ICID 2010)
- the Decade for Deserts and the Fight against
Desertification. The ICID 2010 will be held
in Fortaleza (Ceará), from August
16 to 20.
The global launch of
the Decade will be made by the Executive
Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD), Luc Gnacadja, in
the presence of the Executive Secretary
of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment,
José Machado. The coordinator of
the ICID, Antônio Rocha Magalhães,
and other authorities also take part in
the event. "It will be a decade of
discussions, debates and searches for solutions
to the problems faced by many countries
in the world", says Gnacadja.
The UN Decade for Deserts
and the Fight against Desertification aims
to be an opportunity to discuss the alarming
dimensions of desertification around the
globe and to promote cooperation between
developed and developing countries, and
among the public and the private sectors,
in the preparation of public policies to
prevent and adapt to climate change in areas
considered at risk.
The UNCCD considers
'areas at risk of desertification' the arid,
semi-arid, sub-humid and other regions (except
the polar and sub-polar regions) with aridity
index between 0.05 and 0.65. Thirty-three
percent of the planet's surface is in that
range, affecting about 2.6 billion people.
