APPEAL OF THE DIRECTOR OF ENVIRONMENT FOR WORLD DAY TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION - JUNE 2017
The World Day to Combat Desertification has been observed since 1995 to promote public awareness relating to international cooperation to combat desertification and the effects of drought. “ Our land. Our home. Our Future,” is the rallying call for this year’s celebration of the World Day to Combat Desertification on 17 June 2017.
Desertification is a type of land degradation in which a relatively dry land region becomes increasingly arid, typically losing its bodies of water as well as vegetation and wildlife. It is caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities. Desertification is a significant global ecological and environmental problem. The World Day to Combat Desertification is a unique occasion to remind everybody that desertification can be effectively tackled, that solutions are possible, and that key tools to this aim lay in strengthened community participation and co-operation at all levels. Sustainable land management offers young people vast opportunities for income generation in sectors such as agriculture, food processing and tourism. The slogan, “Our land. Our home. Our Future”, underlines the central role productive land can play in turning the growing tide of migrants abandoning their unproductive land into communities and nations that are stable, secure and sustainable, into the future.
In this occasion, all are invited to organize events to celebrate the World Day to Combat Desertification as an opportunity to increase awareness rising and community participation in this programme, to improving yields and land productivity to increase the food security and incomes of land users land and the poorest farmers.