DECLARATION BY CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS

DECLARATION BY CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS

Participating in the tenth session of the Conference of Parties

to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

1.      The civil society organizations (CSOs) meeting in Changwon on the occasion of the tenth session of the Conference of Parties (COP10) to the United Nations Convention to Combat desertification (UNCCD) wish to thank the Korean authorities responsible for the coordination of this Conference, the Secretariat of the Convention and in particular, the Korean CSOs network for their efforts and support, together with other organizations which have made this Conference possible.

2.      Participating CSOs highlight the urgency of dealing with desertification. Recent studies indicate that dry lands not only take 41.3% of total land surface but are also home to 2.1 billion people; that is one in every three people worldwide. Moreover, one in every three crops under cultivation today has its origin in the dry lands. Dry lands also support 50% of the world’s livestock, serve as rich wildlife habitats and account for nearly half of all cultivated systems.

3.      Over the years, CSOs have carried out intensive natural resources management activities for enhancement of livelihoods for the rural poor, women empowerment and awareness raising.

4.      We are concerned about the low action on implementing and operationalizing the UNCCD at grassroots level and urge that all Parties be more focused on giving DLDD the priority that it deserves and develop concrete activities to alleviate the sufferings of communities affected by desertification and drought.  Relating to drought, we call for an establishment of emergency mechanisms to deal with disasters caused by this phenomenon.

5.      Gender mainstreaming is the current international approach to advancing gender equality and equity in society. We strongly believe that at the level of national government, they should involve incorporating a gender perspective into all policies, plans, programmes and projects to ensure that these impact on women, men and youth in an equitable way.

6.      The participation of CSOs in the UNCCD process is diminishing year after year compared to the number of accredited CSOs. We strongly reiterate our demand for increased participation of CSOs in the process as enshrined in the Convention. CSOs are deeply engaged in documenting the best practices which are proven and innovative for knowledge sharing. However, it is unfortunate that we CSOs will not be able to share anymore our experiences and expertise directly through the PRAIS to the Conference of the Parties as recommended by the CRIC 9.

7.      We stress the importance to create a global inventory of drought-resistant plants. In this regard, CSOs could contribute in identifying and collecting information on these plants in respective countries in collaboration with science and technology.

8.      We CSOs also demand special attention and strong support of UNCCD for Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs).  ICCAs provide major benefits for conservation and livelihoods and have significant potential for responding to global changes, including combating desertification, climate change, conservation of biodiversity, maintaining ecosystem functions and providing ecological connectivity across the landscape.  ICCAs are an approved part of the CBD Programme of work on Protected Areas, which in our opinion can provide a significant opportunity for cooperation among Multilateral Environmental Conventions.

9.      Strengthening scientific knowledge base on SLM is necessary for effective policy decision making on DLDD. We therefore call for establishment of intergovernmental scientific panel on soil and land in the UNCCD. The work of this panel will also compliment science and technology input within the circles of synergy amongst the Rio Conventions. The composition of the Panel should include CSOs.

10.   We CSOs recommend that this Convention should take the lead in advancing on synergy development for an effective UNCCD implementation. This is because experience has shown that achieving the desired result of the UNCCD strategies cannot be in complete isolation from the other related Conventions.

11.   CSOs have taken initiative here in COP10 to forge an alliance in this Convention to develop and establish a platform amongst their constituencies for exchange of experience, technology and best practices on DLDD. The alliance is also expected to provide an effective partnership and dialogue with the stakeholders of the UNCCD process.

12.   We CSOs welcome and support the Changwon Initiative. In order to be more inclusive and participatory, we demand active involvement of civil society.

13.   CSOs think that some issues need to be addressed urgently in the UNCCD process.  Land grabbing has become a threat to food production, security and food sovereignty in many local communities. Acquisition of large tracks of community farmlands by multinational has set direct competition in access to land for food cultivation by local communities on one hand, and access to land by the multinationals for cultivation of non-edible crops and in particular agro fuel. The land grabs deprives communities of their nourishing capitals which is land.

14.   We also urge upon not only civil societies but also all other parties should pay more attention to extreme poverty and social injustice caused by deforestation and land degradation.

CSO Statement in the Closing Ceremony of High Level Segment of COP10

CSO Statement in the Closing Ceremony of High Level Segment of COP10

Oct 18, 2011

Distinguished World Leaders attending COP10,

We, the Civil Society Organizations (CSOS) attending the COP10 welcome you to this High-Level Segment to find ways and means of addressing desertification, land degradation and drought for the improvement of the living conditions of people from affected areas. The fight against poverty cannot succeed without priority given to drylands, land governance, investment in family farming systems, financing climate change adaptation and providing better food safety and sovereignty.

 

In their opening statement to the COP-10 last week, CSOs expressed their concern about the slow nature of implementation of actions at the grassroots level.

CSOs have advocated that unless they are fully taken on board in the process of the UNCCD, effective combating of desertification for poverty eradication would remain elusive.

Partnership in the UNCCD process is an obvious need for the realization of the aspirations of the communities to eradicate hunger and poverty.  Essentially, we all know the complexity of challenges in addressing DLDD and this can be met only by action of all the major stakeholders acting together in partnership and linking it with biodiversity conservation and climate change to promote synergies.

 

CSOs, by their action in the UNCCD process so far, have established their relevance to grassroots achievement of combating land degradation and thus can engage effectively with Parties in designing of development strategies and innovative including local and traditional technologies targeted towards achieving the objectives of UNCCD at all levels.

Distinguished Leaders, CSOs have also noted their diminishing participation in the UNCCD process year after year since the Convention was initiated. This development undermines the spirit of the Convention. We therefore call for an increased participation of CSOs and communities representatives in the process of UNCCD at all levels in order to give effect to the provisions of the Convention and legitimacy of partnership in the process of implementation of the UNCCD.

It is an acknowledged fact that DLDD have become a pervasive problem in affected ecosystems. However, the worst impact of it is experienced by the poor people. The solution lies in mainstreaming SLM into national development policies and practices. 

CSOs request the world leaders to support strengthening the knowledge base of SLM through improved scientific input in order to enhance effective decision making on DLDD.

 

Distinguished Leaders, CSOs have taken an initiative here in COP10 to forge an alliance in this Convention to develop and establish a platform amongst their constituencies for the exchange of experiences, technologies and better approaches on DLDD. The alliance is also expected to emerge as a formidable entity for meaningful partnership and dialogue with the stakeholders of the UNCCD process.

 

CSOs present in this Conference of Parties request the World Leaders to extend all possible support to the Changwon Initiative in which we as CSOs expect to play a key role by building a global alliance on desertification and land degradation.

 

Thank You.

CSOs Opening Statement to UNCCD COP10

CSOs Opening Statement to UNCCD COP-10,

Changwon City, Republic of Korea, 10^th October, 2011

read by Ambassador Kwon Byong Hyon

Thank you Mr. Chairman. We CSOs around the Globe attending this COP-10 wish to extend our gratitude to the Korea Forest Service, Gyeongnam Province and people of the Republic of Korea for the hospitality extended to the participants. We also thank the UNCCD Secretariat for offering CSOs an opportunity to attend the Convention. We further express our gratitude to all those who support our participation in this conference.

The UNCCD COPs consist of mainly two parties. One is government and the other is the Civil Society. So far in the COPs, the governmental role has predominantly prevailed over the CSOs. In the light of the rising influence and achievement of CSOs in addressing sustainable land management and combating desertification, we firmly believe that both governments, UNCCD and CSOs should cooperate more closely in addressing the land degradation and desertification.

Implementation of the UNCCD has been taking place for almost 20 years and commitments have been given to combating desertification, however, this is the time to evaluate on the outcomes of these commitments. The evaluation of outcome may initiate a sincere attempt to go for Rio plus 20 impact assessment.  

After COP-9 held in Buenos Aires in 2009 and CRIC-9 held in Bonn in 2011, the COP-10 has created lot of expectations for the CSOs to have their aspirations fulfilled in regard to combating desertification, poverty alleviation in real terms and providing food security to the people who are at the level of subsistence. Conferences organized by UNCCD have by and large registered lot of declarations in different aspects of Desertification, Land degradation and Drought (DLDD), however, this time our benign approach to the Secretariat and the Country Parties that dialogue should not end only to have declarations which mostly appear to be infructuous and be regarded as holy book; rather a sincere effort would be highly appreciated to translate those declarations into actions in order to have a perpetual remedy to the causes of DLDD and poverty as well.  

The livelihoods of local communities and indigenous peoples throughout the developing world are inherently fragile, exposed to a range of shocks, trends and seasonal fluctuations over which households have limited or no control. The situation has been amplified in vulnerable countries. Land degradation has since aggravated the situation and people are at large to get even two square meals a day. Land degradation and food insecurity are two faces of same coin, unless we are committed to arrest land degradation further and reclaim the degraded land, we cannot feed the billions of hungry people. CSOs are deeply involved with the community in reclaiming the degraded land and turning it to productive use.

Over the years, CSOs have carried out intensive Natural Resource Management activities through Soil and Water Conservation, Water Resource Development to combat desertification and enhance the livelihoods for the rural poor through farm and non-farm activities. Tree and agroforestry program is being implemented in the wasteland and homestead areas. CSOs are also involved in Participatory Technology Generation and Participatory Varietal Selection initiated in collaboration with the relevant institutions.

Women empowerment and gender sensitization process are being undertaken at unit levels.  We are engaged in enabling poor women to make use of choices, spaces and opportunities in the economic, social and political spheres for their improved well-being.

We are also working with the community to increase their level of awareness, knowledge and perception of risk on drought and desertification. CSOs are also harnessing rural renewable energy options for attainment of energy for micro-irrigation in dry lands and for reducing pressure on biomass. CSOs are also deeply engaged in documenting the best practices which are proven and at the same time innovative for knowledge sharing.

In this current session of COP we would like to emphasize on prioritization of the desertification issues with a human face.  Parties must play a sincere role in prioritizing the desertification issues and in the stages of planning and execution, they should take CSOs on board. COP-10 has taken an agenda to deliberate on the issue of gender. It would be most appropriate to synergize the experiences and works of CSOs in gender sensitization program for the real empowerment of the women and the youth.  

Food sovereignty is being compromised specially in areas of dry lands challenged with food security and this aspect needs to be considered in the light of the 10 year strategy.

CSOs have been consistently demanding on National Coordination and Consultation Bodies to create a harmonized action on the desertification issues taking CSOs on board. We demand that where such mechanism exists, they should be strengthened and where they do not exist, they should be established. These mechanisms are essential requirements to have an effective alignment of NAPs with the 10 year strategy adopted by UNCCD.

In this Convention process, Civil Society has recognized the commitment of Parties and in the light of this, it is urged that Developed Countries mobilize more resources and allocate adequately to the developing countries for addressing desertification issues and to find more unison in thinking and action. 

We the UNCCD CSOs demand special attention and strong support of the UNCCD for Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs). ICCAs provide major benefits for conservation and livelihoods and have significant potential for responding to global changes, including climate change, combating desertification, conservation of biodiversity, maintaining ecosystem functions and providing ecological connectivity across the landscape. ICCAs are an approved part of the CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas, which in our opinion can provide a significant opportunity for cooperation among the Multilateral Environmental Conventions.

The participation of CSOs in the UNCCD process is diminishing year by year compare to the number of accredited CSOs. We call for increased participation of CSOs in the process enshrined in the Convention.

Experience has shown that achieving the desired results of the UNCCD strategies cannot be in complete isolation from the other related conventions particularly the CBD and the UNFCCC. We therefore recommend that this Convention should take the lead in advancing on the synergy development among these conventions for an effective CCD implementation. In this earnest, it has become necessary to introduce an inter-governmental panel on land degradation under the aegis of UNCCD as soon as possible.

Trans-boundary resource management remains a challenge with respect to addressing land degradation. We therefore call for more partnership among stakeholders on sharing inter-boundary resources for the improvement of the living conditions of communities.

UNCCD was formulated to address drought and desertification. However, in reality and application, the process of the UNCCD is focusing more on desertification than drought. We call on Parties to put in place a mechanism for urgent response to drought.

We draw attention to large scale land grabbing in dry land areas which is currently taking away arable land from farming communities. We are also losing the forest cover and as well as the carbon sink. We are vehemently concerned about the impact of this on the achievement of the Convention objectives particularly on food and livelihood security. We thus call for consideration of this issue in the 10-year strategy process.

We insist that our consistent effort to alleviate poverty by addressing land degradation need to be supported by providing sustainable fund.

CSOs present in the COP-10 have committed to develop an alliance as a platform to voice out the aspirations unequivocally to make the UNCCD process more productive.

UNCCD COP 10 held in Asia should be a significant opportunity to raise awareness of the serious state of Asian desertification and poverty. We should recognize these issues as global agenda.

That is why we urge the concerned parties to act in a concerted effort to solve this issue.

We suggest that not only the South Korean government but also all other parties and civil societies in the region as well as in the world should pay more attention to the North Korean issues, particularly deforestation and poverty

On behalf of CSOs around the world, I wish COP10 a great success. Thank you.