A/RES/65/160
Reaffirming the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (“Johannesburg Plan of Implementation”), 6 in which the Convention
is recognized as one of the tools for poverty eradication, and reiterating its resolve
to eradicate extreme poverty,
5F
Acknowledging that desertification, land degradation and drought are
challenges of a global dimension in that they affect all regions of the world,
Concerned that extreme desertification and land degradation processes affect
also the arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas in Latin America and the Caribbean,
Asia, the Northern Mediterranean and Central and Eastern Europe, a situation
which, having been fully described in the ten-year strategic plan and framework, has
not been acknowledged in all its magnitude, increasing the vulnerability of poor
communities and compromising food security,
Concerned also by the increasing frequency and severity of dust storms and
sandstorms affecting arid and semi-arid regions and their negative impact on the
environment and the economy,
Concerned further by the negative impacts that desertification, land
degradation, loss of biodiversity and climate change have on each other, recognizing
the potential benefits of complementarities in addressing these problems at all levels
in a mutually supportive manner, and recognizing also the interrelationship between
climate change, loss of biodiversity and desertification and the need to intensify
efforts to combat desertification and to promote sustainable land management,
Concerned by the negative economic impacts of desertification, land
degradation and drought, and in this regard welcoming the organization in 2012 of
the second United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Scientific
Conference, on the theme “Economic assessment of desertification, sustainable land
management and resilience of arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas”,
Noting the need for enhanced cooperation among the secretariats of the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change 7 and the Convention on Biological Diversity, 8 while
respecting their individual mandates,
6F
7F
Underlining the cross-sectoral nature of desertification, land degradation and
drought mitigation, and in this regard inviting all relevant United Nations
organizations to cooperate with the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification in supporting an effective response to those challenges,
Expressing concern that one billion inhabitants of drylands are among the
poorest on the planet and are lagging behind in the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals, in particular those relating to hunger and poverty, as indicated
in the joint report of the Convention and the United Nations Development
Programme entitled “The Forgotten Billion: MDG Achievement in the Drylands”, 9
8F
_______________
6
Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August–4 September
2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.03.II.A.1 and corrigendum), chap. I, resolution 2, annex.
7
United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1771, No. 30822.
8
Ibid., vol. 1760, No. 30619.
9
Available from www.unccd.int and www.undp.org.
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