Related Sites

Desertification and Drought

UN Convention to Combat Desertification and related sites

• International: Convention to Combat Desertification
  The official Website of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.
• International: Expert Meeting, Synergies among Conventions on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, and the Forest Principles
  In March 97 this internationally sponsored meeting, held in Israel, focused on identifying "mechanisms and processes which effectively can promote synergies among many of the measures suggested by the instruments individually."

Desertification & drought research institutions

• Defending Against Drought--Natural Resources Conservation Service
  With good planning, good management, and good information, farms and ranches can reduce the impacts of drought. The Department of Agriculture's Joint Agricultural Weather Facility and the Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS), National Water and Climate Center, along with the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Interior, and the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) at University of Nebraska, Lincoln, helps people prepare for and deal with drought.
• UNEP Programme on Success Stories in Land Degradation/ Desertification Control
  United Nations Environment Programme has collected a variety of success stories in Africa and Asia over 20 years of working to combat desertification.
• United Nations Development Programme, Drylands Development Centre
  This site provides publications and reports from a variety of activities and meetings.
• National Drought Mitigation Center
  The NDMC helps people and institutions both in the US and internationally develop and implement measures to reduce societal vulnerability to drought.
• New Mexico Office of the State Engineer
  This Website features the Water Administration Technical Engineering Resource System (WATERS), a database that is updated continually. Extensive water rights and water conservation information is also provided.
• The Working Group on Land Degradation and Desertification of the International Union of Soil Sciences
  This provides a great deal of information about soils and organizations which research land degradation.
• Drought Monitor Site
  Tracking drought blends science and art. No single definition of drought works for all circumstances, so people rely on drought indices to detect and measure droughts. But no single index works under all circumstances, either. That's why we need the Drought Monitor, a synthesis of multiple indices, outlooks and news accounts, that represents a consensus of federal and academic scientists. The product will be refined over time as we find ways to make it better reflect the needs of decision-makers and others who use the information.

Background information on desertification

• Desertification and Climate Change (Online article)
  This 1995 online article from Tiempo magazine addresses the complex and often uncertain links between climate change, prolonged aridification or desiccation, and desertification. Particular focus is on the Sahel.
• International: FAO Multimedia Collections on Desertification
  The Web site contains technical and scientific data and information, available at FAO, as well as links to a number of highly informative Web sites on desertification. Includes photos and videos.
• China:
  Western China Grasslands in Trouble, A July 2002 Report from U.S. Embassy Beijing
  PRC Desertification: Inner Mongolian Range Wars and the Ningxia Population Boom (online report)
  This April 1998 report from the US Embassy in Beijing discusses a human cause of desertification in Inner Mongolia: uncontrolled harvesting of fecai grass.
• Eden Foundation
  This Swedish foundation began work in Tanout, Niger in 1987, striving to improve poverty and desertification by planting native trees and shrubs. Well illustrated with many photos and articles.
  
• Advanced Agriculture as a Tool Against Desertification
  Reversing the process by which the desert invades arable land and turns it into a desolate waste is one of the most crucial challenges facing the communities and nations of arid regions. This Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs article addresses the pivotal role of water supply for agricultural purposes in the arid and semiarid regions of Israel.