Consider the history of Lake Chad as an ecample of the desertification problem in the region.
In Kazakhstan desertification has meant that nearly 50 percent of cropland has been abandoned since 1980.
The other two Rio conventions, on biological diversity and combating desertification, have proved equally disappointing.
"I saw what is now known as the desertification, the encroachment of the desert, " he remembers.
As a consequence of extreme water shortages, China suffers from, among other things, subsidence, sandstorms, and desertification.
Other than stopping desertification and erosion, the wall would also provide a catalyst for a multifaceted international economic and environmental program.
He is now focused on restoring grazing herds to reverse this desertification.
"Without strong efforts to reverse desertification, some of the gains we've seen in development in these regions may be reversed, " he said.
Another pressing issue: dwindling water supplies and desertification, particularly in developing countries.
The climate is worsening, with deforestation and desertification still on the march.
By the mid 2000s a third of Spain was at risk from desertification due to agriculture, tourism and of course climate change.
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These resources helps in building the resilience and adaptation of local communities, to the impact of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, desertification, low productivity, etc.
In 1999, after his second solo expedition across the Sahara, he realized he had to do something to help the people affected by desertification.
But desertification is not limited to China and it is fast becoming a serious global problem that will only be exacerbated by climate change.
Man lived in this area before the last desertification or before the drastic climatic changes ended with the hot dry conditions and development of deserts.
"Desertification has emerged as a global problem affecting everyone, " said Adeel.
At the meeting, member countries will also for the first time be required to submit data on poverty and land cover in areas impacted by desertification.
The series of 27 panels uses satellite images to show the threats facing these unique places, including shrinking glaciers, coral bleaching, disappearing permafrost, desertification and floods.
But Ma doubts the authorities' ad hoc approach -- such as shutting down factories and construction sites to reduce air pollution -- would work in combating desertification.
The report said that that up to 20 percent of those areas had already suffered some loss of plant life or economic use as a consequence of desertification.
Water pollution, soil erosion, deforestation and desertification in the north, where rivers are drying up, have contributed to an estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949.
Dangers like desertification and sea-level rise are also expected to hit the energy-intensive kingdom especially hard, making it an example of both the causes and effects of global warming.
Canada's withdrawal comes ahead of a major convention in Bonn, Germany, "to carry out the first ever comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of desertification, land degradation and drought", the UN Environment Programme said.
Desertification has also been linked to health problems caused by dust storms, poverty and a drop in farm production, with infant mortality in drylands double the rate elsewhere in developing nations.
As a result we risk expanding desertification, food shortages, increased storm intensities, loss of coral reefs and the disappearance of mountain glaciers that supply water to hundreds of millions of people.
Due to the consequences of the environmental crisis in Aral Sea region such as poor soil conditions, intensive desertification and land degradation, the farmers and dehkhans often face a plenty of problems.
But Zafar Adeel of the United Nations University International Network on Water, Environment and Health, an expert on water management and a leading author of the report, warned that more needed to be done to combat desertification.
It was first developed and launched by UNESCO in 2000 in collaboration with the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to respond to the need to raise public awareness of this pressing environmental problem.
Conventions on Biodiversity and Combating Desertification.
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