Combat Desertification

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Seven, Number Six
September/October 1998

Call to Action:

Protect Earth's Fertility; Combat Desertification

Desertification, the gradual degradation of fertile soils primarily through human activity – erosion, overgrazing, deforestation – as well as through water loss and other factors, is leaving the land unable to grow crops or support livestock on over one-quarter of the Earth's land surface. More than 70% of agriculturally used drylands in Africa, Asia and Latin America are affected.

Desertification is linked to global climate change, loss of biodiversity, famine, malnutrition, starvation, epidemics, poverty, economic and social instability and mass migrations.

Recognizing this as a major global problem, the United Nations in June 1994 adopted the Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD). 124 countries have ratified the CCD, including every major developed nation except the United States and Japan. The treaty requires governments of affected countries to work closely with local communities to develop appropriate "bottom-up" action plans that combine effective traditional approaches to resource management with the best technical expertise available worldwide. The treaty establishes a coordinated international framework through which technical and financial resources can be targeted at the problem where it can be solved – at the local level.

No additional US foreign aid is required under the CCD. By ratifying the treaty now, the US will increase the ability of developing nations to meet the needs of their citizens, while opening new markets for its products, technology and expertise. The US could play an active role in decisions affecting the treaty's implementation during the Conference of the Parties to the Convention this November.

A bi-partisan effort to ratify the CCD treaty is being led by Senators Jim Jeffords (R-VT) and Russ Feingold (D-WI). However, the CCD must first be considered by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whose chairman Jesse Helms is reluctant to move it through committee.

Please write both your senators to bring the CCD to the Senate floor this year (by October).

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee includes senators from Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee and Wyoming. If you live in those states, it is especially important that your senators hear of your concerns now.