The battle against land degradation,

desertification and drought

Produced by National Capacity Self Assessment Project

Copyright 2006

ISBN 0000000000

First Edition, January 2006

Cover Art and Book Design -Charles Chavannes

This book is funded through the National Capacity Self Assessment Project
(NCSA) with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through
the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Published and Printed by BRC printing.

 Introduction
It is no accident that our planet is called Earth. All life depends on the fragile, thin crust
of soil that coats the continents. Without it living organisms would never have emerged
from the oceans: there would be no plants, no crops, no forests, no animals - and no people.

If mistreated, it can be blown and washed away in a few seasons. The earth is rapidly
vanishing. It is estimated that each year continents lose 24 billion tonnes of topsoil.

Nowhere is the degradation more acute than in the drylands which cover more than a
third of the earth’s surface. It is here that *desertification takes hold and although **land
degradation occurs everywhere it is only defined as desertification when it occurs in
drylands.

Nobody knows how many people have already had to abandon their homes as it turns
into dust, but it runs into the millions.

While the newly landless follow their soil as it blows away in the wind, areas and
countries far distant are affected by their migration.

But the poor know more than anyone else about the fragile ecosystem from which they
have made a living for so long. They should be the key to combating desertification.
The Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) adopts the definition of
desertification agreed by the world’s leaders at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 - which
blames both climatic variations and human activities. It adds that “desertification is
caused by complex interactions among physical, biological, political, social, cultural and
economic factors”.

Four human activities are usually the immediate causes: over cultivation, overgrazing,
deforestation and poorly drained irrigation.

* Desertification: Land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors
including climatic variations and human activities.(UNCCD-1992)

** "Land Degradation" means the reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rain
fed cropland, irrigated cropland or range, pasture, forests and woodlands resulting from unsustainable land use
practices.

1
 National Capacity Self-Assessment
Belize's rich ecosystems of forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, and agricultural landscapes,
while providing us with the goods and services that sustain our lives, are vulnerable to environmental
disasters and impacted by increased human activities.
Recognizing this, Belize became a part of a global effort to protect our natural resources when it
joined other countries in ratifying the three Rio Conventions: the United Nations Convention on
Biological Diversity, the United Nations Convention on Desertification/Land Degradation and
Drought, as well as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These three Rio
Conventions call for an integrated approach towards the development and sustainable management
of Belize's natural resources and ecosystems.
Like many developing countries, Belize is faced with some fundamental challenges in meeting its
commitments under these Conventions, particularly to mainstream conservation and sustainable
development goals across all sectors of the national economy, as well as building capacity to meet our
obligations under these Conventions.

To meet its national and global environmental management commitments, Belize launched the
National Capacity Self Assessment (NCSA), with funding from the Global Environmental Facility
(GEF) through the UNDP. This one-year project was launched in February 2005 and allowed Belize
to thoroughly self-assess and strategically analyze its national capacity priorities and needs to meet
its commitments to these global Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), known as the Rio
Conventions.

Over the past months, the NCSA project assessed Belize's current capacity to address the
coordination of all activities taking place in-country on issues of Environmental and Natural
Resource Management. As a country driven project, the NCSA also produced several outputs,
particularly towards the development of a comprehensive national strategy and action plan,
developing synergies between the three conventions, strengthening cooperation among stakeholders
and enhancing public awareness.

By taking the cohesive approach, attracting individuals at all levels to become involved in the project,
the NCSA has also stepped up coordination and communication towards a common agenda. The
project has unveiled two final reports, namely the NCSA National Report and the NCSA Action Plan,
which are based on the stock-take and thematic assessments, as well as an assessment on the legal
and cross cutting issues on these Rio Conventions. These reports will map the way forward for Belize
to build its capacity to eliminate the various constraints to meeting its obligations under these three
Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements (MEAS).

This comic book is published to create awareness on the main articles of the United Nations
Convention to Combat Desertification (Land Degradation and Drought) focusing on the youth.

2
The coming

Terror
Of land degradation, drought
and desertification

3
 The Cast

“Gingy”fly

“Anansi” spider

And a host of characters

too numerous to mention

4
 Of the more 450 million people living in Latin America
and the Caribbean close to 110 million live in poverty.

Hmph! I wonder
where we’re going
now?

It is sad to see They had been

farmer Cowoh and struggling for
his family leave sometime now.
their land.

5
 Drought
Nature has dries
its effect
on the land. the land.

Rains
Winds wash away
blow away anything that
can be washed
drytop-soil. away.

6
Everybody in Belize
knows me, Anansi, But listen to me
to be a trickster. now, this is no joke!

In many parts of the world “drylands” are becoming degraded and are in danger of
becoming deserts.

Drylands under proper management are quite capable of sustaining crops,

vegetation and human settlement.

7
 But close to 40% These drylands are
of the world’s important for agriculture
land surface in the world.
is drylands.

...However poor farming

practices are
causing...
...My yield to be less
and less each year.

8
Deforestation, agricultural growth,
land development, and cattle
farming, big and small...

...Has put added

pressure on the land.

Hi
there.

9
 ...Too much burning of firewood to ...Milpa farming without adequate
make white-lime.... soil replenishment...

These are some

of the things that
...Cutting down hillsides
destroy the watershed...
to plant crops.

10
...And cause the Unproductive land
land to be is a root cause of
less productive. poverty.

...Even famine.

11
 Well ,just imagine
How is it that what would
deforestation leads to
hunger and famine? happen...

Like white
...If all the wood lime kilns?
had been cut for
burning in fire-hearths.

12
 Guys, guys, The developed
cutting down all the countries began
trees for firewood is to study the
causing us all a practices of the
problem. under developed
countries.

No silly, they studied how

They found So they held people’s lives and practices
serious problems. can cause
a Summit. land degradation.

Like on
a hill?

13
 ...And Yes, poverty causes
people to squeeze
desertification? every ounce of yield
from the land.

Education enables Sure you not

people to find better Like cooking with
interested in a
ways of doing things ... the LORENA stove veggie diet?
or the SOLAR-BOX
cooker.

14
 The women in many They are also
poor countries the ones who know
shoulder the weight of best what is really needed
that country’s poverty. to relieve their poverty.

Fooh!
Fooh!

So a bottom-up approach,
in which women are asked to
participate in solving their
problems,is wise indeed.

15
 Teaching people
about changes in their
climate and how to recognize
early warning signs...

...Helps them prepare

for and so defend against
the sometimes unavoidable
forces of nature like flooding. ...Are you a Weh yu tink?
force of nature,
Anansi?

Like all the hurricaines

in 2005...all the land loss
and loss of life?

16
 But I am no
...Or disregard
match for
...Or hurricane... for the land.
drought...

Can we talk Don’t eat me!

I'll be your friend!
about this? I’ll...I’ll help you
catch more flies!
WAAAAAAA!

17
 See, with dialogue Hey...
Now there’s a proposition we can solve I’m that kind
I can live with. everything. of guy.

Developed countries
dialogue with the poor
countries and find out
the best way for
help to be rendered.

18
 Belize seems less Well..., not like those
affected by the poverty parts of the world where
driven issues that deserts are being
cause desertification...yes? formed constantly.

You know...I don’t

I guess we can relax really think so.
then?

19
 Children’s coloring page

...But don’t
You can
color outside destroy our
the line... land or waste
water.

“Gingy” fly
Anansi

20
 Glossary
-DESERTIFICATION: Land degradation in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas resulting from various factors,
including climatic variations and human activities.

-LAND DEGRADATION: Signifies the temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land.
(UN/FAO)

-DROUGHT: A prolonged, abnormally dry period when there is not enough water for users' normal needs.

-DEGRADED: Formerly forested lands severely impacted by intensive and/or repeated disturbance (such as
mining, repeated fires or overgrazing) with consequently inhibited or delayed forest regrowth.

-DESERTIFIED: Land that has been rendered unproductive due to over cultivation, overgrazing and urbanization.

-DRYLANDS: The definition of drylands most commonly used by FAO is of lands having less than 120 growing
days per year.

-SEMI-ARID: Areas in which the ratio of annual precipitation to evapotranspiration fall within the range 0.05" to
0.65".

-SUB-HUMID CLIMATE: Fairly dry and characterized by short hot summers but long, cold winters.

-WATERSHED: All the land area that drains to a given body of water. We live in a watershed that ultimately drains
into the Caribbean sea.

-DEFORESTATION: The conversion of forested areas to non-forest.

-YIELD: The production rate per cycle of production.

-"LORENA" STOVE : From the Spanish words "lodo" and "arena" meaning mud and sand respectively is the
name given to an economic and efficient wood burning stove made from mud bricks.

-"SOLAR BOX" COOKER: A simple device using reflective material to harness solar energy to produce heat for
cooking.

-BOTTOM-UP APPROACH: The opposite of a top-down approach to problem solving where solutions are
provided for a group of people in need of assistance, in contrast these people are recruited to provide inputs to solve
their own problems.