Partnership and Collaboration Essential to Combat Desertification, UN Claims

Ramon Valcarcel, President of the Region of Murcia, Spain, meets with Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja

Bonn, 8 December 2009. “For a majority of the people in developed countries, desertification and land degradation are often considered – and erroneously so – as non-issues. Not so, for Murcia, a region in south east Spain that is highly threatened by desertification,” said Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD, following his meeting yesterday with Ramon Valcarcel, President of the Region of Murcia, Spain, Cristina Gutierrez-Cortines, Member of the European Parliament and Lucia Huertas, Head of the Regional Office of Murcia in Brussels.

Executive Secretary Gnacadja observed that “Murcia suffers from land degradation and drought, but has demonstrated that ecological agriculture can combat desertification, an expertise that is needed in the developing world, and that has potential to also fight hunger and poverty, and enhance food security.”

Building on the Convention’s ongoing work with parliamentarians, discussion focused on the possibilities for such technology transfer and on collaboration and partnership building among local government authorities in initiatives to combat desertification.

Mansour N'Diaye, Chef-de Cabinet, UNCCD (r), receives Ramon Valcarcel, President of the Region of Murcia, Spain (l), and Mrs. Cristina Gutierrez-Cortines, Member of the European Parliament (c)

Mrs Gutierrez-Cortines participated in the eighth Round Table of Parliamentarians that took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September 2009, in parallel with the ninth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD. She was elected to represent Europe for the next two years as Vice President of the Steering Committee of the UNCCD Forum for Parliamentarians.

For more information, contact:
Marcos Montoiro
UNCCD
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