World Day to Combat Desertification

"Desertificaton and Climate Change - One Global Challenge"

The World Day to Combat Desertification is celebrated every year on June 17 all over the world in order to highlight the urgent need to curb the process of desertification and to strengthen the visibility of this serious drylands issue on the international environmental agenda.

Another environmental issue of growing urgency today is climate change. This is reflected in the theme for this year's World Day, which focuses on the important synergy between desertification and climate change. The Day will draw attention to the significant benefits of an integrated approach to tackling these two major environmental challenges.

The UNCCD is the only internationally recognized, legally binding instrument that addresses the problem of land degradation in the drylands and which enjoys a truly universal membership of 191 country Parties. It plays a key role in global efforts to eradicate poverty, achieve sustainable development and reach the Millennium Development Goals, in particular with regard to the eradication of extreme poverty. As we approach the halfway stage in the timetable for achieving these goals, the need to fully implement the Convention is becoming increasingly urgent.

17 June represents an opportunity to reinforce the message that desertification is not a fatality, that solutions exist, and that it can be effectively tackled through strengthened community participation and cooperation at all levels.

Country Parties and civil society organizations are invited to organize events to mark the World Day to Combat Desertification to help raise awareness of the problem and to encourage as broad a public as possible to become actively involved in finding solutions.