This document is aimed at the general public and provides an overview of Germany’s commitment to implementing the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.It is based largely on the latest biennial German national report in which Germany, party to the UNCCD and host state of the UNCCD Secretariat in Bonn, describes the measures taken in 2010 and 2011 to support the implementation of the Convention.Germany has recognised the scale of the global desertification problem and has taken action. The Federal Republic is one of the largest donors in this field, and supported almost 1,000 projects in the partner countries affected by desertification in 2010 and 2011.To ensure long-term success,
these projects operate at international, national and local level. Their work involves introducing and promoting technical measures and creating an enabling environment for these measures. Measures to combat desertification are predominantly not implemented as individual projects, but are an integral part of German development cooperation projects and programmes in areas such as rural development and food security, watershed management, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem service maintenance, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.