Desertification became an issue on the international agenda in the 1970s only. After a long and devastating drought period in Sub-Saharan Africa, more precisely in the Sahel, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, which caused the death of over 200 million people and several millions of animals, the Inter-State Permanent Committee on Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) was established by nine Sahelian countries in September 1973 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, as a first inter-governmental institutional step.

The concept ‘desertification’ reverts back to the works of the French researcher Aubreville, who, in 1949, introduced it for the process of loss of vegetation cover. Although quite some research on the ecology and economy of dryland zones had been undertaken by UNESCO, WMO and FAO in the 1960s, the term desertification was first applied politically during the Sahel crisis in the 70s, and mentioned as a terminus technicus in 1974 as part of the UN General Assembly’s resolution 29/337, initiated by Burkina Faso, which called for the convocation of UNCOD.

Table of contents:
Historical milestones and terms of reference
On the socio-economic aspects of desertification: environmental migration and environmental refugees UNCCD as a tool for sustainable development
The bottom-up approach as UNCCD