Ten years ago the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) formally recognized an intricate process of land degradation that had been plaguing mankind for thousands of years. The term desertification was given to this process. In earlier times man adapted to desertification by moving to better places.

This is rarely possible today and communities are more often forced to suffer the consequences — in the worst cases, starvation and uncontrolled migration into camps and urban slums. UNEP is charged with following up the implementation of UNCOD's Plan of Action to Combat Desertification.

This article looks at UNCOD and gives an overview of what UNEP has been doing — and plans to do — to combat desertification.