Sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 6) of the United Nations Convention
Havana, Cuba, 25 August- 2 September 2003

Farmers are the main victims of desertification and yet, their participation as key players to solve this problem is poorly reflected in the UN Convention on the Fight Against Desertification (UNCCD).

For IFAP, the fight against desertification is an important component to eradicating poverty and achieving sustainable agriculture. For the first time, IFAP participated in Conference of the Parties (COP 6) of this United Nations Convention at its Sixth session in Havana, Cuba, August/ September 2003, represented by its President, Jack Wilkinson, its Nicaragua member organisation UNAG (Ramon Sequeira), as well by its Secretariat (Nora Ourabah).

IFAP’s participation marked the opening up of the Convention to input by farmers. The text of the report of the meeting clearly emphasised the necessity to consider Farmers as important actors in the implementation of the UNCCD. As CCD Secretary Executive Arba Diallo pointed out, participation of Civil Society in an effective and efficient manner is fundamental for the successful implementation of the Convention. “ Who is the steward of the land that you are trying to protect from desertification?” said Mr. Wilkinson while addressing ministers and major international donor agencies on the importance of focusing on farmers as the main safe guardians of the natural resources.

This Sixth session of the Conference of the Parties it marked a turning point in the way Desertification is currently been looked at. As a result of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002, the UNCCD has been since recognised as a “Development Convention” rather than being limited to an Environmental Convention dealing with Land Degradation. In other words, the ‘COP desertification’ is now understood in its environmental as well as its socio-economic dimensions.

Until now, the UNCCD, signed in 1994 and ratified by 186 countries, has been put aside and benefited from little attention in terms of funding mechanisms, in comparison with its two other UN sister Conventions, namely the Biodiversity Convention and the Climate Change Convention.

The question now is to use the framework provided by the Convention to find concrete ways and means to achieve the targets set by the UN Millennium Development Goals. Different bodies of the Convention met during the first week of COP 6, including the Committee for Science and Technology (CST), the Committee of the Review for the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC) as well as the Conference of the Whole (COW). They discussed such issues as the setting up of appropriate indicators to measure the impacts of desertification, what kind of monitoring and evaluation processes have to be used and so forth.

Jack Wilkinson took part in a high level inter-agency panel including the heads of International agencies which addressed Ministers from member countries on the following subject: “The UNCCD, a new opportunity for an enhanced framework of cooperation in Official Development Aid (ODA) funding for the promotion of sustainable development in arid ecosystems”.

The IFAP President, in a straightforward style, challenged ministers and donors agencies on the “ability of farmers’ organisations to be put at the centre of such resolutions as the UNCCD”. He also pointed out the slow progress in implementing development activities and the lack of involvement of farmers as central actors of these activities. The result is that they end up leaving their farms and countryside leading to land degradation.

According to Mr. Wilkinson, this trend has to be reversed by focusing development activities on the farmers and agriculture, allocating additional resources and stopping cutbacks from governments to this sector. Extension services are critical to the farmer. He advocated the need to introduce and transfer technology by the farmer himself and quoted a good practice in Canada as an illustration “The farmer was at the centre of the activity and saw the benefits of making changes happen”.

Other panellists recognised the need for in-depth collaboration to build synergies between the three UN environmental conventions and enhance complementarities.

The need for an integrated approach in tackling the funding issue of the Convention was also one the main issues of this round table. IFAD highlighted the importance of integrating rural development in ODA and the Millennium Development Goals as the main framework for development funding. IFAD President added that the Global Mechanism (GM), which is a facilitation financial tool for the UNCCD implementation, is housed by IFAD. The GM will be able to work with more focused and measurable targets. The World Bank posed the challenge of integrating its major policy paper issues that have direct relevance to the UNCCD.

As an illustration of the importance of recognising local actors’ involvement in the fight against desertification, IFAP took part in a Side event organised by the GTD, a working group on desertification, which includes diverse French based NGOs along with IFAP. This Side event was entitled “How to implement partnerships in order to combat desertification”.

This well attended session (60-70 participants) was co-chaired by both UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Diallo and the Ambassador of France, Mr. Levy.

The Ambassador of France paid tribute to the different organisations that illustrate the different practices in combating desertification by French based NGO’s. Mr. Diallo paid tribute to France for its efforts in strengthening collaboration with civil society organisations and considered this side event as a good indicator of what is being done locally to combat desertification. “We think that these experiences should be strengthened and replicated if they are to become well known”. He also recalled IFAP participation in the high level inter-agency panel.

IFAP representative, Mr. Ramon Sequeira from UNAG, Nicaragua, made a comprehensive presentation on a farmer- to-farmer program in Nicaragua called “Campesino a Campesino”. This example of good practice is part of a survey which IFAP is currently undertaking amongst its member organisations in order to identify the best practices used by farmers around the world in their daily fight against desertification. The objective of this project is to compile case studies to describe and valorise farmers’ experiences in the field.

The first part of the presentation dealt with the “Campesino a Campesino” (PcaC) program, an innovative program developed by the National Union of Farmers and Breeders of Nicaragua (UNAG) in 1987, in response to land degradation.

This innovative program proposes to small farmers diverse sustainable technologies using natural resources and local conditions. It encourages the active participation of rural communities and the transfer of know-how. It offers low cost, efficient and simple practices. This approach makes it possible to reduce long-term production costs, although the projects are initially labour intensive.

Despite success stories such as the one described above, the study seems to conclude that, generally speaking, answers to combat desertification are limited to the local level. There is a lack of global perspective and a lack of long-term strategies aiming at combating desertification in a sustainable and efficient way.

The presentation ended with open questions related to farmers participation in the elaboration of natural resource management projects, the enhancement of local knowledge, implementation of follow up and monitoring systems. All these questions aimed at warming up the discussion on the role of farmers in the fight against desertification and the link with the implementation of the UNCCD.

After hearing the presentations and discussions, there was agreement on the urgency of following the agreements with serious implementation mechanisms focused on concrete results. The question of making existing financial mechanisms accessible to civil society organisations still needs to be solved.

Can we talk about a successful COP6 if participants do not unanimously recognise the central role of farmers and agriculture in the fight against the plague of desertification? IFAP has initiated the debate and challenged Ministers and the international community to put agriculture as a priority in defeating desertification.