Inter-American Development Bank announced today the approval of a $1 million grant to assist six countries in South America in combating desertification, the process of dryland degradation that is affecting about 25 percent of the area of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The resources from the Japan Special Fund will be used to improve the institutional capacity of the participating countries to combat socio-economic and environmental problems caused by desertification and to develop and apply the use of standard indicators to analyze the land degradation process.
The program will address the causes of desertification and contribute to its reduction.
The participating countries are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru - countries that have large extensions of arid territory exposed to desertification. The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture* in Brazil will carry out the program.
“This program is the first time that desertification indicators, as mandated by the Conference of Parties that represent the 178 countries that have signed the Convention to Combat Desertification, will be tested under field conditions,” said Carlos López Ocaña, the IDB project team leader. “Two pilot sites will be selected in each of the participating countries. The indicators from these pilot sites will not only provide an early warning system for desertification, but they will enable countries to develop policies and programs to prevent it."
Dryland degradation affects about 100 million persons in the region, most of them poor. The most common cause of desertification is inappropriate land-use practices, such as excessive grazing, cutting vegetation for fuel, soil-depleting cropping, soil salinization and poorly planned public works.
All of the IDB member countries have signed the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and the Bank has provided technical assistance grant financing to help several countries in the region develop National Action Plans to Combat Desertification and Drought.