UNCCD recognises importance of satellites for combating desertification (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

19 September 2007

UNCCD recognises importance of satellites for combating desertification

Desertification is a worldwide problem that poses a severe challenge to more
than 1.2 billion people in more than 100 countries. Delegates from 191
signatories to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
gathered in Madrid, Spain, from 3 to 14 September to address this problem
that affects a quarter of the Earth's land surface.

During the conference, the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties (COP 8)
of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) met to
agree upon a new 10-year plan to stem desertification and set measurable
objectives with a timeline for achieving them.

ESA has been working closely with the UNCCD secretariat for more than five
years to develop tailored and standardised information services based on
satellite observations to assess and monitor desertification and its trends
over time.

In 2004, ESA launched a satellite-based information system called
Deser****ch to work with three of the European countries most affected by
desertification -- Italy, Portugal and Turkey. In addition to helping
national and regional authorities to assess and monitor land degradation and
desertification, Deser****ch also aims to support these authorities in
reporting to the UNCCD.

Speaking at the conference, Lio Pires do Rosio of the Portuguese UNCCD
National Focal Point illustrated the Deser****ch approach as one of the best
practices related to assessing and monitoring land degradation,
vulnerability and rehabilitation.

Rosio suggested the UNCCD Committee on Science and Technology (CST) should
consider adopting Deser****ch as one of the UNCCD tools for monitoring some
of the key land degradation indicators listed in the 10-year strategic plan
and framework to enhance the implementation of the UNCCD. This proposal is
scheduled to be discussed at the next meeting of the CST in 2008.

ESA hosted a side event at the UNCCD COP entitled 'Monitoring Land
degradation from Space: the Deser****ch project'. The side event --
organised jointly by ESA and the UNCCD National Coordinating Bodies of
Portugal, Italy and Turkey -- allowed more than 80 people plus delegates
from different countries to view results from the Deser****ch project.

Deser****ch focuses on Northern Mediterranean countries, but ESA is
preparing a follow-on project that will generalise the methodology and adapt
the developed land degradation indicators for countries outside this region.
Deser****ch takes place as part of ESA's EO Data User Element (DUE).

The UNCCD was established in 1994 in the wake of the 1992 Earth Summit in
Rio de Janeiro, which recognised desertification as a major social and
environmental problem. Desertification does not so much refer to the spread
of existing deserts as the creation of new ones, through the reduction of
productivity of vulnerable dryland areas by soil deterioration and erosion
as well as the long-term loss of natural vegetation.

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