“Imagine fields and farms of millets and sorghum covered with agroforests that increase yields and fodder production and that restore land health.”

It was with these words that Dennis Garrity, Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, proposed a radical vision for the African Drylands while speaking at the First African Drylands Week in Dakar, Senegal on 13 June 2011.

Drylands make up 40% of the world’s land area, cover more than 100 countries and provide livelihoods for 2 billion people. The world’s largest concentration of mammals, and more than 50,000 known plant and 1,500 bird species, as well as the native habitats and wild relatives of the worlds’ most widely consumed seeds are supported by dryland forests. But the long-term sustainability of dryland forests is in jeopardy due to a shortage in the investments needed to scale up the sustainable forest management practices and to support policies to prevent and reverse land degradation in the drylands, the process commonly known as desertification.

Dr. Garrity’s message to Drylands Week was backed by an unexpected source. “The ongoing greening of the Sahel and other success stories around the world show that degraded lands can be reclaimed by agroforestry and other sustainable practices,” said Ban Ki-moon in the UN Secretary General's message on World Day to Combat Desertification, 17 June. “We need to scale up these interventions.”

Later, in a provocative address to the UN’s official ceremony to mark the World Day, Dr. Garrity asked “Does desertification really frighten you? How many people see themselves as personally threatened by land degradation? Do young people actually give a thought to this?” Desertification is a process remote from most people, especially the powerful and wealthy. The people affected most are the poor and faceless in developing countries. It is a huge challenge to have the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) appreciated in the same way as the conventions on climate change and biodiversity. People see desertification as a local issue.

“We need to project our message on landscapes so that people see them as a precious resource for all humanity, of spiritual and aesthetic as well as practical value,” said Garrity. “People visiting game parks talk about the animals they have seen but do not mention the landscape that they have been in.”

“Imagine if we could see our landscapes as unique and living things that we care for. We should bring the landscape inventory alive, and develop red lists of threatened landscapes like the red lists of threatened species. Then we could see each that each landscape was protected.”

“We need to reframe the Convention to lead humanity into a much deeper appreciation of landscapes. Here’s how. When we care for something we nurture it, because our future is connected to it in some way. Can this be done? I believe so. For example, Australia is the most urbanized continent in the world, but it is also a huge agricultural power. Concern began with the massive degradation of huge areas of lands, especially salination after large-scale deforestation. A grass-roots movement took hold so that over 4000 Landcare groups now exist. Almost the entire population now supports Landcare. I propose that UNCCD be the champion of the landscapes of the world.”

“My second proposal is to create an independent scientific advisory panel for the UNCCD, to analyze the entire array of challenges that surround the Convention.”

“Third we need to systematically assess the land, using rigorous tools similar to those used in public health.” The World Agroforestry Centre has been developing widely useable surveillance methods to find out where major land health problems exist, whom they affect and where activities such as agroforestry should be directed to reduce and reverse these risks.

In concluding, Garrity called for the UNCCD to be re-framed as the Convention for Global Landcare and support for the proposal for a scientific panel on land degradation and support the rigorous assessment of common land and landscapes.

“Then we will be leading the world forward in ways to care for the land on which we depend.”

Read the press release issued by the Collaborative Partnership for Forests (of which the World Agroforestry Centre is a member) on the World Day to Combat Desertification, titled International institutions call for increased investments for the arid zone forests

Go to the UNCCD World Day to Combat Desertification website