NEWS RELEASE

GOVERNMENTS NEED TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO FORGOTTEN PASTORALISTS, SAY UNDP, THE GEF AND THE WORLD CONSERVATION UNION

Nairobi, Kenya (UNDP/IUCN) – Increasing encroachment on the livelihoods of pastoralists, as a result of the rapid conversion of rangelands to crops and other uses, and the rapid decline of natural resources such as food, forage, fuel wood and fresh water in drylands, requires urgent measures from governments.
That is the recommendation of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) to the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) taking place in Nairobi, Kenya this week.

Drylands cover 41% of the earth’s surface and are inhabited by two billion people. Dryland populations belong to the poorest people in the world, and one billion of them depend directly on the natural resources they provide - food, forage, fuelwood and freshwater. Sustainable development of the world’s drylands is therefore essential if the global community is to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. On the occasion of United Nations Day, Olav Kjorven, Director of UNDP’s Energy and Environment Group, encouraged country parties at the High Level Segment of the UNCCD COP7 to adopt a programme of work on rangelands and sustainable pastoralism to recognize the rights of the poor.

Pastoralism – the herding of cows, goats, sheep and camels - has been the dominant way to make a living in most of the drylands. When water and fodder become scarce in the grazing area, pastoralists move to the next grazing ground, giving the lands left behind ample time to regenerate. Pastoralism thus effectively combines human survival with the conservation of natural resources.
Yet, development planners have in the past marginalized and discriminated against pastoralist communities, in favour of farming, intensive agricultural production and in some cases protected areas. Intensive agricultural production has in many cases aggravated land and soil degradation and thus reduced the ability of pastoralists to survive in long dry and drought periods and in consequence contributed to deepening poverty.

The government representatives at the UNCCD meeting have the opportunity to address these challenges.

This week, they should devise measures to empower pastoralists to resolve the increasing conflicts they are facing. This will require devolving authority to local resource user groups, recognizing and building on customary land tenure and rights systems, reducing impediments to mobility of livestock and empowering women.

To that end, IUCN together with the UNDP-GEF World Initiative on Sustainable Pastoralism, ICRAF, and the World Alliance for Mobile and Indigenous Peoples, facilitated the participation of pastoralist communities at the UNCCD. For the first time, representatives of pastoralists had the opportunity to raise their concerns to high-level government and NGO representatives at a UNCCD CoP. His Excellency Mr. Hama Arba Diallo, UNCCD Executive Secretary, himself with a pastoralist background, showed great interest and said, “the 2006 UN International Year of Deserts and Desertification will certainly provide many opportunities to replicate this first step of the participation of pastoralists at the UNCCD.”

The enhanced participation of pastoralists will hopefully increase recognition amongst governments to their specific needs, and then be manifested in appropriate laws, policies, programmes and budgets. Lucy Mulenkei, a pastoralist representative from Kenya stressed the need to recognize pastoralism as a viable and sustainable way of life that contributes to national economic development, sustainable development and conservation.

On the UNCCD

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is an international mechanism to address land degradation and desertification. Government and NGO representatives are gathering from the 17 to the 28 of October in Nairobi to discuss future steps to be taken by the signatory countries.

For more information contact:
Maryam Niamir-Fuller: Maryam.niamir-fuller@undp.org
Web://www.undp.org/gef

Edmund Barrow: Edmund.barrow@iucn.org

Carolin Wahnbaeck, Media Relations Officer, Tel. +41 22 999 0127; Fax: +41 22 999 0020; carolin.wahnbaeck@iucn.org;
Web: www.iucn.org/ecosystems