UNCCD: Drylands in Brazil and elsewhere vital for global sustainability
News Release 02/10
Bonn - Historically, socially and economically, drylands have been key regions for global sustainability. This message must be communicated to the global community, according to Brazil's Professor Antonio Rocha Magalhães, Director of the second International Conference on Climate Change, Sustainability and Development in the Semi-arid Regions (ICID 2010). The conference is scheduled to take place in August. Prof. Magalhães made the remarks as part of Brazil's delegation on a visit last Friday to concretize partnership in organizing the Conference in close collaboration with the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Welcoming the initiative from the Government of Brazil to organize and host the Conference, Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja said ICID 2010 "will go a long way towards building momentum and strong international mobilization for the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)." Gnacadja added that holding the event is particularly timely in light of the United Nations General Assembly's recent declaration of 2010-2020 as the United Nations Decade on Deserts and the Fight against Desertification.
Noting that Brazil's Amazon forest is well known, but not its drylands, the delegation stressed the need to draw attention to the importance of the well being of the drylands people in Brazil and elsewhere, and to advocate an agenda for policy development. The delegation comprised of Francisco José Pinheiro, Vice Governor of the State of Ceará, the region threatened by desertification and the State hosting the Conference, Professor Antonio Rocha Magalhães, Director of the ICID 2010 Conference, and José Roberto de Lima, Brazil's designated Technical Focal Point for the Convention in the Ministry of Environment.
The ICID 2010 will take place from 16-20 August 2010 in Fortaleza, Brazil. It is part of Brazil's preparatory process towards the implementation for the United Nations General Assembly's decision to hold in Brazil, in 2012, the World Summit on the Follow-up of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the World Summit for Sustainable Development.
The first ICID was held in the lead up to the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and brought together over 1,200 participants from all over the world. ICID 2010 is jointly sponsored by Brazil's Ministry of Environment, the Government of the State of Ceará, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Center for Management and Strategic Studies.
For more information contact:
Wagaki Mwangi
UNCCD
Hermann-Ehlers.Str.10
53113 Bonn, Germany
Tel: +49-228-815 2820
Fax:+49-228-815 2898/99
Email:arce@unccd.int.
Internet: www.unccd.int