Woman walks in desert with child in her arms.
The SDC is committed to preserving soil fertility, forest and water resources in countries affected by desertification. ©CGIAR

Desertification and soil erosion cause the land to lose vital elements such as nutrients and minerals. As a result, people lose their means of agricultural production, their source of food and income, and even their entire livelihoods. In a bid to prevent this, the SDC works to promote sustainable land, forest and water management in affected areas.

The SDC's focus

The SDC supports the preservation of soil fertility and water resources through sustainable agriculture and forest management, primarily in arid regions such as the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia. It imparts knowledge, supports research projects and provides assistance with institutional reforms. The SDC's activities to combat desertification and soil erosion include the following:

Protecting pasture land

In Mongolia, one of the countries most affected by desertification, the SDC has been working to protect pasture land since 2004. It promotes pasture user groups (PUGs), groups of herders that jointly manage grazing lands. The local government grants PUGs the rights to use the land. These groups draw up pasture management plans and use the meadows in rotation. PUGs are independent bodies increasingly recognised and supported by local governments. To date, 960 PUGs and 67 marketing cooperatives have been supported by the Green Gold project, involving more than 53,000 herder households (30% of all herder households in the country).

Sustainable forestry

Charcoal is an important fuel in many developing countries. Its production requires large quantities of wood, which can lead to deforestation, soil erosion and, ultimately, desertification. Sustainable forest management and the energy-efficient production of charcoal are measures that can be introduced to prevent desertification.

In Tanzania, the SDC supports a project called Transforming Tanzania's Charcoal Sector, in which residents of eight villages in the district of Kilosa draw up plans to manage the forest and carry them out on a community basis. At the same time, they are taught how to produce charcoal sustainably. As well as protecting the forest and wood resources, this also improves the quality of the charcoal, leading to higher incomes for charcoal producers.

Convention to Combat Desertification

Switzerland, represented by the SDC, has been actively involved in the design and implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The primary objective of the Convention is to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought, particularly in Africa, through effective action at all levels.

WOCAT – Sharing information on sustainable land management

The SDC supports the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), a global network led by the University of Bern's Centre for Development and Environment. Partners collect, evaluate and document information about sustainable land management (SLM) technologies and approaches, in particular in areas severely affected by desertification and drought. The data is used to facilitate decision-making on land use and to combat erosion, among other purposes.

Since early 2014, WOCAT has been recognised by the UNCCD as the global platform for documenting SLM best practices. WOCAT supports the 197 signatory countries in sharing their land management practices on the platform so that they can learn from each other quickly and easily. The SDC, for example, shares successful practices and valuable know-how on combating desertification, in a quick and cost-effective way.

Background

During desertification, the natural potential of the land deteriorates, meaning that it loses productivity, biological diversity and its ability to regenerate. The UNCCD thus defines desertification as 'land degradation'. The climatic and human factors of overgrazing, overexploitation, deforestation and unsustainable or environmentally-damaging irrigation systems contribute to desertification.

Approximately one third of the world's agricultural land has degraded. Every year, 12 million hectares are lost to desertification, an area three times the size of Switzerland. 2.7 billion people suffer from the ecological, economic and social consequences of desertification and soil erosion. Desertification is often linked to the poverty of the people living in the affected areas. In order to survive, the only option they have is to overexploit the land. Other contributing factors to overexploitation are international market imperatives and a lack of awareness about natural resources in some regions.

Switzerland ratified the UNCCD in 1996. It is the only legally binding document linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The 197 parties to the Convention work to improve the living conditions for people in drylands, to maintain and restore land and soil productivity, and to mitigate the effects of drought.

The UNCCD recommends a bottom-up approach to achieve its objectives, encouraging the participation of local people in combating desertification. The two other UN conventions agreed at the 1992 Earth Summit – the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – are also crucial to the fight against desertification.

Documents

Current projects

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BLOOOM: Agricultural Technology for the Bottom of the Pyramid

01.02.2019 - 31.12.2023

Blooom, a newly founded social enterprise provides innovative digital solutions to connect smallholder farmers to input suppliers and consumers. Smallholders get access to information, financing, local and international markets via mobile phone technology. In this public private development partnership, Swiss support serves to expand Blooom’s services to smallholder farmers in low income countries in which the risks of entry for private sector companies are generally too high, including countries in Africa.


Program Contribution to Brücke – Le Pont 2019 - 2020

01.01.2019 - 31.12.2021

Brücke-Le pont is an independent organization established by Travail.Suisse and the Catholic workers' movement (KAB). It has a strong support base in Switzerland and more than 60 years of experience in development cooperation in the South. Its program "Decent Work” includes some 30 projects in Togo, Benin, Salvador, Honduras, Brazil and Bolivia. The programme improves lives of disadvantaged people through vocational trainings, improved access to the labour market, income generation and improved respect of labour rights.


Social Accountability Programme 2019 - 2022

01.01.2019 - 31.12.2022

Against the backdrop of shrinking civic space in Tanzania, the Social Accountability Program supports four key accountability Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the country. It aims to enhance transparency and accountability of public resource management at national and local level and to empower citizens – including youth and women - and local organizations to engage effectively in public oversight, decision making and advocacy on social issues of concern.


Contribution au Club du Sahel et de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CSAO)

01.01.2019 - 31.12.2022

L’Afrique de l’Ouest est confrontée à d’énormes défis : insécurité alimentaire chronique, pauvreté élevée, insécurités, emplois des jeunes, extrémisme violent etc. Le Club du Sahel et de l’Afrique de l’Ouest est une plateforme internationale unique qui nourrit par ses analyses et ses recommandations la prise de décision des acteurs politiques et de développement de la région afin de mieux traiter ces défis. L’appui de la DDC contribuera ainsi à la sécurité alimentaire et la stabilité de la région



Regional Economic Development Program, Cambodia

01.01.2019 - 31.12.2021

The Regional Economic Development (RED IV) program, co-financed by Switzerland and Germany, will be implemented in three north-western provinces of Cambodia. It aims at strengthening the capacity of sub-national and local governments to tackle economic development measures and supporting rural poor, in particular women, to increase their income and actively participate in local economic development, thereby reducing poverty of the rural population.


Programme de Valorisation du Potentiel Agro-Pastoral dans l’Est du Burkina Faso (VALPAPE) Phase 2

01.01.2019 - 31.12.2022

La région de l’Est du Burkina Faso, malgré un fort potentiel agropastoral, reste l’une des plus pauvres du pays. Le programme va soutenir des dynamiques de développement local par la valorisation durable des potentialités agropastorales pour la création d’emploi et la génération de revenu, en particulier pour les jeunes et les femmes. En réduisant leur vulnérabilité face à l’insécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle, la migration et l’extrémisme violent, le programme promeut la stabilité et soutient les intérêts de la Suisse.


Improving Food Security and Land Governance through investment standards

01.01.2019 - 31.12.2023

Investment in agriculture is needed to feed a growing global population. These investments need to respect the situation of the local population and the environment. Switzerland chaired the drafting process of the Principles on Responsible Agricultural Investments that have been adopted by the Committee on World Food Security. Consequently Switzerland supports the application of the Principles by training development country stakeholders in the negotiation and application of sustainable investment frameworks to increase food security for the poorest populations.


Somalia Information and Resilience Building Action (SIRA)

10.12.2018 - 30.11.2022

The Somali population has remained chronically food insecure over the years with acute emergency needs during the cyclic drought periods. Switzerland contributes, through its support to enhanced fodder production and income, to the longer-term resilience building of the Somali communities. By supporting the provision of information and data for decision making, the formulation of evidence-based policy making and the use of the data for increased protection and resilience will enhanced.


Agriculture Census 2020

01.12.2018 - 31.12.2022

Switzerland will support the realization of the Agriculture Census in 2020 through contributing to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). Updated and accurate data on agriculture holdings is an enabling tool for public and private investment as well as to plan and monitor relevant developments in the agriculture sector, in accordance with the National Policy Agenda (2017-2022). This project will offer opportunities to engage Swiss expertise in the domain of statistics and agriculture.


Enhancing security coordination and local contextual understanding to increase humanitarian access

01.12.2018 - 30.11.2020

This project aims at enhancing security coordination and local contextual understanding to increase humanitarian access to insecure locations both inside and outside of Protection of Civilian (PoC) sites. Through enhanced understanding of the context, operational threats can be better mitigated by NGOs, facilitating scale-up of programme and service delivery to the affected population in South Sudan’s Upper Nile and Unity States.


Long-term farming system comparisons in the tropics

01.12.2018 - 31.12.2022

Conventional agriculture based on high external inputs resulted in productivity increases but has high negative external costs. Alternative systems exist but information on their performance is scarce. This long-term system comparison led by the Swiss Research Institute for Organic Agriculture provides scientific evidence on the productivity, profitability and environmental impacts of organic agriculture compared to conventional agriculture in four production systems of the tropics.

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