UN General Assembly
2011

11-51372 2 In addition, we consider it crucial to take an approach focused on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases worldwide, especially in the context of the challenges faced by developing countries. Let me offer a few special words regarding the development of themes such as desertification, land degradation and drought in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication in preparation for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, scheduled for June 2012, which we strongly and actively support. One of the most decisive actions taken by independent Cape Verde, soon after 1975, was reforestation, along with orographic correction and the mobilization of water. As a small island developing State at the crossroads of two large regions — the Sahel and Macaronesia — and suffering the effects of the most stringent climatic randomness of one region and the oceanic isolation of the other, Cape Verde is conscious of the importance of the green as well as the blue economy to the objective of sustainable development. We need the United Nations to work out our part