Following is the text of the press release. The fourth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification will take place in Bonn from 11 to 22 December. Government representatives will discuss further action needed to halt land degradation, in the world's drylands. Land degradation in its worst form is desertification, the transfer of arable land into unproductive, dead soil. Land degradation is about people.
People cause and suffer from it.
Unsustainable land management practices caused by either inadequate techniques or increasing population pressure will enhance degradation of land especially in susceptible drylands. UNEP, being one of two United Nations agencies headquartered in Africa, has witnessed the consequences first hand. Environmental refugees, who flee the miserable conditions created by the vicious cycle of unfertile land, droughts, decreasing production and subsequent over-use of land, are the first victims of desertification. Equivalent numbers account for Asia and South America. Desertification affects in total, the lives of one-sixth of the world's population.