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La desertificazione nella letteratura“Quelle terre si sono andate progressivamente impoverendo; le foreste sono state tagliate, i fiumi si sono fatti torrenti, gli animali si sono diradati, invece degli alberi e dei boschi, ci si è ostinati a coltivare grano in terre inadatte. Non ci sono capitali, non c’è industria, non c’è risparmio, non ci sono scuole, l’emigrazione è diventata impossibile le tasse sono insopportabili e sproporzionate: e dappertutto regna la malaria. Tutto ciò è in buona parte il risultato delle buone intenzioni e degli sforzi dello Stato, di uno Stato che non sarà mai quello dei contadini, e che per essi ha creato soltanto miseria e deserto.”

Cristo si è fermato ad EboliCarlo Levi - 1945

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Definizione di Desertificazione secondo UNCCD

La desertificazione e’ il degrado delle terre nelle zone aride, semi-aride e secche sub-umide dovuto a varie cause fra le quali i cambiamenti climatici e le attivita’ umane

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Desertificazione

Gli ecosistemi aridi coprono un terzo del territorio mondiale. Sono terreni molto vulnerabili a causa di uno sfruttamento eccessivo, e uso inappropriato del suolo. La povertà, l’instabilità politica, la deforestazione, il sovrapascolo, e le pratiche di irrigazione inappropriate sono tra le cause principali.

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Desertificazione

La desertificazione colpisce direttamente più di 250 milioni di persone; circa un miliardo di persone in oltre 100 paesi sono a rischio. Si tratta di popolazioni tra le più povere del mondo, marginalizzate e politicamente deboli.

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UNCCD

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is one of the Post-Rio global environmental conventions that is particularly relevant to the prevention and control of land degradation, the promotion of sustainable livelihoods and the enhancement of grass-roots participation in local actions as well as in policy development and decision making at higher levels of governance. Consensus on land degradation as a global environmental and sustainable development issue, as well as the need for coordinated international action to address it, led to the adoption of the UNCCD in June 1994.

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UNCCD

191 governments had joined the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification as at September 2005. This Convention aims to promote effective action through innovative local programmes and supportive international partnerships.

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Desertificazione nel mondo

(Map: Courtesy UNESCO)

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Regional Annexes

Countries affected by desertification are implementing the Convention by developing and carrying out national, subregional, and regional action programmes. Criteria for preparing these programmes are detailed in the treaty‘s five “regional implementation annexes”: Africa (considered a priority because that is where desertification is most severe), Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Northern Mediterranean, and Central and Eastern Europe.

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Desertificazione in Africa73% di tutte le terre aride in Africa sono affette da desertificazione.

La maggior parte della popolazione vive di agricoltura e di pastorizia

La povertà è spesso causa di degrado, poiché i contadini e i pastori sono costretti a sfruttare in modo eccessivo il territorio.

Deforestazione, pratiche agricole sbabliate possono diventare cause dirette di desertificazione, aumentando la povertà e l’insicurezza alimentare in un circolo vizioso.

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L’annesso IV dell’UNCCD

The Northern Mediterranean region is a complex mosaic of diversified landscapes. It has been settled and cultivated for millennia by various cultures and civilizations. Much of the region is semi-arid and subject to seasonal droughts with high rainfall variability or sudden intense downpours. It is also marked by high population densities, heavy concentrations of industry, and intensive agriculture. Although people here often use the term “desert”, they do so in the sense of wilderness, lack of population, or isolation.

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L’annesso IV dell’UNCCDMediterranean land degradation is often linked to poor agricultural practices. Soils become salinized, dry, sterile, and unproductive in response to a combination of natural hazards - droughts, floods, forest fires - and human-controlled activities, notably overtilling and overgrazing. The situation has been aggravated by the social and economic crisis in traditional agriculture in recent years and the resulting migration of people from rural to urban areas. The result is abandoned land, particularly on marginal and easily eroded hillsides, and weakened agricultural planning and land management.

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L’annesso IV dell’UNCCDThe modern economy is also contributing to the problem. Fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, contamination by heavy metals, and the introduction of exotic (invasive) plant species is undermining the long-term health of the region‘s soils. Physical changes imposed on watercourses by the construction of reservoirs, the canalization of rivers, and the drainage of wetlands are affecting land quality. Meanwhile, groundwater levels are declining widely, resulting among other things in salt-water intrusion into coastal aquifers. Some 80 percent of the region‘s available freshwater is used for irrigation.

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L’annesso IV dell’UNCCD

Among the Northern Mediterranean affected country Parties, seven are members of the European Union. Thus the fourth regional implementation annex offers concrete opportunities for strengthening mutual cooperation and more effective national action. The European Community, France, Monaco and Israel are participating in the subregional and regional processes as observers

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L’annesso IV dell’UNCCDA subregional group (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey) has already prepared the terms of reference and is in the process of launching a Subregional Action Programme (SRAP). A regional consultative mechanism was established with the assistance of the UNCCD secretariat. At the regional level, activities are being undertaken particularly through the establishment of regional thematic networks for scientific cooperation, organization of workshop on technology and know how, development of mechanisms for exchanges of information and documentation and organization of regional training courses. In addition to intraregional cooperation, the Fourth Annex calls on its members to cooperate with other regions and subregions (Central and Eastern Europe for example), and particularly with the developing countries of Northern Africa

Livelli di interazioni tra i fattori biofisici e antropici della desertificazione

International /Global

Regional/Bilateral

Provincial

Community

National

Household

Land Manager

Globe

Continent

Land cover

Field/Ecosystem

Biome

Plant

Leaf

Management

EcosystemGood/Services

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ConclusioniIl cammino e’ appena iniziato....

Grazie per la vostra attenzioneGrazie per la vostra attenzione