ABSTRACT
Desertification includes a range of processes, such as the loss of soils through water and wind erosion, declining soil fertility, a loss of vegetative cover, increasing vulnerability to drought and a general impoverishment in the diversity of plant and animal life. The UN Conference on Desertification in 1977 was the first formal effort by the international community to examine the desertification problem and to come up with recommendations for action. It followed the harsh droughts of the Sahel and Ethiopia of 1973-74, and generated a Global Plan of Action to Combat Desertification, for which the United Nations Environment Programme was given responsibility. It is widely admitted that decentralization of land management, for example, is a good thing, because it permits decision-making to take place at a level much closer to the land user. One of the fundamental problems associated with the Convention to Combat Desertification concerns the unbalanced pattern of interests between the different parties.
