where governments have passed special laws declaring the NAP or programmes
related thereto as public policy that is to be followed.
18
There are other ways where the UNCCD has had if not a direct and powerful
influence of legislative frameworks that directly protect soils, then it would have at
least had and is having indirect effects. These include legislation regarding women
rights to land,
19 addressing the issues of sand and dust storms, and the development
of regional and sub-regional plans to address the questions of desertification and land
degradation.
20
At the global level, the UNCCD as a process helping to drive legislation to
support the protection of soils did not stop with the negotiation of the text of the
Convention.
On the contrary, Parties have adopted various decisions since its adoption—which
apart from being legal norms at the international level, find reception in the national
laws of many countries, especially via their NAPs and other policies and laws
designed to protect soils. Additionally, these decisions help to broaden the scope of
the entire process of soil protection by covering many related areas, including issues
of science (such as soil science) and policy (such as land tenure) and the sciencepolicy interface.
21 The last of these three is extremely relevant in this regard because
for policy to be effective it must be informed by science (facts), and for it to have true
authority, it needs the backing of law.
Notwithstanding all supra dictum, there have been serious challenges with the
implementation of the UNCCD.
22 One reason for this was that the issue of desertification was still not seen in many quarters as a global problem. However, with the
constant increase in land degradation taking place in many parts of the globe, it is
clear that sustainable land management is not an issue purely for the arid and
semiarid lands but for all lands; it has serious consequences not just for life on the
planet across the board but also for the life of the planet itself as we know it. A
different (broader) approach of addressing land degradation globally was therefore
needed, and the UNCCD elected to initiate this process, which culminated in what is
known today as Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).
Most activities for social and economic development require the use of land, which
in many cases leads to the serious depletion of the land’s productive capacity or
contributes to land degradation. This reduction in the size, and the damage and even
destruction of bio-productive lands through the change of use for other purposes
(such as mining, industrial development and housing) can also be caused -and is
indeed caused in many instances by other activities—which at a prima facie glance
may not seem to be the case. Activities like some practices of crop farming and animal
18 China Committee for the Implementation of the UNCCD (2006).
19 Mor (2018).
20 See Regional Annexes of the UNCCD.
21 United Nations (2013) United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Report of the
Conference of the Parties on its eleventh session, held in Windhoek from 16 to 27 September 2013.
22 Ambalam (2014).
6
R. Byron-Cox
related thereto as public policy that is to be followed.
18
There are other ways where the UNCCD has had if not a direct and powerful
influence of legislative frameworks that directly protect soils, then it would have at
least had and is having indirect effects. These include legislation regarding women
rights to land,
19 addressing the issues of sand and dust storms, and the development
of regional and sub-regional plans to address the questions of desertification and land
degradation.
20
At the global level, the UNCCD as a process helping to drive legislation to
support the protection of soils did not stop with the negotiation of the text of the
Convention.
On the contrary, Parties have adopted various decisions since its adoption—which
apart from being legal norms at the international level, find reception in the national
laws of many countries, especially via their NAPs and other policies and laws
designed to protect soils. Additionally, these decisions help to broaden the scope of
the entire process of soil protection by covering many related areas, including issues
of science (such as soil science) and policy (such as land tenure) and the sciencepolicy interface.
21 The last of these three is extremely relevant in this regard because
for policy to be effective it must be informed by science (facts), and for it to have true
authority, it needs the backing of law.
Notwithstanding all supra dictum, there have been serious challenges with the
implementation of the UNCCD.
22 One reason for this was that the issue of desertification was still not seen in many quarters as a global problem. However, with the
constant increase in land degradation taking place in many parts of the globe, it is
clear that sustainable land management is not an issue purely for the arid and
semiarid lands but for all lands; it has serious consequences not just for life on the
planet across the board but also for the life of the planet itself as we know it. A
different (broader) approach of addressing land degradation globally was therefore
needed, and the UNCCD elected to initiate this process, which culminated in what is
known today as Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).
Most activities for social and economic development require the use of land, which
in many cases leads to the serious depletion of the land’s productive capacity or
contributes to land degradation. This reduction in the size, and the damage and even
destruction of bio-productive lands through the change of use for other purposes
(such as mining, industrial development and housing) can also be caused -and is
indeed caused in many instances by other activities—which at a prima facie glance
may not seem to be the case. Activities like some practices of crop farming and animal
18 China Committee for the Implementation of the UNCCD (2006).
19 Mor (2018).
20 See Regional Annexes of the UNCCD.
21 United Nations (2013) United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Report of the
Conference of the Parties on its eleventh session, held in Windhoek from 16 to 27 September 2013.
22 Ambalam (2014).
6
R. Byron-Cox