Environmentalists and government officials from 50 countries will meet on 5-8 March in the Cape Verde capital, Praia, to assess progress since the 1992 UN Convention on Fighting Desertification, and prepare for an Agenda 21 summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa in August, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) reported.
News agencies on Thursday quoted Cape Verde's executive secretary for the environment, Manuel Leao Carvalho, as saying that the Forum on the implementation of the UNCCD preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held from 22 August to 4 September, would seek "to mobilise financial resources" for the fight against desertification and poverty.
Desertification and land degradation affect more than 100 countries, including most of West Africa, and threaten the livelihoods of over 1.2 billion people. Of these, 135 million are at risk of being displaced.
The UNCCD was adopted on 17 June 1994 as an instrument that focuses on critical poverty-environment linkages and sustainable development.
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