Established in 1994, UNCCD is the sole legally-binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found. In line with Article 23 of the UNCCD, the key function of the secretariat is to service the sessions of the COP and its subsidiary bodies.
The Master's programme in Remote Sensing of the Catholic University of Manizales of Colombia and UN-SPIDER's Regional Support Office in Colombia, IGAC, will organize their first international seminar on remote sensing from 8 to 10 May 2014 on the premises of the Catholic University of Manizales.
The seminar is embedded in a strategy to streamline and promote this research area and further develop technologies to process and analyze remotely sensed data.
This is event is available for participation on an ongoing basis
English
The Conference on Desertification and Land Degradation 2013 (DesertLand) will act as a platform and a catwalk for showing actions that have been taken and projects undertaken since RIO 1992? (RIO+21) for combating desertification and land degradation!
This is event is available for participation on an ongoing basis
English
There is a widespread consensus that the pressing issues of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD) are not yet properly included and addressed in today's political and private sector agendas on global, national and local levels. It is therefore of vital importance to raise awareness of the negative impacts that decisions regarding land management and ecosystem services can have, but also the opportunities they create to improve current land management practices towards more sustainability and increased resilience.
This is event is available for participation on an ongoing basis
English
Drought is widely recognized as a slow creeping natural hazard that occurs as a consequence of the natural climatic variability. In recent years, concern has grown world-wide that droughts may be increasing in frequency and severity given the changing climatic conditions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2007) stated that the world has indeed been more drought-prone during the past 25 years.
The Colombian Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute - IGAC and their Center of Research and Development of Geographic Information – CIAF, recently did a series of projects based on risk management. One of those was focused on indentifying zones in the process of decertification using optical remote sensing in the Andean dry region of Villa de Leyva (Boyacá), Colombia.
On 20-22 June 2012 world leaders, along with thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, will come together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet to get to the future we want at the Rio+20 Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. UNOOSA will be organising the following side-event:
This is event is available for participation on an ongoing basis
English
UN-SPIDER is one of the sponsor of the "International Workshop on Drought Monitoring, Assessing and Planning under Global Climate Change" which will be held in June 3-5, 2012 in Beijing, China. The focus of this workshop is drought monitoring, drought risk assessment, drought mitigation and planning and other science and practice related drought. The flyer and registration related documents are available on the workshop website.
As the UN marked World Food Day earlier this week, international representatives convened in Korea to discuss ways to curb the loss of productive land to desertification. Satellites play an important role in the monitoring and assessment of drylands.
Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. It is caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations because dryland ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation, inappropriate land use and droughts.
Twitter
