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Description
Introduction and background to the UNCCD
In an era of increasing political and popular concern for issues of sustainable development and environmental change, assessing the local impacts of global conventions for dealing with issues of desertification, climate change and biodiversity is of paramount importance. In 2006, the International Year of Deserts and Desertification, we make a timely assessment of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), exploring its relevance to the land users for whom environmental change is part of their daily lives.
International conventions can heighten the profile of specific environmental issues by bringing them to the attention of wider political, economic and even popular circles. They also provide a framework to focus the application of otherwise disparate global knowledges about local issues. However, translating obligations constructed on the international stage into effective practice at the local level is highly challenging. In many locations, national strategies to implement the UNCCD have only just started to be put into practice. This means that implementation issues, particularly relating to the nature and extent of local participation, are only just rising to the fore. The key challenges which countries face relate not only to the range of different processes and conditions that constitute land degradation and desertification, but also to the variety of political systems on which the UNCCD's decentralized, participatory approach is superimposed. These issues are explored in this paper, in which we draw on the case of Swaziland.
Following an examination of the ways in which land degradation and participation are conceptualized within the UNCCD, we present a brief outline of Swaziland's environmental and political context. Policy analyses and data collected from three chiefdoms are examined, together with information from interviews with policymakers, agricultural extension officers and NCOs, as the barriers that inhibit successful implementation of the UNCCD at the national level are explored. Explanation for the emergence of these challenges centres on the political structure and power distribution at the state level, as we argue that participatory processes, as prescribed from the international political arena, are insufficient to ensure local empowerment and democracy in dealing with land degradation.
Implementing the UNCCD across scales
The idea of a Convention to Combat Desertification has long been controversial. It first stemmed from the African nations, prior to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Chasek and Corell 2002). These states considered that problems of poverty, drought, inequality and food insecurity were impeding their sustainable development (Warren 2002), but were being largely sidelined by the international political community. International focus had instead been on climate change and biodiversity issues (Toulmin 2001). A number of developed states (particularly those in the European Union of the time), initially opposed the idea of a convention (Chasek and Corell 2002), despite the existence of both moral and poverty dimensions to the problem. They considered desertification not to be a truly global issue (Thomas and Middleton 1994; Stiles 1995) and argued that biophysical environmental changes are manifest at the local level, largely as a cumulative effect of individual farmer actions and decisions (Batterbury et al. 2002).
After considerable debate, consensus was reached that although the effects of land degradation may only become apparent at the local level, links with global processes could not be ignored. Environmental boundary conditions (e.g. climate, soil and hydrological patterns) that influence processes of degradation and change are defined at national, regional and global scales. These can drive problems of drought, climate change and biodiversity loss, while socio-political and economic factors, such as markets, technological changes and human migration also have international dimensions. Therefore, in response to the African request and in conjunction with documentation in Chapter 12 of Agenda 21, in its 47th Session in 1992, the UN General Assembly resolved to establish the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the Desertification Convention. Following five negotiation sessions, the Convention to Combat Desertification was adopted in Paris on 17 June 1994, and opened for signature on 14-15 October 1994 (Toulmin 1995). It came into force on 26 December 1996, 90 days after the 50th ratification was received. By June 2006, the Convention had gained the signature and support of 191 countries. Swaziland signed it on the 26 July 1994 and ratified it on 7 October 1996.
In a broad shift away from the centralized, 'blueprint development' that preceded it (Roe 1991), the UNCCD supports decentralization and local-level decisionmaking. It takes a nested approach to implementation, favouring mechanisms of citizen consultation and community participation across levels. This is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows the implementation options available to signatories at each level.
Countries may elect to follow the Regional Implementation Annexe for their particular area. The annexes take into account the differences in circumstances and conditions between different parts of the world and give the UNCCD regional relevance. Regional and Sub-Regional Action Programmes present the opportunity to address issues dealt with more practically at the regional and sub-regional levels, especially those pertaining to transboundary natural resource problems. Thematic Programme Networks (TPNs) also afford signatories the prospect of participating in more specific thematic actions in some regions, focusing, for example, on forestry programmes or water harvesting techniques. The uptake of these opportunities at different levels by eligible parties (as of January 2006) is summarized in Table 1.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
At national level, the principal tool of implementation for signatories is through the development of National Action Programmes (NAPs). NAPs allow the formulation of strategies to combat desertification that are appropriate to the individual context and experiences of each country. They aim to 'identify the factors contributing to desertification and the practical measures necessary to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought' (UNCCD 1994, 14), and should address locally identified environmental priorities and livelihood needs. Swaziland was one of the first southern African countries to meet its obligations to the international community by producing a NAP that received cabinet approval in 2000.
Defining land degradation and participation within the UNCCD
The UNCCD defines land degradation as:
the reduction or loss, in arid, semi-arid and dry sub humid areas, of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated cropland or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a process or combination of processes including processes arising from human activities and habitation patterns such as soil erosion caused by wind and/or water, deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of soil and long term loss of natural vegetation. (UNCCD 1994, 7-8)
This definition brings together both the physical elements of land degradation and the human dimensions underpinning it. NAPs, therefore, should consider each of these facets of land degradation, identifying issues that affect forests, arable plots and rangeland, whilst also attending to the changing properties of soil and vegetation at the local level. Each of these changes should also be considered together with the knock-on economic effects they have on the sustainability of rural livelihoods. Operationalizing this definition is not straightforward, however, due to the numerous ambiguities associated with recognizing and measuring land degradation. It is widely recognized that degradation is difficult to observe at all temporal and spatial scales and this is well documented within the scientific literature (e.g. Thomas and Middleton 1994; Forsyth 2003; Robbins et al. 2002). Consequently, a range of processes of degradation and change contribute to the overall occurrence of 'desertification' and this calls for numerous measurement techniques, often relying on indicators in its identification (e.g. Reed and Dougill 2002).
Responsibility lies with each state to establish mechanisms for participation and consultation among stakeholders to ensure the reconciliation of local environmental goals and livelihood priorities. This approach is based on the premise that starting from the bottom up, policies can be developed and actions taken in response to the actual degradation problems experienced by local people. As part of a cyclical and iterative process, this is assumed to build local capacity and ownership of initiatives, leading to better-informed decision-making at national, regional and international levels.
However, while citizen involvement is clearly favoured in actions to reduce land degradation, appropriate mechanisms for participation are largely unspecified within the UNCCD.... |
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