The UN convention to combat desertification - an example for global risk management

Processes of land degradation in drylands can become a major risk through the negative and sometimes unpredictable affects on freshwater availability, biodiversity, the regional climate systems, food security, and on people's livelihood on the whole. In societies where the security of people's livelihood largely depends on subsistence agriculture, like in Africa and most parts of Asia and Latin America, desertification and unexpected droughts can have disastrous effects. Moreover, desertification is a threat to sustainable development. The first part, of the paper examines the major causes of desertification and its global importance. In the second part, the paper will discuss the key elements of the "UN Con-vention to Combat Desertification in Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertifi-cation, Particularly in Africa" - UNCCD ("desertification convention") and examine the extent to which the legally binding agreement can be viewed as an example of global risk management.