The meeting, convoked by MED Forum, Mediterraenan NGO Network for Ecology and Sustainable Development which assembles 102 organizations from 23 countries of all the basin, focused on the debate and evaluation of the important role that NGOs, as representatives of civil society, can do to move forward on the fight against desertification and drought.

On the basis of the questionnaires filled in by NGOs, the debates held in the context of working groups during the Mediterranean Conference and speakers’ contributions, were adopted the Conclusions, Recommendations and Proposals of NGOs on the participation of civil society in combating desertification and drought in the Mediterranean which are included in this document.

The Mediterranean Conference: The participation of Mediterranean NGOs in national programmes to combat desertification and drought. Land use and sustainable development in the Mediterranean, was organized by MED Forum with the collaboration of the organization EcoMediterrània, Asociación de Naturalistas del Sureste (ANSE) and European Environmental Agency. The meeting was supported by the European Commission (Environment General Direction); from the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (AECI) del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores (Foreign Affairs Ministry); from the Murcia Region Government; from the Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Programme for the Environment (MAP/UNEP); from Aguas de Murcia and from Caja Murcia.

• The conference attendants denounced the lack of NGO participation in drawing up, implementing and evaluating the National Action Programmes to combat desertification and the effects of drought in the majority of Mediterranean states, and in the drawing up of the annual National Reports sent to the Conference of the Parties.
• Of Annexe IV of the northern Mediterranean, only Italy and Portugal have made headway on the process of drawing up their National Action Programme to combat desertification and drought (NAP), whereas Spain, Greece and Turkey have only drawn up the "Guidelines" which will serve as a basis for their respective programmes. The remainder of southern and eastern Mediterranean countries do not have a NAP, with the exception of Tunisia, Syria and Jordan.
• The work of NGOs to combat desertification and drought is carried out on two levels: on-the-spot work in the form of small-scale projects with the base communities affected and a task of networking or coalition with other NGOs to reinforce lobbying work with various government agencies and international organisations.
• Most of the participating NGOs consider that the degree of representativeness of the base communities and citizens is only average. This does however allow them to successfully carry out the task of providing an interface between the base communities and the authorities or international organisations.
• Appreciation was expressed of the work carried out by MED Forum on outlining policies, lines of action and good practices projects to combat desertification and drought, in the form of the Mediterranean Environment Forum, the elaboration and diffusion of MED Forum Agenda 2000 and the Negev Desert Declaration. It was also proposed that the positive experiences of other NGOs and Mediterranean networks be employed.
• The NGOs called for clearly specified financing for their projects to combat erosion and desertification and the effects of drought and promote rural development, and stressed the need for partnerships with local authorities.
• It is necessary to inform, sensitise and educate people about good practices for combating desertification and the effects of drought, and provide training to establish links between the solutions put forward from different fields (political, technical and economic).
• The NGOs stated that a solid scientific base is needed in order to draw up proposals for action, and that close collaboration should be established with the universities and scientific and technical research centres.
• The participants highlighted that the fight against desertification and drought cannot be separated from the rational management of natural resources and that territorial planning should be based on criteria of sustainability.
• Policies to combat desertification and the effects of drought require the acceptance of the community and, in many cases, immediate interests go against a rational use of the territory. In this sense, the protection of natural spaces has shown itself to be clearly compatible with and even beneficial to the maintenance of sustainable land use.
• An important challenge is to find a way for the community to contribute to financing the costs of managing rural spaces. To date, sustainable agriculture has met the costs, though rural spaces generate indirect benefits for society as a whole.
• There is a duality between intensive farming which depletes natural resources and a traditional form of agriculture which allows for their conservation, but which calls for urgent measures if the present serious crisis is to be overcome. The incorporation of new sustainable technologies and the multipurpose use of agricultural spaces is presented as one possible solution to the problem. The introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and intensive farming as an alternative is rejected.
• Our recognition of the important role of farming in the conservation of natural and cultural diversity means that we have to dignify traditional practices and knowledge and promote dialogue between all the agents involved.
• The scientific community expresses its concern at the lack of practical application of scientific advances and their incorporation into policies and action programmes. It stated the need to establish prevention mechanisms (like early warning systems) to control and mitigate the processes of desertification.
• There is a need for dialogue between the different sectors affected, and consensus when it comes to deciding on policies and action programmes.
• Land conservation has to be seen as an integral part of territorial management and include participation and the control of decisions by social groups in the themes of territorial planning and management.
• A development model has to be promoted to allow integrated, sustainable management of resources, including land and water, and prevent speculation being imposed in the management and organisation of the territory. It is therefore necessary to support local government agencies against the pressure of speculation, and to control and denounce corrupt practices.
• The proposal of a participatory process to draw up Agendas 21 at all levels to define models of territorial management and organisation, of conservation and integrated management of land, integrated sustainable management of coastal zones, and, to establish participatory forms of combating desertification.

In consequences, and with MED Forum´s request, the Murcia Conference Participants approuved the following recommendations and propositions on Civil Society participation to combat desertification and drought in the Mediterranean:

To the Conference of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought, to its Annexes, and to every Contracting Party State:

1. To make progress in the implementation of an Inter-Regional Mediterranean Action Programme, drawn up and applied in collaboration with other regions or subregions’ programmes, on the basis of a spirit of international solidarity and association. All with a view to improving co-operation and co-ordination at subregional, regional and international level, to channel financial, human, organisational and technical resources where they are most needed, by means of a "Mediterranean regional initiative to combat desertification and drought";
2. To establish a suitable forum for exchange, participation and co-ordination to promote the "Mediterranean regional initiative to combat desertification and drought", which will allow progress towards the creation of an Inter-Regional Mediterranean Action Programme. Other existing forums could be employed for this purpose, such as the Mediterranean Commission of Sustainable Development (MCSD);
3. For NGOs actively involved in combating desertification and the effects of drought, and particularly their networks, such as MED Forum, to take an active part in drawing up, implementing and evaluating the Regional Action Programme of the northern Mediterranean in organisations of co-ordination which already exist and/or are constituted to this effect. This same measure will be applied to the Subregional Action Programmes being drawn up for other areas in the southern and eastern Mediterranean;
4. Representatives of national NGOs and other sectors must take an active part in drawing up, implementing and evaluating the National Action Programmes and drawing up National Reports to combat desertification and the effects of drought by forming part of National Committees to combat desertification and the effects of drought.

 

 

 

Proposals

To members of MED Forum and other Mediterranean NGOs:

5. The realisation by MED Forum NGOs of a campaign of communication, sensitisation and environmental education in the Mediterranean basin, specifically on desertification and the effects of drought, directed at the main economic and social agents involved;
6. The realisation of a programme of capacity-building and training in the administration of natural resources directed at the main economic and social agents involved, decision-makers and government specialists. By:

1. organising conferences, seminars, etc. for the exchange of experiences and good practices and publication of the most significant experiences;
2. producing sectorial guides to environmental management and intervention directed at preventing, controlling and mitigating the causes and effects of desertification and drought.

1. The drawing up of a Mediterranean Charter for the sustainable management of the territory to combat desertification and the effects of drought, leading to the creation of a network made up of the signatory bodies and organisations which undertake to apply its contents: NGOs, farmers, stock-keepers, companies, consumer associations, universities, research centres, local government agencies, regional governments, etc.;
2. The celebration of "Mediterranean Day to combat desertification and the effects of drought" every 17 June, on the basis of the "Murcia Manifesto" read in the context of the badlands of Los Barrancos de Gebar (Murcia/Spain) in different Mediterranean languages by representatives of MED Forum NGOs, States and the Secretariat of the Convention;
3. The carrying out of Mediterranean-scale projects to combat desertification and the effects of drought in order to encourage and co-ordinate the initiatives of the different countries, promote co-operation and co-development and bring a joint front to the specific problems which exist throughout the basin.

Proposals for regional projects to be carried out by MED Forum NGOs and other entities:

• Regional project on "Participatory water management in Mediterranean arid regions", to be carried out in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Israel and Palestine;
• Regional project "For sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean", to encourage sustainable land management, reduce the overexploitation of resources and promote agro-tourism or tourism in rural areas to prevent the land being abandoned;
• Regional project on the "Conservation of terraces in the Mediterranean region" as a traditional method of combating erosion, conserving fertile land and preserving the landscape;
• Regional project on "Maintenance of sustainable land uses and protection of biodiversity in semi-arid zones";
• Regional project on "Fair trade and combating desertification in the Mediterranean";
• Regional project on a "Mediterranean school of sustainable agriculture", based at a training centre in Morocco.

Murcia (Spain), 18 June 2000

(102 NGOs from 23 Mediterranean countries)

MANIFESTO IN FAVOUR OF HOLDING THE DAY TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION AND DROUGHT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Aware that the fertility of the earth is the basis for life chains in the solid fraction of our planet; convinced that the most necessary, irreplaceable resource for all human activities is land; informed that we are neglecting our trusteeship of the founding capital of cultures and economies; concerned at the scarcity of means and resources being put into the task of curbing desertification in the Mediterranean basin, we are appealing to public opinion, to social organisations, to all authorities and the media, to take action against the advance of desertification and against drought.

Meeting in Murcia, on 17 June 2000, World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, and in the context of the "Conference on Mediterranean NGO participation in national programmes to combat desertification and drought: Land use and sustainable development in the Mediterranean", we want to share with our communities the conviction that general action can and must be taken to slow the processes of desertification which are making the significant loss of land an irreversible process.

The conservation of land is an issue which affects every aspect of life on earth. The preservation of species which accompany us is emerging as one of the main challenges for humanity, and an inevitable one once we have accepted the commitments regarding the laws of protection of spontaneous life in all countries, as well as international treaties on biological diversity. Keeping our land fertile and biologically active is one of the most vital actions for the maintenance of species.

In addition to being the final consequence of erosion, desertification is the first cause of that still more irreversible loss of our natural heritage which happens with the disappearance of the basic conditions for continuing life in our landscapes. Which we are refusing to understand as a part, a crucial part, of ourselves.

This is a moral estrangement which goes hand in hand with more specific aggressions, ranging from abandonment to the search for financial profitability which has absolutely nothing to do with the capacity of these landscapes.

We have to bear in mind that a number of our rural cultures were dynamic creators of systems for the rational use of water, to prevent erosion, make the most of the land and defend their forests, which demonstrated that they were capable of dealing successfully with aridity.

All of these forms of uncontrolled artificiality are responsible for the constant loss of fertile land and the advance of desertification throughout the Mediterranean basin.

The process of accelerated desertification is also being fed by obvious climatic change.

On 17th of June, representatives of MED Forum NGOs, countries and of the Convention to Combat Desertification Secretariat read the "Murcia Manifesto" in different Mediterranean languages in front of the Badlands of Los Barrancos de Gebar (Murcia / Spain)

The temperatures registered in recent years reveal a sustained, constant and ever faster rise. The Mediterranean is one of the regions on the planet where the effects of global warming are most felt. Given this rising trend, it seems to us all the more appropriate and urgent to activate the fight against the loss of land. We, the authors of this appeal, realise that revegetation with communities of native species is the best antidote against the advance of desertification.

As a result, we consider it a vital complement to other clearly outlined corrective measures for land conservation that the Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought be immediately brought into effect throughout the Mediterranean basin, along with the agreements and protocols of the Conventions on Biological Diversity and Climatic Change, as the best way of protecting the fertility of land and fighting the effects of desertification.

We would also like to recall that land, the basis of everything living, is also the basis of all civilisation and culture. A culture which does not look after the very means of its existence ceases to be culture. Maintenance of land is as vital to us as breathing or eating. Perhaps that is why the word "human" means of the humus, of the fertile fraction of the earth. If this disappears, so too does the deep-rooted meaning of that most crucial word: humanity.

For all of these reasons, we, representatives of civil society and Mediterranean country governments, and members of international bodies, agricultural organisations and university specialists meeting in Murcia, with the purpose of increasing the awareness of our communities, the accountability of economic powers, research on the part of our scientists, the coherence of farming, forestry and stock-keeping practices, are calling for Mediterranean Day to Combat Desertification and Drought to be celebrated on 17 June, in response to this joint appeal and coinciding with World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.