General Assembly

Distr. GENERAL  

19 December 1989

ORIGINAL:
ENGLISH

                                                       A/RES/44/172
                                                       83rd plenary meeting
                                                       19 December 1989
 
                    Plan of Action to Combat Desertification
                                      A
        Implementation of the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification
 
     The General Assembly,
 
     Recalling its resolution 32/172 of 19 December 1977, by which it approved
the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification, and all its subsequent
resolutions on the subject,
 
     Recalling also its resolution S-13/2 of 1 June 1986, by which it adopted
the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and
Development 1986-1990, which identified measures to combat desertification as
a priority,
 
     Bearing in mind the draft resolution to be adopted at the present
session, concerning the United Nations conference on environment and
development, to be held in 1992, fifteen years after the adoption of the Plan
of Action to Combat Desertification,
 
     Deeply concerned that the problem of desertification, which has a global
impact, is still on the fringe of the growing awareness on the part of the
international community that it is imperative to combat environmental
deterioration effectively within the framework of the interdependence of
nations, 
 
     Gravely concerned by the continuing spread and intensification of
desertification in developing countries, particularly in Africa, and the
indescribable human suffering, economic and financial losses and social
disruption caused by that scourge,
 
     Aware that drought and desertification place a considerable burden on the
economic and financial capacities of the developing countries affected and
that the negative effects of the international economic environment impede
their efforts to undertake effective and sustained programmes to combat
desertification, for which they bear primary responsibility,
 
     1.   Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the
implementation of General Assembly resolutions 42/189 A, B and C of
11 December 1987 and of the relevant section of the report of the Governing
Council of the United Nations Environment Programme;
 
     2.   Expresses its deep concern about the inadequacy of financial
resources for the implementation of the Plan of Action to Combat
Desertification;
 
     3.   Urges Governments, in particular those of the developed countries,
United Nations organizations and other intergovernmental bodies to increase
and intensify their efforts to combat desertification and to accord the
highest priority to the recommendations contained in the Plan of Action;
 
     4.   Invites the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment
Programme to consult the principal international organizations, private
foundations, individuals and the major media enterprises that finance or
promote environmental protection activities in order to draw their attention
to the compelling need to consider desertification control on an equal footing
with other current environmental issues;
 
     5.   Invites the United Nations conference on environment and
development, to be held in 1992, to accord high priority to desertification
control and to deploy all means necessary, including financial, scientific and
technological resources, to halt and reverse the process of desertification
with a view to preserving the ecological balance of the planet;
 
     6.   Invites the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment
Programme to contribute substantially to the discussion on desertification at
the conference, inter alia, by undertaking a general evaluation, sufficiently
in advance of the conference, of the progress achieved in implementing the
Plan of Action to Combat Desertification;
 
     7.   Requests the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, to submit to the
conference, through its preparatory committee, a report containing relevant
expert studies on, inter alia, the following:
 
     (a)  Relevant suggestions and proposals formulated within the United
Nations system on the possibility of utilizing new methods to finance the
programmes of multilateral organizations at the global level, over and above
regular budgets and conventional extrabudgetary resources;
 
     (b)  The state of implementation of the Plan of Action to Combat
Desertification and objectives and courses of action to further the struggle
against desertification, including an evaluation of the additional resources
needed in order to attain the minimum objectives of the struggle against
desertification;
 
     (c)  Ways and means of promoting, in particular in the developing
countries, research into and development of existing and potential technology
to combat desertification and procedures for the transfer of such technology
on favourable terms, in particular to developing countries;
 
     (d)  Possibilities for obtaining loans on concessional terms, from
Governments and other sources, to finance the struggle against
desertification;
 
     (e)  Possibilities for reducing the impact of desertification, including
reafforestation, with the help of mechanisms involving the cancellation or
reduction of external debt;
 
     (f)  Possibilities for strengthening and co-ordinating the activities of
funds established for that purpose in various international institutions;
 
     (g)  Ways of encouraging the active participation of non-governmental
organizations, foundations and individuals in the financing of training and
scientific research programmes to combat desertification, including
reafforestation programmes;
 
     8.   Decides to close the Special Account to finance the implementation
of the Plan of Action to Combat Desertification, and requests the Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment Programme to take the necessary
steps to do so;
 
     9.   Also decides that the Consultative Group for Desertification Control
will meet every year until the conference on environment and development is
held in 1992 and every two years thereafter, and reaffirms its mandate as
contained in resolutions 32/172 of 19 December 1977 and 39/168 of
17 December 1984;
 
     10.  Calls upon the Consultative Group, in co-operation with the
Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, to contribute
to the enhancement of awareness of environmental issues and to intensify its
efforts to mobilize additional resources, to exchange information on
scientific research, national programmes and the implementation of the Plan of
Action and to give its opinions on the actions to be undertaken in the battle
against desertification;
 
     11.  Urges the Governments of countries affected by desertification to
accord high priority, in their national development plans, to medium-term and
long-term strategies and programmes for desertification control;
 
     12.  Requests the Secretary-General, together with the Executive Director
of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Administrator of the
United Nations Development Programme, to submit a report to the General
Assembly at its forty-sixth session, through the Economic and Social Council,
on the various provisions of the present resolution, and to ensure that it is
submitted, immediately after publication, to the preparatory committee for the
United Nations conference on environment and development.
 
                                      B
         Implementation in the Sudano-Sahelian region of the Plan of
                       Action to Combat Desertification
 
     The General Assembly,
 
     Recalling its resolutions 32/170 of 19 December 1977, 33/88 of
15 December 1978, 34/187 of 18 December 1979, 35/72 of 5 December 1980, 36/190
of 17 December 1981, 37/216 of 20 December 1982, 38/164 of 19 December 1983,
39/168 B and 39/206 of 17 December 1984, 40/198 B of 17 December 1985, S-13/2
of 1 June 1986 and 42/189 B of 11 December 1987,
 
     Bearing in mind the particularly serious nature of the problem of
desertification in the Sudano-Sahelian region and of the critical situations
it creates, which impede the economic and social development of the region and
have tragic implications for the living conditions of the population,
 
     1.   Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Administrator of
the United Nations Development Programme on the activities of the United
Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office, as well as the relevant section of the
report of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme;
 
     2.   Stresses with deep concern:
 
     (a)  That desertification in the countries of the Sudano-Sahelian region
has worsened and that it has spread to other regions of Africa;
 
     (b)  That the chronic insufficiency of financial resources continues to
pose obstacles to desertification control;
 
     (c)  That the struggle against desertification requires financial and
technical resources beyond the means of the affected countries;
 
     3.   Urges the affected countries that have not yet done so to include
projects to combat desertification and drought in their national development
plans and to accord high priority to them;
 
     4.   Also urges the affected countries to use all appropriate mechanisms,
including the round-table meetings of the United Nations Development Programme
and the consultative groups of the World Bank, to mobilize resources for the
implementation of programmes to combat desertification, and appeals to donor
countries to provide substantial additional resources for the financing of
such programmes;
 
     5.   Notes with satisfaction that the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian
Office has endorsed the concept of sustainable development in adopting a
global approach to the question of the management and conservation of natural
resources and to environmental issues and in emphasizing the importance of the
incorporation of desertification control activities in national development
plans;
 
     6.   Urges the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office to assist the
countries of the region with their preparations for the 1992 conference and
with the resulting follow-up activities;
 
     7.   Notes with appreciation the interest displayed at the Summit of the
seven major industrial nations, held in Paris from 14 to 16 July 1989, in
aspects of the struggle against desertification and, specifically, in the
planned observatory for the Sahara and the Sahel;
 
     8.   Expresses its gratitude to those Governments which contribute to the
United Nations Trust Fund for Sudano-Sahelian Activities, and renews its
urgent appeal to all members of the donor community to contribute
substantially to the Trust Fund in order to enable the United Nations
Sudano-Sahelian Office to respond more effectively to the pressing needs of
the African countries stricken by desertification;
 
     9.   Requests the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment
Programme and the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme to
strengthen their common undertaking to support the United Nations
Sudano-Sahelian Office;
 
     10.  Invites the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office:
 
     (a)  To intensify its efforts to mobilize additional resources to support
the efforts of the countries covered under its mandate, and of the relevant
regional organizations, in particular the Intergovernmental Authority for
Drought and Development and the Permanent Inter-State Committee on Drought
Control in the Sahel;
 
     (b)  To continue to support the Ministerial Conference for a joint policy
to combat desertification in the countries of the Permanent Inter-State
Committee on Drought Control in the Sahel and the Economic Community of West
African States, in the Maghreb countries, in Egypt and in the Sudan (COMIDES)
and, in this context, to co-operate with the Southern African Development
Co-ordination Conference and with the Arab Maghreb Union.