Yemen Monitor/Newsroom:
The Yemeni government on Wednesday called on international governments, institutions, and organizations to join forces with it to confront the threat of desertification to the future generations of Yemen.
This came in a statement by the Minister of Water and Environment, Tawfiq Al-Sharjabi, during his participation in a special session to align Yemen’s national strategies and support donors and local efforts in combating desertification, organized by the Saudi Program for the Development and Reconstruction of Yemen on the sidelines of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP16) held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The session discussed the climatic and human factors of drought and ways to enhance cooperation between donors and the Yemeni government to design national strategies to combat desertification, in addition to the effects of drought and ways to develop infrastructure and priorities and procedures that can be followed.
The Minister of Water and Environment affirmed that “desertification is one of the biggest environmental crises facing Yemen, hindering sustainable development paths and threatening food security.”
He pointed out that Yemen loses between 3-5% of arable land annually due to climate change, grazing, deforestation, mismanagement of water resources, and armed conflict.
He indicated that setting national priorities, integrating with national development policies, and involving stakeholders and local communities are the guarantor of addressing desertification issues, water management, and food security according to a comprehensive approach that includes mapping degraded lands and allocating resources and investments for afforestation, rehabilitation, and increasing vegetation cover.
The Yemeni minister emphasized the pivotal role of donors in meeting development needs in light of the current conditions Yemen is going through.
