Desertification Information System
to support National Action Programmes in the Mediterranean (DIS/MED)
To improve the capacity of national administrations of Mediterranean countries to effectively program measures and policies to combat desertification and the effects of drought.
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was signed in Paris, on 17 June 1994 and entered into force on 26 December 1996. It provides the innovative framework for the sustainable development in arid, semi-arid, dry sub-humid areas, of an appropriate implementation mechanism to combat desertification and the effects of drought.
The UNCCD assigns particular relevance to the identification of criteria for the formulation and implementation of the National Action Programmes , as well as for the evaluation of progress accomplished in combating desertification at all levels. The request by the COP to elaborate appropriate indicators stands from the need to check the real effectiveness of the national, sub-regional and regional policies and measures to combat desertification.
A n inter-regional workshop on the Desertification Information Systems for planning needs in the Mediterranean area was held in November 1998 in Marrakech, Morocco, jointly sponsored by the UNCCD Secretariat, the Authorities of Morocco and Italy. It convened representatives of Northern Mediterranean and of Northern Africa countries, as well as international and sub-regional organizations.
The participants to the Marrakech workshop recommended to the Northern Mediterranean and the Northern African countries to explore the possibility of establishing an operational information system for planning purposes, to potentially service all Mediterranean partners, taking into account the existing local capacities and facilities. They also urged countries to establish a close collaboration for the harmonisation of the methodologies of exchange of information related to all aspects of land degradation.
Tackling the problem of land degradation in the Mediterranean is a complex task due to the co-existence of various causes at different levels. In particular, the interlacing of institutional and technical causes entails to address both aspects at the same time.
The main problems to be addressed can be summarized as follows:
National and sub-regional policies to combat soil degradation are often based on an empirical evaluation and qualitative analysis, rather than on information resulting from data analyses, due to the limited interaction between scientific institutions and policy makers.
The NAPs of the Mediterranean countries are not based on common and homogeneous information, due to the scarce linkages amongst the national institutions of the different countries.
Consequently, national and sub-regional policies in the Mediterranean Region are not sufficiently appropriate and consistent.
The European Environment Agency provided technical and institutional assistance that will facilitate the consensus on technical options and overview the co-ordination of the different national institutions.
Institute of Biometeorology - IBIMET , a research centre of the Italian National Counsel of Research (CNR), provided scientific assistance.
The UNCCD Secretariat provided for the co-ordination of the project activities, the management of technical and financial resources and the follow-up of the project's strategic objectives.
The country partners participated through the National Co-ordination Bodies and the selected relevant scientific institutions:
Northern African sub-region: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia;
Northern Mediterranean region: Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.
The European Union (EU), the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) and the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) were invited to participate as observers.
The technical results :
Maps and datasets related to the Sensitivity Desertification Index for the Mediterranean Basin are available from EEA Data service at:
Soil sensitivity
Vegetation sensitivity
An additional map “Sensitivity to desertification in the northern Mediterranean” was updated by the EEA for the report “ The European environment - State and outlook 2005 ”
During the project a dedicated version of the Reportnet Central Data Repository (CDR) was made available for countries to pilot sharing of national data in order to facilitate discussions on harmonisation and to test work on the sensitivity index at the Mediterranean scale.
An internet portal to pilot sharing of institutional information was also provided for the project.
The institutional results :
The papers and presentations from the series of workshops are available to the project partners at: http://eea.eionet.europa.eu/Members/irc/eionet-circle/dismed/library?l=/&vm=detailed&sb=Title