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African Press Organization April 22, 2009 Country is fertile ground for civil war MOGADISHU, Somalia — As Environment Ministers meet for the G8 summit in Syracuse on the themes of climate change and protection of biodiversity, the world is witness to Somalia’s 17-year strife that continues with no imminent prospect of relief. Hijacking of ships in the Gulf of Aden makes the headlines regularly. These events are not unrelated. “The origins of the Somali disaster are many and complex” said Christian Mersmann, the Global Mechanism’s Managing Director, “but one root cause is stress on land, water and the environment. Somalia stands as a cautionary tale of the need for sustainable management of natural resources, for a country’s prosperity and development. Since the 1960’s, Somali governments have pushed for large-scale, mechanized agriculture, diminishing the availability of the most fertile terrain to the subsistence farmers and nomadic herders who were its traditional users. Pastoralists were forced to compete with farmers, and with each other, for access to wells and land that grew less productive the more they exploited them.” The Global Mechanism (GM) is a subsidiary body of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, with the mandate of mobilizing financial resources to combat land degradation and promoting sustainable land management. More than a decade and a half of soaring population growth have taken a further toll on the land, leaving Somalia increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters: the recent catastrophic harvest and the current drought that have made competition for resources all the more fierce. “But Somalia is hardly unique as a case of environmentally based conflict and forced migration”, added Mersmann. “Across much of Africa in recent years, land degradation has displaced millions. These population movements have crushed fragile ecosystems. Dispossessed immigrants are flowing into already poor regions and countries, in some cases producing explosive social reactions. Exhaustion of land capital can make the difference between peace and war. While such problems are especially acute in Africa, clashes over scarce land or water are a global phenomenon, occurring as far away as Mexico and the Philippines.” Measures such as reforestation and water conservation, as part of national programmes for sustainable land management can promote economic progress and soften the impact of even global trends like climate change. That is why the leaders of developing nations must make sustainability a top-priority goal of their spending and legislative programmes. “Individual nations must take the lead using their specific approaches. Now it falls to the people who know the local environment best to allocate the resources for its sustenance and long-term development”, emphasized Mersmann. The UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro recently echoed the same: “Undoubtedly, the responsibility to achieve the Millennium Development Goals rests with African Governments. But most African countries have done their part. They have put their macroeconomic houses in order. They have designed not one but two generations of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. The world needs to match these efforts with increased aid and better technical assistance.” One such example is Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa, just a few miles across the Somali border. Ethiopia has recently launched its investment framework to promote sustainable land management, in a joint effort with partner countries and donors. The framework has roused donor interest to invest in this framework over the next 15 years: in fact, the finance for the first three years is almost fully committed. The GM was a driver of the resource mobilization process and will now help the country explore new funding opportunities arising from non-traditional sectors, such as climate change, civil society and trade. Many countries in all regions of the world are receiving GM support in developing fully-fledged financing strategies for sustainable land management that prepare the ground for the development of integrated investment frameworks, similar to Ethiopia’s experience. These processes are successful because they are led by governments that can determine how best to utilize their resources according to their national priorities. As Kanayo Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said, “my message to the developing world is: first put your own house in order. National governments have economic, political and social problems, but they must show very clearly to the international community that they want to help their farmers to produce more and have access to local markets, so they can become economically viable”. Countries cannot address their environmental problems in a systematic way without good governance. Yet as the case of Somalia makes clear, an indispensable element of good governance is farsighted protection of the environment and of those whose livelihoods depend on it. (end) The Global Mechanism (GM) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification works to promote investment in sustainable land management in developing countries. The GM is hosted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an international financial institution and a specialized agency of the United Nations whose mission is to enable the rural poor to overcome poverty.