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related to climatic peculiarities and condition, such as extreme aridity, uneven
distribution of precipitation throughout a year and its variability from one year
to another, frequent recurrent of drought, low air humidity and or high values of
temperature. Man-induced causes are related to poor planning and management
in exploitation of natural resources to meet the daily demands and increase of
population. In broader term, these would include overgrazing, deforestation, poor
land management and policies among others. All these lead to the reduction
of quantity and deterioration of the quality of renewable natural resources such
vegetation, soil, water and changes in fauna.
2.2
United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification
The origins of the United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification and mitigate
the effects of Drought (CCD) can be traced to the devastating drought in the Sudano-
Sahelian region 1968-1974 which led to the birth of UNSO in the UN. The real
turning point came during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro when the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) recommended to
the UN General Assembly for the negotiation for the CCD.
Kenya participated fully in the CCD's negotiations that began in early 1993. They
were finalized and the Convention opened for signing in June 1994. It entered into
force on 26th December 1996. As part of her commitment to address the problems
of desertification under the CCD, the Kenya government signed the convention in
October 1994 and ratified it in June 1997. Kenya participated in the first conference
of the parties (COP) held in Rome October/November 1997. Over 129 countries had
ratified the convention by the beginning of 1998 and many more followed.
The CCD defines Desertification as land degradation in arid, semi-arid and
dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations
and human activities. The convention calls for the implementation of activities
aimed at prevention and/or reduction of land degradation, rehabilitation of partly
degraded land and reclamation of lands already desertified. The scourge affects
over 5.2 billion hectares and about 1 billion people worldwide in over 100
countries. It is closely interrelated to other UN environmental conventions such
as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Framework Convention on
Climate Change (FCCC). The Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD) and the
Forestry Principles are the direct result of the 1992 United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, the 'Rio Earth Summit.' The inter-relation of the
four conventions should also extend to other environmental treaties such as CITES,
Ramsar, the Montreal Protocol and The Law of the Sea.
These conventions all address issues of importance to people living in the
drylands. However, the implementation of environmental issues is sector-oriented.
The question, therefore, is how to ensure that these instruments can be implemented
in an integrated manner and benefit people living in Kenya's drylands. In short,
an integration that reduces the burden of the local person but still enables the
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