World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared 17 June the "World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought". Ever since, country Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), non-governmental organizations and other interested stakeholders celebrate this particular day with a series of outreach activities, worldwide.

The Day is part of an international campaign by the United Nations to tackle global environmental deterioration, in particular the degradation of drylands. The day marks the anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

17 June constitutes a unique occasion to remind everybody that desertification can be effectively tackled, that solutions are possible, and that key tools to this aim lay in strengthened community participation and co-operation at all levels.

Country Parties and civil society organizations are invited to organize events to celebrate the World Day to Combat Desertification as an additional opportunity to increase awareness raising and participation in the process.

Themes for the World Day:

2002 Land degradation

2003 Water Resources Management and Desertification

2004 One Decade of Combat - 10th World Day to Combat Desertification

2005 Women and Desertification

2006 The Beauty of Deserts - the Challenge of Desertification

2007 Desertification and climate change - one global challenge

2008 Combating land degradation for sustainable agriculture

2009 Conserving land and water = Securing our common future

Link

General Assembly Resolution 49/115 of 19 December 1994 declaring the World Day.

Stamp catalogue - 2000

Niger 17 June 2000

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last revised: 5 July 2009