*[Enwl-eng] UNCCD PRESS RELEASE: Sand and Dust Storm Frequency Increasing in Many World Regions, UN Warns
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UNCCD PRESS RELEASE: Sand and Dust Storm Frequency Increasing in Many World
Regions, UN WarnsRegions, UN Warns
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UNCCD PRESS RELEASE
Spanish | French I Russian
Media contacts:
Xenya Scanlon, +49 152 5454 0492,
xscanlon at unccd.int
Terry Collins, +1-416-878-8712 (m),
terrycollins1 at gmail.com
Background reference document: Compendium on
Sand and Dust Storms: https://bit.ly/3slJ6mE
UNCCD experts are available for interviews by
phone or email.
For additional information, including
accreditation to the closing news conference 17 Nov.:
https://www.unccd.int/cric21
Photos: https://bit.ly/3snqYJh
Sand and Dust Storm Frequency Increasing in
Many World Regions, UN Warns
Wreaks havoc from Northern and Central Asia to
sub-Saharan Africa;
UNCCD experts attribute over 25% of the
problem to human activities enter the atmosphere every year;
Two billion tons of sand and dust, equal in
weight to 350 Great Pyramids of Giza,
Health impacts poorly understood
Sand and dust storms are an underappreciated
problem now “dramatically” more frequent in some places worldwide, with at
least 25% of the phenomenon attributed to human activities, according to the
UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Accompanied by policy recommendations, the
warning comes as a five-day meeting takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan to
take stock of global progress in the Convention’s implementation. The UNCCD
is one of three Conventions originated at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro. The other two address climate change (UNFCCC) and biodiversity (UN
CBD).
The meeting, 13-17 November
(https://www.unccd.int/cric21), includes a high-level session on 15 November
hosted by the Government of Uzbekistan on ways to address the impacts of
sand and dust storms on global agriculture, industry, transportation, water
and air quality, and human health.
Says Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD’s Executive
Secretary: “The sight of rolling dark clouds of sand and dust engulfing
everything in their path and turning day into night is one of nature’s most
intimidating spectacles. It is a costly phenomenon that wreaks havoc
everywhere from Northern and Central Asia to sub-Saharan Africa.”
“Sand and dust storms present a formidable
challenge to achieving sustainable development. However, just as sand and
dust storms are exacerbated by human activities, they can also be reduced
through human actions,” adds Thiaw.
While sand and dust storms (SDS) are a
regionally common and seasonal natural phenomenon, the problem is
exacerbated by poor land and water management, droughts, and climate change,
according to UNCCD experts.
And fluctuations in their intensity,
magnitude, or duration “can make SDS unpredictable and dangerous.”
With impacts far beyond the source regions, an
estimated 2 billion tons of sand and dust now enters the atmosphere every
year, an amount equal in weight to 350 Great Pyramids of Giza.
In some areas, desert dust doubled in the last
century.
“Sand and dust storms (SDS) have become
increasingly frequent and severe having substantial transboundary impacts,
affecting various aspects of the environment, climate, health, agriculture,
livelihoods and the socioeconomic well-being of individuals. The
accumulation of impacts from sand and dust storms can be significant,” says
Feras Ziadat, Technical Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the UN (FAO), Chair of the UN Coalition on Combating Sand and Dust Storms.
“In source areas, they damage crops, affect
livestock, and strip topsoil. In depositional areas atmospheric dust,
especially in combination with local industrial pollution, can cause or
worsen human health problems such as respiratory diseases. Communications,
power generation, transport, and supply chains can also be disrupted by low
visibility and dust-induced mechanical failures. The United Nations
Coalition on Combating Sand and Dust Storms, currently chaired by FAO, was
created in 2019 to lead global efforts to tackle SDS.”
In their Sand and Dust Storms Compendium and
accompanying SDS Toolbox
(https://www.unccd.int/land-and-life/sand-and-dust-storms/toolbox), UNCCD,
FAO and partners offer guidance on approaches and methodologies for
collecting and assessing SDS data, monitoring and early warning, impact
mitigation and preparedness, and source mapping and anthropogenic source
mitigation at sub-national, national, regional and global levels.
The SDS discussion forms part of the agenda of
this year’s meeting in Uzbekistan of the UNCCD’s Committee for the Review of
the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 21) and global progress in
delivering the Convention’s strategic objectives. It marks the first time
since its establishment that UNCCD has convened one of its most significant
meetings in Central Asia.
The meeting comes at a critical juncture, as
recent statistics published via UNCCD’s new data dashboard
(https://data.unccd.int/) shows the world now losing nearly 1 million square
kilometers of healthy and productive land every year – some 4.2 million
square kilometers between 2015-2019, or roughly the combined area of five
Central Asian nations: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan.
During the meeting (at 18:00 local time /
13:00 GMT, Tuesday 14 November) UNCCD and FAO experts will launch three
reports:
a.. Sand and dust storms. A guide to
mitigation, adaptation, policy and risk management measures in agriculture
b.. Contingency planning process for
catalysing investments and actions to enhance resilience against sand and
dust storms in agriculture in the Islamic Republic of Iran and
c.. Preparing for sand and dust storm
contingency planning with herding communities: a case study on Mongolia
Other items on the CRIC 21 agenda include
promoting sustainable land management, ensuring fair land rights for women,
and tackling droughts and wildfires exacerbated by climate change and
environmental degradation.
* * * * *
Background: Sand and dust storms
Sand and dust storms (SDS) are known by many
local names: the sirocco, haboob, yellow dust, white storms, or the
harmattan.
While SDS can fertilize both land and marine
ecosystems, they also present a range of hazards to human health,
livelihoods and the environment.
SDS events typically originate in low-latitude
drylands and sub-humid areas where vegetation cover is sparse or absent.
They can also occur in other environments,
including agricultural and high-latitude areas in humid regions, when
specific wind and atmospheric conditions coincide. SDS events can have
substantial transboundary impacts, over thousands of kilometers. Unified and
coherent global and regional policy responses are needed, especially to
address source mitigation, early warning systems, and monitoring.
SDS often have significant economic impacts:
for example, they cost the oil sector in Kuwait an estimated US$ 190 million
annually, while a single SDS event in 2009 resulted in damage estimated at
US$ 229 - 243 million in Australia.
The major global sources of mineral dust are
in the northern hemisphere across North Africa, the Middle East and East
Asia. In the southern hemisphere, Australia, South America and Southern
Africa are the main dust sources.
More than 80% of Central Asia is covered by
deserts and steppes which, coupled with climate change and lasting droughts,
represent a major natural source of sand and dust storms.
The dried-up Aral Sea is a major source of
SDS, emitting more than 100 million tons of dust and poisonous salts every
year, impacting the health not just of the people living in the vicinity,
but far beyond and generating annual losses of US$ 44 million.
Recognition of SDS as a disaster risk appears
to be high in North-East Asia, parts of West Asia and North America but less
prominent elsewhere.
Low recognition of SDS as a disaster risk is
likely due to the lack (in many cases) of significant immediate direct human
fatalities or injuries from individual SDS events, and limited consolidated
documentation on their long-term health, economic or other impacts.
SDS and health
SDS can be life-threatening for individuals
with adverse health conditions.
Fine dust particles are carried to high
tropospheric levels (up to a few kilometres high) where winds can transport
them over long distances.
The health implications of SDS have been under
increased investigation for decades, with most studies conducted in East
Asia, Europe and the Middle East. There has been a lack of studies in West
Africa.
A particular focus of this research has been
SDS modification of air pollution.
The cause-and-effect between sand and dust in
the atmosphere and health outcomes remains unclear and requires more
extensive study. What can be said is that at-risk members of a population,
especially those with pre-existing cardiopulmonary issues, including
childhood asthma, may have a higher mortality or morbidity rate during a
dust storm.
SDS can also impose major costs on the
agricultural sector through crop destruction or reduced yield, animal death
or lower yields of milk or meat, and damage to infrastructure.
For annual crops, losses are due to burial of
seedlings or crops under sand deposits, loss of plant tissue and reduced
photosynthetic activity as a result of sandblasting. This can lead to
complete crop loss in a region or reduced yield.
There may also be a longer-term effect on some
perennial crops due to tree or crop damage (such as lucerne/alfalfa crowns
being damaged).
On a positive note, SDS dust can contain soil
nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, as well as organic
carbon. Some places benefit from this nutrient deposition on land, and
mineral and nutrient deposition on water, particularly ocean bodies. When
deposited, these can provide nutrients to downwind crop or pasture areas.
These limited benefits, however, are far outweighed by the harms done.
Globally, the main large dust sources are
dried lakes; local sources include glacial outwash plains, volcanic ash
zones and recently plowed fields.
The multi-faceted, cross-sectoral and
transnational impacts of SDS directly affect 11 of the 17 Sustainable
Development Goals yet global recognition of SDS as a hazard is generally low
due in part to the complexity and seasonally cumulative impact of SDS,
coupled with limited data.
Insufficient information and impact
assessments hinder effective decision-making and planning to effectively
address SDS sources and impacts.
UNCCD helps governments create policies to
promote the scaling-up of sustainable land management practices and to find
and use the latest science to develop and implement effective mitigation
policies.
Working with The Regional Environmental Centre
for Central Asia, UNCCD assists countries vulnerable to drought and sand and
dust storms in Central Asia to develop and implement risk reduction
strategies at national and regional level. UNCCD encourages countries to
adopt a comprehensive risk reduction strategy with monitoring and early
warning systems to improve preparedness and resilience to these
environmental disasters. Among the measures most needed are:
a.. A multi-sectoral approach bolstered by
information-sharing, short- and long-term interventions, engaging multiple
stakeholders, and raising awareness of SDS.
b.. Land restoration, using soil and water
management practices to protect soils and increase vegetative cover, which
have been shown to significantly reduce the extent and vulnerability of
source areas, and reduce the intensity of typical SDS events.
c.. Early warning and monitoring, building
on up-to-date risk knowledge, and forecasting, with all stakeholders
(including at-risk populations) participating to ensure that warnings are
provided in a timely and targeted manner.
d.. Impact mitigation, through preparedness
to reduce vulnerability, increase resilience, and enables a timely,
effective response to SDS event.
* * * * *
About
The United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD) is an international agreement on good land
stewardship. It helps people, communities and countries create wealth, grow
economies and secure enough food, clean water and energy by ensuring land
users an enabling environment for sustainable land management. Through
partnerships, the Convention’s 197 parties set up robust systems to manage
drought promptly and effectively. Good land stewardship based on sound
policy and science helps integrate and accelerate achievement of the
Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to climate change and
prevents biodiversity loss.
The UNCCD Secretariat led the creation of the
SDS Compendium document in collaboration with the UNCCD Science-Policy
Interface (SPI), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World
Health Organization (WHO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN Women,
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the UN Development
Programme (UNDP), the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and
external experts and partners.
Copyright © 2023* United Nations Convention to
Combat Desertification*, All rights reserved.
For preview interviews and media related
inquires please contact:
UNCCD Press Office: press at unccd.int
From: UNCCD Secretariat
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 11:24 AM
Subject: UNCCD PRESS RELEASE: Sand and Dust
Storm Frequency Increasing in Many World Regions, UN Warns
UNCCD PRESS RELEASE: Sand and Dust Storm
Frequency Increasing in Many World
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