In 1972 was established the World Environment Day by the United Nations General Assembly.

The main celebrations of World Environment Day 2008 are held in New Zealand. The slogan is: Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy.

The World Environment Day 2006 was held in Algeria and the theme was Deserts and Desertification.

In Brazil, the north-eastern portion is the driest and poorest part of the country. It is a semi-arid region which is periodically devastated by severe droughts.

Considering the desertification problem, which leads to massive migration and poverty, ways of stopping deserts from spreading are discussed in the context of the PAN-Brazil, a National Program to Combat Desertification, following the guidelines of the UN Convention to combat desertification (UNCCD).

In 2006, the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) introduced key facts about deserts and desertification, as follows:

The consequences of desertification include:

• diminished food production, reduced soil productivity and a decrease in the land’s natural resilience;

• increased downstream flooding, reduced water quality, sedimentation in rivers and lakes, and the siltation of reservoirs and navigation channels;

• aggravated health problems due to wind-blown dust, including eye infections, respiratory illnesses, allergies, and mental stress;

• loss of livelihoods forcing affected people to migrate. Drylands remain impoverished because:

• poor people living in drylands, especially women, seldom have a strong political voice and often lack essential services, such as health care, agricultural extension and education; women are also regularly discriminated against under land ownership regulations;

• dryland dwellers often lack agricultural necessities, such as tools, fertilizers, water, pesticides and seeds, they have inadequate access to markets and their products seldom fetch reasonable prices due to low quality;

• local communities often fail to benefit from other local resources, such as mined minerals, or wildlife and other tourist attractions;

• access to water and rights over this resource are often inadequate, and water resources are often poorly managed, leading to overuse and salinization;

• land is often overcultivated and overgrazed, leading to declining productivity;

• dryland communities are especially vulnerable to drought; they often depend on livestock or subsistence crops and lack reserves of food, money, insurance or other forms of social safety nets to cope with difficult years.

Fighting poverty in drylands requires that all these problems are addressed simultaneously.

The UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment notes that it is easier to prevent desertification than to reverse it.

Population pressure and bad land management practices are the cause of degradation.

Better management of crops, more careful irrigation and strategies to provide non-farming jobs for people living in drylands could help to address the problem.

So on this World Environment Day, let us reflect on the desertification consequences, with focus on the importance of preventing it instead of reversing its process. Let us preserve life in north-east Brazil with help of the experiences of Algeria and other desert countries.