Global Drought Snapshot report

Key points about the report

• Agriculture and forests
  • 70% cereal crops damaged by drought in the Mediterranean, 2016–2018.
  • 33% loss of grazing land in South Africa due to drought
  • Five consecutive rainfall season failures in the Horn of Africa, caused the region’s worst drought in 40 years, contributing to reduced agricultural productivity, food insecurity and high food prices.
  • Africa’s drought-related economic losses in the past 50 years at $70 billion.
• Water conditions
  • 75% reduction of cargo capacity of some vessels on the Rhine due to low river levels in 2022, leading to severe delays to shipping arrivals and departures
  • 5 million people in southern China affected by record-low water levels in the Yangtze River due to drought and prolonged heat
• Social dimensions
  • 85% people affected by droughts who live in low- or middle-income countries
  • 1.2 million people in the Central American Dry Corridor needing food aid after five years of drought, heatwaves and unpredictable rainfall.

Key facts about UN Convention to Combat Desertification

• It 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).
• It is the only legally binding framework set up to address desertification and the effects of drought.
• There are 197 Parties to the Convention, including 196 country Parties and the European Union.
• The Convention – based on the principles of participation, partnership and decentralization – is a multilateral commitment to mitigate the impact of land degradation, and protect our land so we can provide food, water, shelter and economic opportunity to all people.
• Parties to the Convention meet in Conferences of the Parties (COPs) every two years, as well as in technical meetings throughout the year, to advance the aims and ambitions of the Convention and achieve progress in its implementation.

Q1) What is the Convention on Biological Diversity? 

The Convention on Biological Diversity, known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity; the sustainable use of its components; and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources.

Source: Drought data shows an unprecedented emergency on a planetary scale: UN