February 2006

Nature

The United Nations General Assembly, has declared 2006 the International Year of Deserts and Desertification, theme to which we devote a stamp within the Nature series.

The main objective of the United Nations is to get the message across that desertification is a major threat to humanity, compounded by both climate change and a loss of biological diversity. Land degradation affects one third of the planet’s land surface and around one billion people in over a hundred countries, being Africa one of the continents most affected.

A research of the European Environmental Agency shows there has been an average increase between 2 and 6,3 degrees in the European continent depending on whether there are existing policies on limiting carbon dioxide and other gases of greenhouse effect which are responsible for the warming up of the earth. In Europe, countries such as France, Italy and Greece and specially Spain and Portugal are particularly vulnerable. Although there could be some positive effects, many impacts are likely to be adverse. Existing adaptive measures are concentrated in flood defence, so there is considerable scope for adaptation planning and implementation in other areas, such as public health, water resources and management of ecosystems.

Spain suffers a high risk of desertification which affects 31% of its territory, specially Murcia, Levante, Andalucia and Castilla-La Mancha. For this reason, the Ministry of Environment has budgeted more than 82 million euros for 2005-2008 to palliate the effects of desertification as a result of human and natural factors. Amongst measures to be implemented are the planting of a protective vegetable layer which is being developed by the local governing authorities. The battle against desertification demands reducing in a high percentage the green house effect gases