ICTSD Outputs and Activities on Trade and Sustainable Land Management in Drylands

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Trade has the potential to affect the livelihoods of communities dependent on drylands and degraded areas. Drylands encompass all lands where the climate is classified as dry sub-humid, semiarid, arid or hyper-arid. They cover 40 percent of the earth's land surface and are home to more than 2 billion people - a third of the human population in the year 2000 - whose majority suffers from the poorest economic conditions. While trade flows can act as an incentive to foster economic growth and sustainable land management, they can also lead to changes in land ownership and use with systemic results on both the fertility of land and the populations who live on it. Dryland regions are among the world's most vulnerable ecosystems. Such vulnerability is further exacerbated by human activities such as unsustainable land use.

International trade regimes and related government policies, macroeconomic reforms and a focus on raising agricultural production for exports can affect, directly or indirectly, the resilience of dryland ecosystems. These factors can lead to inefficient and wasteful use of land and water resources, inappropriate crop intensification - especially under monocropping systems - expansion of agriculture to marginal lands and the use of farm machinery and agronomic practices that are not suitable for local soil and water conditions.

While a range of agricultural products are produced under intensive production systems, it is important for governments to explore opportunities for diversifying trade into products which may allow them to promote a more sustainable use of natural resources, as well as looking at ways to improve the environmental and social impact of those products which are currently traded in large quantities.

Reforming the current distortions in global agricultural trade is crucial to address the relationship between land degradation and trade. Certain types of agricultural subsidies, for example those directly linked to production, are believed to have a more harmful impact on sustainable development - including on sustainable land use. Tariff escalation is also known as preventing the development of industries focusing on processed products which are often less land-intensive than agriculture.

The international trade regime also offers a number of opportunities. The process of trade liberalisation and trade rule-making under the World Trade Organization (WTO) including in the areas of special products, environmental goods and services (EGS), full duty-free and quota-free market access to least-developed countries (LDCs) and the reform of market distorting subsidies, could provide opportunities for promoting investment in sustainable land management.

Traditionally, drylands have been viewed as having little potential for economic activity because they are prone to drought and land degradation. However, emerging markets for products based on natural resources are providing increased evidence of alternative ways to enhance sustainable use and management of land and advance rural development. This is the case, for example, of natural products, such as aloe or gum Arabic. The increasing market demand in these products is creating a lot of new opportunities.

However, gains from these opportunities still remain very limited because of the lack of basic infrastructure, investment capital, research and development and least but not last an adequate policy framework that regulates these markets at national, regional and international level. Building the enabling environment for growing these markets would create incentives for increasing investment in the sustainable use and management of land and natural resources, including by the private sector and local communities.

The text of the UNCCD explicitly acknowledges the relevance of trade in pursuing the objectives of the convention. Under the "General obligations"- Art. 4 Par. 2(b) - the Parties are required to give due attention, within the relevant international and regional bodies, to the situation of affected developing country Parties with regard to international trade, marketing arrangements and debt with a view to establishing an enabling international economic environment conducive to the promotion of sustainable development. The linkages between trade rules, the environment and sustainable development have not, however, been widely recognised to date. By building on the explicit mandate of the UNCCD, there is an opportunity to explore the potential of market access and trade to increase investment in degraded areas and mobilise additional resources for SLM.

As part of this process, ICTSD's Project on Promoting Trade, Livelihoods and Sustainable Land Management in Dryland Regions aims to explore opportunities and constraints of using trade as a tool for creating incentives to promote sustainable land management in drylands.

More specifically, the project will address the following strategic and targeted actions of relevance to final goal of the project:

In the first phase of this project, ICTSD in collaboration with the Global Mechanism of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (GM of the UNCCD) organised an Exploratory Dialogue on "Building an Enabling Environment for Increasing Investment in Sustainable Land Management through Market Access and Trade" on 31 January and 1 February 2007 in Geneva. See outputs for further information.