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Building the Resilience of Landlocked Developing Countries
to the Impacts of Climate Change, Desertification,
Land Degradation and Drought
CONCEPT NOTE
BACKGROUND
The United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 66/214 decided to hold in 2014 a
comprehensive ten-year review conference of the Almaty Programme of Action. The
Resolution indicated that the Conference would: undertake a comprehensive appraisal of
the implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action by the landlocked developing
countries and their transit neighbours, and all the relevant development partners; share
best practices and lessons learned; identify obstacles and constraints- encountered;
analyze emerging challenges and opportunities facing the landlocked developing
countries; as well as identify effective international, regional and domestic policies,
actions and initiatives needed to support LLDCs in the next decade.
When the APoA was adopted in 2003, key issues that have emerged over the first decade
to have substantial impact on LLDCs include climate change, desertification and land
degradation. These issues were not included in the priority areas of the programme and it
is important to include these issues in the review conference and in developing the new
programme of action.
LLDCs are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on agricultural production, food
security, increased energy constraints, transport infrastructure, viability of inland fisheries
as well as water availability, erosion of biodiversity, land degradation, desertification and
drought and human health. There are already impacts of climate change in many LLDCs.
Severe and frequent droughts in East and Southern Africa have resulted in food shortages,
in Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Ethiopia, in 2005; 2007; and
2011. In 2006, 2010 and 2012, drought in the Sahel region caused severe famine in
Niger and Chad. Drought also depresses hydroelectric power generation for example in
Zambia. The Central Asian LLDCs, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, have been affected by desertification owing to
increasing water shortages, while Nepal has experienced massive degradation of arable
land due to floods and storms. Landlocked developing countries should pay attention to
the potential impacts of climate change on transportation systems.
Climate change has exacerbated the drying up of already arid zones in Africa; for
example, the drying up of Lake Chad has resulted in shortages of water and reduction in
biodiversity. The temperatures over the African continent have been increasing since the
1960s; for example, the decadal warming rates of 0.29° C was recorded in the African
tropical forests. Increasing temperatures are threatening some crop varieties, such as
coffee and tea, and thereby increasing the vulnerability of landlocked developing
countries, whose economies rely heavily on one or two agricultural products. Climate
change is also affecting freshwater fisheries of landlocked countries through changes in
water temperature, nutrient levels and lower dry-season water levels, leading to reduced
fish yields. For example, Malawi and Uganda suffered from decreased yield of inland
fisheries that are important sources of food and employment for their populations.
According to a recently published Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, Recent studies conducted in Bolivia, and Nepal provide evidence of
how extensive climate change related disasters negatively affect children’s education,
health, and access to services such as water and sanitation, an issue of critical importance
given the importance of primary education for human and long-term economic
development. In areas in Bolivia that experienced the greatest incidence of extensive
disasters, the gender gap in primary education achievement widened, preschool
enrollment rates decreased, and dropout rates increased. Equivalent areas in Nepal saw
reduced primary enrollment rates and a drop in the total number of children in primary
education. Extensive disasters also led to an increased incidence of diarrhea in children
under five years of age in Bolivia, and an increased proportion of malnourished children
under three in Nepal.
The combination of drought and cold caused by huge climate variability led to two recent
dzud disasters in Mongolia, 1999-2002 and 2009-2010. The Mongolian term dzud
denotes unusually extreme weather conditions that result in the death of a significant
number of livestock over large areas of the country. Climatic factors contributing to both
dzuds were summer drought followed by extreme cold and snowfall in winter. Summer
drought was a more significant contributor to the 1999-2000 dzud while winter cold was
more extreme in the 2009-2010 dzud. Over 50% of all the country herders’ households
and their livestock were affected by the dzud in 2010. Although there is also a lack of
clear evidence for a systematic trend in extreme climate events and migration, there are
clear instances of the impact of extreme hydrometeorological events on displacement. For
example, in Niger, large internal movements of people are due to pervasive changes
related to drought and desertification trends (Afifi, 2011).
Climate change has exacerbated land degradation, desertification and deforestation in
landlocked developing countries. Of the 29 countries in the world that have a proportion
of the population living on degraded land of 20 percent or greater, 13 are LLDCs.
According to UNDP data, 40 percent of the LLDCs are among the 41 countries in the
world that experienced deforestation rate of 10 percent or higher in 2008. Most of the
LLDCs depend on exports from the agricultural sector which is vulnerable to
desertification and land degradation. Such major impacts are threatening the ability of the
LLDCs to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and overall sustainable
development. Unfortunately LLDCs have the least potential to adapt and mitigate to the
impacts.
The outcome of the Rio+20 Sustainable development conference noted that
desertification, climate change, land degradation and drought continue to pose serious
challenges to the sustainable development of LLDCs. Several documents on landlocked
developing countries including the GA resolution 65/172; the Secretary General’s Report
on the Implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action A/65/215; and the LLDCs’
Ministerial communiqué for the 7th, 9th and 11th Ministerial meetings also noted that
climate change poses a potentially permanent and serious threat to the economic and
social development of LLDCs. Article 4 paragraph 8 (i) of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change already recognises landlocked countries to be
one of those groups requiring special measures. Article 3 of the Annex 1 of the UNCCD
also noted that the large number of countries affected by desertification in the Africa
region is landlocked.
In preparation for the review conference to be held in 2014, OHRLLS held an interagency meeting in February 2012 which underscored that when the APoA was adopted in
2003, the issues of vulnerability to climate change, desertification and land degradation
were not included in the priority areas, yet they are emerging to have major impacts on
the development of the LLDCs. The Fourth Meeting of Ministers responsible for Trade
and the Global Thematic Meeting on international Trade, Trade Facilitation and Aid for
Trade held 12 to 14 September also reiterated the need to address the negative impacts of
climate change on the availability of natural resources, in particular water and arable
land.
It is important to note that LLDCs face similar issues to other developing countries, and
LDCs in the case of LLDCs that are also LDCs, but with one important and additional set
of factors – the negative impacts are further exacerbated by geography, by being land
locked. In this case, economic and social factors play a more direct role in impacting on
vulnerability that would say biophysical characteristics.
As the LLDCs and their partners prepare to enter into a new partnership it is important to
identify priority areas of effective international support that can successfully support
LLDCs to manage climate change and harness available opportunities, OHRLLS in
collaboration with UNFCCC and UNCCD are organising a meeting on Impact of climate
change, desertification and land degradation on the development prospects of LLDCs.
The meeting aims to provide an opportunity for different stakeholders, the UN system,
LLDC Parties, Civil Society, and Donor community to share information on the impact
of climate change and other environmental challenges on LLDCs over the last 10 years.
The Meeting is expected to come up with concrete ideas and recommendations on
deliverables in the area of reducing the vulnerability of LLDCs to the impact of
desertification and land degradation, which will feed into the preparation of the draft
outcome document of the Second UN Conference on LLDCs.
In order to effectively address climate change, landlocked developing countries need to
undertake both mitigation and adaptation actions. In this regard, the full support of the
international community through reliable financial resources, technology development
and transfer, and capacity-building are crucial in order to bridge the gap between policy
and implementation. Landlocked developing countries should strive to take advantage of
the existing opportunities such as the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the green
growth and green jobs initiatives provided by the international climate change regime.
The 17 landlocked developing countries that are least developed countries should utilize
the national adaptation programmes of action support available under article 4.9 of the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. There is, however, need to
develop support measures for the other landlocked countries that are not least developed
countries; thus the landlocked developing countries as a group should negotiate for
special climate change financing.
Issues to be discussed:
1. Discuss how climate change, desertification and land degradation are affecting the
overall development of LLDCs and how they are exacerbating the challenges
associated with the geography of LLDCs.
2. Identify the measures that have worked well and what has not worked for LLDCs;
3. Identify any emerging opportunities under the various multilateral agreements and
other international programme that the LLDCs can take advantage of;
4. Identify priority actions and measures needed to adequately address the challenge of
climate change, desertification and land degradation – clearly specifying those to be
undertaken by LLDCs and those by the development partners.