Features

Land Degradation, Our Problem

By Karl “Monty” Augustine Forestry Department

THE World Day to Combat Desertification is commemorated on June 17 each year since 1995; the convention was ratified by the general assembly of the United Nations in 1994 in response to the growing awareness to the threat of desertification and drought worldwide.

img: Igy the iguana educating the students of Fond Assau Primary on land degradation
Igy the iguana educating the students of Fond Assau Primary on land degradation

Saint Lucia is a full member of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), having ratified the convention and have developed and aligned both the National Action Plan (NAP) and the Strategic Action Plan (SAP) for combating desertification and land degradation.

As a small island state , we are vulnerable to strong wind and rainfall events, which topple trees and expose large tracks of land through landslides and slippages; this is expected to be exacerbated by the effects of climate change, which have projected stronger storms, unexpected rainfall events, and longer dry spells.

These natural phenomena have intrinsically made us less resilient; however,our resilience drops further when you add in the negative human activities such as poor agricultural practices (slash and burn, shifting cultivation, cultivation along riverbanks, monocultures, planting on steep slopes, over-grazing), poor land use planning, indiscriminate felling of trees, unplanned settlements, poor civil engineering interventions, etc. There are also negative impacts on our access to potable water, soil fertility and the impact of erosion on our immediate coastal environment (coral reefs and sea grass beds) thus also affecting food security and our ability to achieve sustainable economic development.

This year’s theme “Inclusive cooperation for achieving land degradation neutrality” implies that we must all play our roles in, firstly, recognizing the causes of land degradation, and in taking steps to mitigate the impacts. All Saint Lucians should play their part, help to raise the awareness, build strategic partnerships which transcend politics, religion and socio-economic standing. After all, we will all collectively suffer when there are water shortages, or scarcities on local fruit markets or a lack of fresh reef fish or lobsters. Tourism, our main economic driver depends on the beautiful landscape and the abundance of diversity in species and colours.

img: Students of the Fond Assau Primary planting a tree.
Students of the Fond Assau Primary planting a tree.

Perhaps the slogan for this year’s commemoration, “Protect earth, restore land, engage people” offers to chart the way forward by urging us into action, the type of action which needs collaboration across sectors and the recognition that we must protect nature, that restoring our riverbanks makes both economic and strategic sense; that practicing agroforestry (mixture of managed forest, crops and rearing of livestock, in the same space) builds diversity thus resilience; that having proper land use planning is essential.
So let’s plant more trees than we cut, and try to restore our degraded lands before they are lost forever.

With this in mind, the Forestry Department embarked on a series of awareness raising and tree planting activities at several locations around the island. One of which was the planting of the Dennery Village Beach front in which students from the Dennery Primary School and members of the Dennery Fishermen Cooperative were involved. In addition, ornamental shade trees and other tree crops were planted at Piaye Secondary, Millet Primary, Fond Assau Primary, Marchand Combined, Anglican Infant and Methodist Combined School. Enrichment planting was also done at Blanchard, Desruisseaux with students from Desruisseaux Primary, Blanchard Primary and Anse Ger Secondary School.

The World Day to combat desertification is a unique occasion to remind everybody that land degradation can be tackled effectively, that solutions are possible, and that key tools to this aim lay in strengthened community participation and co-operation at all levels.

img:Students of the Dennery Primary and Forestry Staff at the Dennery Village Beach planting.
Students of the Dennery Primary and Forestry Staff at the Dennery Village Beach planting.

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