§3741 Sense of the Congress Regarding Efforts to Combat Desertification in Africa and Other Countries

Summary

The United States should quickly work with other countries, especially in Africa, to fight desertification. It should boost international cooperation, help create and carry out national and regional plans to stop land degradation, raise public awareness, set up action programs to find and fix causes, and support local governments and nongovernmental groups in those efforts. Congress notes that desertification affects about one-sixth of the world’s people and one-quarter of the land, that over 1,000,000 hectares in Africa are affected, that dryland loss helps cause repeated famines in Africa, that the United Nations Environment Programme estimates the cost at $42,000,000,000 a year, and that U.S. leadership can strengthen partnerships, ease social and economic crises from resource misuse, and reduce dependence on foreign aid.