UN stresses need to tackle land degradation

 New York, 18 Jun-(ANA)-United Nations officials have stressed the need to look after the world’s drylands, home to more than one billion poor people and where efforts to achieve key development targets face particular challenges.

 “When we protect and restore drylands, we advance on many fronts at once,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pointed out in his message for the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, observed on 17 June.
 “We strengthen food security, we address climate change, we help the poor gain control over their destiny, and we accelerate progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” he said, referring to the global anti-poverty targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015. (ANA)

FA/ANA/18 June 2010----------