Desertification treaty on the way.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that the welfare of up to 900 million persons may be in jeopardy from desertification -- a severe drying out of the already arid lands that now feed them. A worldwide growth of dry lands also threatens many species with extinction. Hoping to slow or even reverse desertification, representatives of 87 nations signed a convention in Paris on Oct. 14 and 15. First proposed at the June 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, this document will become an international treaty when ratified by 50 of these countries.

Any of a range of agricultural practices and natural forces can foster desertification, including overgrazing, overcultivation, changing climatic conditions, and erosion of topsoil by inappropriate irrigation or deforestation. Though many affected nations know what policies or technologies would save their soils and water resources, most lack the money to adopt them. UNEP estimates that successfully fighting deserly for the next 20 years. Currently, less than $1 billion per year is spent globally on programs to halt this form of land degradation.

The proposed treaty would work to channel "substantial" additional funds into protecting the fertility of arid lands. Though industrial donor nations refused to commit themselves to legally binding contributions during the Paris meeting, several pledged to boost the aid packages they would earmark for antidesertification programs in the next few years -- prior to the treaty's ratification.