Institucionalización del Monitoreo de la Desertificación en la Argentina: Diseño e Implementación del Observatorio Nacional de Degradación de Tierras y Desertificación. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

ABRAHAM E.; D. BRAN; M. CORSO; J. CUEVA; P. MACCAGNO; N. MACEIRA; A. MAGGI; S. NAVONE; V. PIETRAGALLA; M. ROMÁN; D. SORIA ; A. THERBURG

Bonn

Conferencia; UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference; 2013

UNCCD Secretariat

On the basis of the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA, 2003-2011) project, that successfully addressed the problem of land degradation in Argentina, the Secretariat of Environment and Sustainable Development (SAyDS), the National Scientific and Technical Research Council and its institute with involvement in the theme (IADIZA), the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) and National Universities designed and realized the NationalObservatory on Land Degradation and Desertification. The structure of the Observatory consists of a Steering Committee presided by the SAyDS and an Advisory Council, which is a consultative and advisory body. The Observatory was created in December 2011 to support decision-making in land management. Further purposes are the consolidation of permanent bio-physical and socioeconomic monitoring and assessment of land degradation and desertification, as well as encouragement of mitigation, adaptation, prevention and restoration practices. Therefore the Observatory is in charge of collecting, standardizing and generating information at different scales and offers a WebPage with synthetic indicators and maps based on updated information from rigorous and reliable sources. The Observatory is a successful example of partnership building between the political and scientific technological sectors in Argentina, whose first tasks were to provide the two impact indicators demanded by the UNCCD: Land Cover Status and Proportion of population living below the poverty line.