Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Science and Global Environmental Governance
- 3 Balancing Expertise: Critical Use and the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer
- 4 “Should We Be Voting on Science?”: Endosulfan and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
- 5 Getting the Science (Committee) Right: Knowledge and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification
- 6 Institutionalizing Norms of Global Science Advice
- Epilogue
- Appendix: Methods
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Getting the Science (Committee) Right: Knowledge and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2019
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Science and Global Environmental Governance
- 3 Balancing Expertise: Critical Use and the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer
- 4 “Should We Be Voting on Science?”: Endosulfan and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants
- 5 Getting the Science (Committee) Right: Knowledge and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification
- 6 Institutionalizing Norms of Global Science Advice
- Epilogue
- Appendix: Methods
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
2015. Cancun, Mexico. It's March, and the beaches are teeming with college students on spring break. Yet my interlocutors and I find ourselves not outside, enjoying the sunshine, but rather in a cavernous, overly air-conditioned ballroom. Here, at the Third Scientific Conference held jointly with the Committee on Science and Technology of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, experts and government delegates gather around posters presenting scientific research. The posters are on diverse topics, ranging from the use of GIS to monitor the impact of goat grazing on soil health in Mongolia to a smartphone application that would connect farmers with peers on the next farm or halfway around the world to share sustainable techniques over video. The conference participants are animated, but the question remains: how might these innovative ideas translate into concrete guidance for policymakers combatting desertification on a global scale?
This 2015 Scientific Conference in Cancun was the third iteration of an attempt to make the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) more relevant by shoring up its Committee on Science and Technology (CST). This initiative arose out of reviews of the convention as it neared its 10 years of implementation, amid critiques that the convention was not living up to expectations. These critiques in particular focused on the CST as being a contributor to “institutional weaknesses.” This chapter examines successive redesigns of the science advice committee undertaken between 2007 and 2017, bringing in particular the “body of knowledge” to the fore.
Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought
The 1994 UNCCD defines desertification as “land degradation in arid, semiarid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities” (Article 1). In advance of the negotiation of this text, the term “desertification” was already contested, notably among scientists. As documented in Chapter 2, the question of challenges faced in arid zones was already the focus of an advisory committee as early as 1951 within UNESCO (the UN Educational, Social and Cultural Organization). The more recent institutionalization of the problem of “desertification” is commonly traced back to the 1977 UN Conference on Desertification (UNCOD), organized in response to droughts in Africa leading up to the early 1970s.
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- Science Advice and Global Environmental GovernanceExpert Institutions and the Implementation of International Environmental Treaties, pp. 101 - 130Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2019