В случае засухи и опустынивания государственные органы осуществляют намеченные меры по сохранению жизненных ресурсов, в основном, воды (сенсибилизация крупных потребителей воды, информация для населения, ограничения использования воды). Если ситуация ухудшится, применяются более строгие ограничительные меры.
Таким образом, просвещение, образование, подготовка кадров и информирование населения — это мероприятия, которое необходимо предпринять для уменьшения рисков, связанных с засухой и опустыниванием.
Осведомленность о рисках и защите окружающей среды может быть достигнута с помощью конкретных примеров, взятых из местного опыта. Она достигается различными способами:
- Общение с населением,
- Организация конференций, распространение знаний, в виде видео, текстовых сообщений, выставок, радио и т. д.
Национальное образование играет важную роль в информировании общественность по вопросам опустынивания и засухи, в частности путем экологического образования в рамках программ начальных и средних школ; которые дают:
- знания об окружающей среде;
- знания об уязвимости;
- понимание основ взаимодействия между человеком и его окружением и риски, связанные с деятельностью человека
- выучить основные правила поведения в случае тревоги и научить детей и учеников осознавать, что каждый должен быть внимателен со своей собственной защите и вносить вклад в работу других, развивая адаптированное поведение, ответственное и взаимозависимое.
Что делать местным и центральным властям для выполнения плана обеспечения безопасности населения в случае риска?
Для развития культуры риска, Центром научно-технических исследований по засушливым регионам (CRSTRA, Бискра) был проведен экспериментальный образовательный семинар по риску изменения климата в засушливых регионах. Книга, разработанная на основе этого опыта с участием детей, переведена на три языка с прямой ссылкой на сайт Be Safe Net.
What can encourage local and national representatives to implement citizen safety plans in cases of risk?
Through the development of a risk culture, a pilot educational experiment on the risks of climate change in arid regions has been conducted by the Centre for Scientific and Technical Research on Arid Regions CRSTRA in Biskra, Algeria, in collaboration with the Green Club of the local secondary school. The book developed as part of this project with contributions from the children involved has been translated into three languages with a direct link to the Be Safe Net website.
To inculcate attitudes in the population that can mitigate these threats, the competent services (agriculture, forestry, civil protection, public safety, etc.) provide climate information, which constitutes an important resource to combat the negative effects of drought and desertification. Limited access to information is a constant obstacle to ensuring that appropriate measures are taken and that citizens and decision-makers can adapt their behaviour accordingly.
Citizens from rural areas and the general public must be encouraged to follow the weather forecast on television or on the radio in order to better manage their activities (farming activities, travel plans, etc.).
It is necessary to enhance early warning systems for drought and desertification (for instance, the occurrence of sandstorms), with news announcements by the competent authorities in the countries concerned, so that appropriate measures can be taken where there is a risk of damage to roads or other infrastructure (schools, hospitals, etc.).
Capacity building
Drought, desertification and other impacts of climate change do not take account of national borders. There is therefore a need for joint answers to these problems at the regional level. Regional co-operation has an enormous potential in developing regional programmes for the common management of water resources and in fighting against the propagation of diseases caused by climate change and sandstorms. The efforts required to implement adaptation measures and minimise risks are so extensive that no country alone can carry the burden. Regional co-operation can also increase coherence. These threats (such as Acrididae) know no borders, and water table exploitation as well as technical installations and management in the case of cross-border rivers require supranational and regional approaches.
Human resources must be reinforced by developing networks which will allow the various institutions to share information on adaptation research, measures for combating drought and desertification and the findings of local and regional desertification observatories.
Agricultural support programmes must be put in place to allow grazing ground to lie fallow, and special aids must be foreseen for the transportation of animal feed. Programmes must also ensure the payment of national insurance contributions, the advance payment of agricultural and farming subsidies or the use of cereal reserves supplied by donors (European Union and others) to supplement animal feed.
Other sectors suffer from a lack of water, such as tourism (the reduced flow of certain waterways restricts their use for leisure or sports activities) and energy (as nuclear power plants need water to function). This situation has, for example, pushed EDF to reduce the output of its nuclear power plants.
When the risk of drought is high, all citizens must show good environmental citizenship by adopting the attitudes and good practices summarised in the sections above on prevention and precaution, which recommend a series of actions in order to prevent the serious consequences of such disasters in future. This can be assisted by implementing monitoring measures, safeguarding ecosystems and the environment, and stepping up environmental education, information campaigns and impact studies.
It must be borne in mind that successfully managing the environmental impact of drought and desertification depends on all segments of society: the state, citizens, economic actors, teachers, researchers and so on. Everyone should take responsibility and must be involved at their own level.
Moreover, in order to be effective, environmental management must be carried out in partnership with all segments of society, namely government ministries, local government, professional bodies, international partners and citizens.
Finally, the state must play a role in defining rules and laws on the environment and in ensuring their enforcement, following up on their implementation, guaranteeing the preservation and promotion of the environment, and ensuring a long-term and sustainable overview of any changes in areas at risk.
International dimension of environmental questions
Beyond national borders, in an era of globalisation, the international dimension of environmental questions calls for action. The persistence and scope of drought, desertification and other effects of climate change are challenges for all countries and must bring them together on a global scale.
This is why countries affected by these disasters are resolutely committed to international co-operation and have ratified about thirty conventions relating to the environment. The most important are the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the Convention on Wetlands, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (see http://www.un.org/events/rio92/agenda21/action12.htm).
The effectiveness of these treaties depends on their application by all parties. Desertification is a complex phenomenon since it combines several biophysical and socioeconomic factors which interact over time.
Experience shows that human intervention can have positive or negative effects on drought and desertification via agricultural production methods, urban planning and the use of natural resources. In order to counter desertification, all of these interdependent factors must be taken into consideration through a strategy founded on scientific tools and research programmes aimed at tackling the problems encountered on the ground.