Publicity

Paper media: newspaper, magazine and website articles about the DESIRE Project

2013-11-07T14:44:59Z

Wageningen, Netherlands

»University newsletter 15 March 2007
Mação and Góis, Portugal

»OCES website 26 April 2007
Crete, Greece

»Local magazine article 3 April 2007	»Local newspaper article 4 April 2007	»Local magazine article 7 December 2007
Eskişehir and Karapinar, Turkey

»Local newspaper article 11 April 2007	»Local newspaper article 11 April 2007	»Local newspaper article 11 April 2007	»Local newspaper article 11 April 2007

»Local newspaper article 11 April 2007	»Article in Yesilpinar, local newspaper 17 Aug 2007	»Article in Yesilpinar, local newspaper 8 Aug 2007	»Article in Bolge Vizyon, local magazine July 2007

»Article on Eskisehir Sakarya, website July 2007	»Article on Midas website July 2007	»Article in Ekspres, local newspaper Sept 2007	»Article in Belde, local magazine 25 Sept 2007

»Article in Eskisehir Hurriyet, local newspaper 2 Oct 2007	»Article in Iki Eylul, magazine 4 Feb 2008	»Article in Iki Eylul, magazine 31 Jan 2008	»Article in Jurnalturk magazine 1 Jan 2008

»Article in Jeni Konya, newspaper 2 Oct 2007	»Article in Anadolu Manset, newspaper 2 Oct 2007	»Article in Memleket, magazine 28 Dec 2007	»Article in Yeni Meram, magazine 3 Jan 2008

»Article in Merhaba, magazine 28 Dec 2007	»Article on Sakarya, website 1 Jan 2008	»Article on Sakarya, website 2 Feb 2008	»Article on Sakarya, website 28 Jan 2008

»Article on Sakarya, website 31 Jan 2008	»Article on Yesilpinar, website 3 Oct 2007
Secano Interior, Chile

»Newspaper article 1 August 2011

Television broadcasts about the DESIRE project

2013-11-07T14:55:29Z

Eskişehir and Karapinar, Turkey

Turkish TV interview on 'Gokkusagi' program with Faruk Faruk Ocakoglu and Mutlu Gurler in the field, interview with local farmers.


Part I	Part II

Turkish TV broadcast with Prof. Faruk Ocakoglu, Prof. Mehmet Zengin and Prof. Fatime Güneş of the Eskişehir Osmangazi University being interviewed about DESIRE.


Part I	Part II

Radio & podcasts

2013-11-08T11:19:27Z

The following interviews were broadcast on Dutch, Belgian and Portuguese radio.

Title	Description	Duration/size	Download
Cathelijne Stoof about her PhD research in Portugal	Broadcast by Dutch VPRO - Labyrint Radio [language = Dutch]	56:24 min / 51.6 Mb
Celeste Coelho, Sandra Valente and João Soares about the DESIRE project in Portugal	Broadcast on 07 May 2011 by CLICK – Antena 1. [language = Portuguese]	04:11 min / 3.84 Mb
Jean Poesen about water shortage and desertification in Spain	Broadcast on 16 April 2010 by Belgian Radio 1. [language = DUTCH]	03:30 min / 3.0 Mb
Cathelijne Stoof about experimental fires in Portugal	Broadcast on 24 Feb 2009 by Dutch VPRO radio 1. [language = DUTCH]	06:51 min / 6.3 Mb
Cathelijne Stoof about experimental fires in Portugal	Broadcast on 20 Aug 2008 by Dutch TELEAC radio 1. [language = DUTCH]	05:37 / 5.2 Mb

Press release: Desertification Day, 17 June 2009

2009-06-30T22:50:33Z

New research uses the world's arid regions to protect global food supplies

Today is Desertification Day, a day to focus on desertification problems around the world, and this year researchers are joining hands with farmers around the world to stand up to one of the greatest, yet most overlooked environmental problems.

As the global economy shows the first tentative signs of recovery, many fear that a repeat of last year's rocketing food prices may be just around the corner. Many fear that food shortages can only get worse in future, as rising seas swamp productive land and India and China's middle classes demand more and better food. Nowhere will it be harder to keep food on the table than in the driest parts of the world, which are already suffering from "desertification" - an insidious process where land loses its fertility and is unable to keep producing food.

But what exactly is desertification? It is not about the spread of sandy deserts, but all about the threats to water supply, continuing productivity of soils, diminishing livelihoods, poverty and human security. There is a United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, similar to the Convention to address climate change, with a message specifically for today: "Desertification, land degradation and drought threaten human security by depriving people of their means of lifem - by taking away food, access to water, the means for economic activities, and even their homes." Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the Millennium Development Goals, recently asserted that "Water supplies are increasingly under stress in large parts of the world, especially in the world's arid regions. Rapidly intensifying water scarcity reflects bulging populations, depletion of groundwater, waste and pollution, and the enormous and increasingly dire effects of manmade climate change."

This isn't an isolated problem. Many analysts believe that around a third of the planet's surface - about the same size as Europe - is affected by desertification. There is a great deal at stake - safeguarding the livelihoods of more than 1.5 billion people living in dry regions. But the crucial question in order to give a future to these people is: can desertification be reversed?

Strategies for sustainable land management: "jassour" in Tunisia (left) and terraces in China (right)

A group of researchers from 18 countries in Latin America, Central America, Africa, Asia and Europe are joining forces with farmers around the world to try and do just this, supported by civil society organizations. A €9 million European Union research project is combining cutting-edge science with local ingenuity to recover 16 of the worst affected areas around the world from desertification by carefully chosen sustainable land management policies, strategies and techniques.

To combat desertification we can both encourage governments to take the problems more seriously, and we can also help local people to help themselves. The DESIRE project - Desertification and Remediation of Land - does both. The objective of DESIRE is to choose, test and adopt scientifically validated strategies for the remediation of land. Professor Coen Ritsema, Coordinator of the DESIRE, explains that "In merging science and local knowledge we are identifying and testing the most promising strategies to combat desertification. Although the actual techniques, such as land terracing or avoidance of ploughing to increase water stored in the soil are not necessarily new, the increased cooperation and enthusiasm for improvement is tangible, and the DESIRE methods can be taken and copied all over the world." It is the bottom-up, participatory approach, in which stakeholders work with scientists, that makes DESIRE novel compared to other projects on desertification.

A wide range of practical guidelines in non-scientific language are being prepared, for access through the DESIRE website and in other media best suited to a variety of users. These will help land users to earn a living, and policy makers to develop policies that stimulate sustainable land management.

DESIRE works in 16 degraded dryland areas around the world. The project is funded by the European Union and collaborates with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Sources of quotes from outside DESIRE:

UNCCD. World Day to Combat Desertification 17 June 2009. Theme: Conserving land and water = Securing our common future. Background note. http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/june17/2009/docs/Concept_Note_final_EN.pdf

Professor Jeffrey Sachs writing in the Guardian newspaper 26 April 2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/apr/26/water-shortage

World Day to Combat Desertification, 17 June

DESIRE press release 2009 [0.42MB] New research uses the world's arid regions to protect global food supplies.