爱思英语编者按：世界防治荒漠化和干旱日（World Day to combat desertification），1994年12月19日第49届联合国大会根据联大第二委员会（经济和财政）的建议，通过了49/115号决议，从 1995年起把每年的6月17日定为“世界防治荒漠化和干旱日”，旨在进一步提高世界各国人民对防治荒漠化重要性的认识，唤起人们防治荒漠化的责任心和紧迫感。

Message on World Day to Combat Desertification
世界防治荒漠化日致辞

17 June 2014
2014年6月17日

“Land Belongs to the Future – Let’s Climate Proof It”
“土地属于未来，让其不受气候变化影响”

Land degradation, caused or exacerbated by climate change, is not only a danger to livelihoods, but also a threat to peace and stability.  The warning signs lie in conflict between pastoralists and subsistence farmers competing for more productive land and communities fighting over increasingly scarce water resources.  We see the symptoms of insecurity in global food market volatility, internal displacement and mass migration.

气候变化造成或加剧的土地退化，不仅威胁到生计，也威胁到和平与稳定。畜牧者与自耕农之间争夺更具生产力的土地，以及不同社区争夺日益稀缺的水资源，便是需要警惕的迹象。我们看到全球粮食市场波动、境内流离失所和大规模移徙等不安全现象。

While land degradation is acutely felt in the world’s arid lands, some 80 per cent is actually occurring outside these areas.  More than 1.5 billion people subsist on land that is degrading – the majority of whom are small farmers.  Climate change directly threatens their productivity.  In many regions, freshwater resources are declining, food-growing areas are shifting and crop yields are faltering.

尽管土地退化在世界干旱地区最为严重，约有80%实际发生在这些地区以外。超过15亿人在不断退化的土地上生存——其中大多数是小农户。气候变化直接威胁到他们的生产力。在许多地区，淡水资源正在减少，粮食种植地区正在转移，作物产量正在下降。

Globally, unpredictable and extreme weather is predicted to have an even greater impact on food production.  With world population rising, it is urgent that we work to build the resilience of all productive land resources and the communities that depend on them.  We need to manage the land sustainably, avoid further degradation, and reclaim and repair that which has been damaged.  More than 2 billion hectares of land have potential for restoration and rehabilitation.  We need to inspire action that will prompt the recovery of these areas.

在全球范围内，无法预测的极端天气预计将对粮食生产造成更大的影响。随着世界人口不断增加，当务之急是要努力加强所有生产性土地资源的复原力，以及依赖这些资源生存的社区。我们需要以可持续方式管理土地，避免其进一步退化，并恢复和改良已遭破坏的土地。有20多亿公顷的土地有可能恢复和复原。我们必须激励能促使这些地区复原的行动。

Recovering land that is degrading will have multiple benefits.  We can avert the worst effects of climate change, produce more food and ease competition over resources.  We can preserve vital ecosystem services, such as water retention, which protects us from floods or droughts.  And a comprehensive and large-scale approach to land recovery can create new jobs, business opportunities and livelihoods, allowing populations to not only survive but thrive.

恢复正在退化的土地将有多重效益。我们可以避免气候变化的最恶劣影响，生产更多的粮食，减缓对资源的竞争。我们能够养护重要的生态系统服务，如持水能力，以保护我们免受洪水和干旱之害。以全面和大规模的办法来恢复土地，可以创造新的就业机会、商业机会和生计，使人民不仅能够生存，而且能够兴旺。

The theme of this year’s World Day to Combat Desertification is “Land belongs to the future, let’s climate-proof it”.  It can be done, as communities in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali have shown by recovering more than 5 million hectares of degraded land.  Let us take inspiration from these and other examples and protect and nurture the land for this and future generations.

今年，世界防治荒漠化日的主题是“土地属于未来，让其不受气候变化影响”。这是可以做到的，因为在布基纳法索、尼日尔和马里的社区已恢复500多万公顷退化的土地。让我们从这些和其他的例子中得到启发，为这一代和子孙后代保护和培育土地。