Also published by the American Chronicle in a slightly different version.
Copyright 2007 September 12 by Frank A Hilario
Pinoy chairs UN scientific body on desertification
Global science has caught up with the Filipino who has talent and technique. William Dollente Dar, from Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, has just been elected as Chair of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST) in the current (September 3-14) conference in Madrid, Spain under the auspices of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It has taken the UN 30 years to realize that the Filipino has the head and heart for ‘science with a human face’ (icrisat.org).
In 1977, the UN Conference on Desertification adopted a plan of action to combat desertification; unfortunately, the plant that grew from the seed sown wilted, died. In 1994, the UNCCD was born; the Philippines signed on August 12 of that year. Some 13 years later, we have the Madrid conference, with a Filipino as head of the science committee. The University of the Philippines must be so proud!
Desertification? Some 200 countries have ratified the Convention, indicating how widespread the unease is. Desertification is ‘denuding and degrading a once-fertile land, initiating a desert-producing cycle that feeds on itself and causes long-term changes in soil, climate, and biota of an area’ (highered.mcgraw-hill.com). With denuded mountains along with eroded farmlands, the process of desertification has already begun. Desertification results in soils starved of water, crops starved of nutrients, farmers starved of income, citizens starved of nutritious produce, countries starved of healthy economies.
With Dar as Chair of CST, the committee can tap his experience and expertise on sustainable use and management of resources, having proven himself as Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), which is based in India: he turned ICRISAT from moribund to dynamic, creative. ICRISAT is one of the 15 international centers nurtured by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is supported by the World Bank and FAO. With Dar as Captain, from January 2000 when he took over, to January 2005 when his term was renewed, Team ICRISAT won 46 awards (bar.gov.ph). Among such awards were 2 trophies of the CGIAR’s King Baudouin Award, won in 2002 and 2004. In 2005, ICRISAT won the World Bank’s Development Marketplace Award. This year, ICRISAT was rated Outstanding by the CGIAR, the award for total excellence, considering quality of outputs, impact, financial health, stakeholder perception (americanchronicle.com). The award comes with a World Bank US$2.4 million grant, et amore.
On June 22 this year, the Philippine Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) recognized Dar as the Outstanding Professional of the Year in Agriculture. This category of award is bestowed as PRC’s highest award to someone ‘recommended by his/her peers for having amply demonstrated professional competence of the highest degree and conducted himself/herself with integrity in the exercise of his/her profession’ (americanchronicle.com). This is only one of the many professional awards received by Dar. It will be noted that he has been Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), as well as Secretary of Agriculture of his country. PCARRD plans, supports and monitors R&D programs and projects mostly based on the academe; the Secretary of Agriculture plans, supports and monitors agriculture production all over the archipelago.
With Team ICRISAT’s achievements, and with his own, Dar’s job as new Chair of the UN scientific committee is cut out for him. In the context of the times, desertification is the product of denudation of the land and degradation of the soil that both contribute to and are aggravated by climate change. That is to say, renewing the denuded and ameliorating the degraded lands are direct ways of combating desertification and mitigating global warming. Done properly, reforestation is a battle won against desertification; practiced with sustainability in mind, farming in the drylands is another battle won. Science comes in as an arsenal supplying arms: improved seeds, improved cultivation methods, improved marketing, improved distribution of benefits of the works of minds and bodies to society.
A model for the tropics, Team ICRISAT under Dar has harnessed the potential of sweet sorghum as an intelligent choice for a biofuel crop. Sorgo, as sweet sorghum is sometimes referred to, grows well in denuded as well as degraded sites, the perfect crop to fight desertification, a David fighting a man-made Goliath. With Team ICRISAT’s advocacy, an Indian national has put up Rusni Distilleries to extract ethanol from sorgo grown by small Indian farmers in a commercial arrangement, complete with Indian government support. Being Science Chair of a UN body is added reason to say ‘William Dar is the Al Gore of Science’ (americanchronicle.com).
Given all that, when it comes to the crunch, the global war against desertification must be fought with local battles that have to be won. On his part, and to begin with, Dar had to steer his UN committee in the right direction.
Having become Chair, Dar invited the delegates to discuss the priority theme of their mission as the new science committee. He noted that the proposed Ten-Year Strategic Plan of the UNCCD, 2008-2018, contained ‘relevant recommendations.’ For instance, the Plan’s vision is compelling:
A world where land degradation/desertification trends are reversed and the effects of drought and climate variability mitigated, thereby contributing to sustainable development through the improvement of people’s livelihoods and economic well-being and the protection of the environment at the local and global levels.
Drought reversed, climate change moderated, livelihoods improved, economies ameliorated, environment protected – locally, globally. And how are all that to be accomplished? The accompanying mission is apropos to the vision:
Provide a global framework to support the development and implementation of national and regional policies, programmes and measures … through scientific and technological excellence, standard setting, advocacy and resource mobilization.
As Science Chair under the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Dar knows that success depends very much on the last in the list, resource mobilization, meaning moving a legion of institutions and individuals to contribute time, intellect, money and effort to achieve the common goal.
No one man is great enough to fight desertification alone.
Also published by American Chronicle in a slightly different version.
Copyright 2007 September 12 by Frank A Hilario.
