UN Secretary General's message on the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
17 June 2010

联合国秘书长2010年防治荒漠化和干旱世界日致辞
2010年6月17日

More than one billion poor and vulnerable people living in the world's drylands, where efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals face particular challenges and thus have lagged behind.

在全世界的干地上，生活着10多亿贫穷弱势的居民。他们实现千年发展目标的努力面临特殊挑战，发展落后于其他地区。

Almost three-quarters of rangelands show symptoms of desertification. Over the past 40 years, nearly one third of the world's cropland has become unproductive, often ending up abandoned. The unremitting stress of drought, famine and deepening poverty threatens to create social strains, in turn creating the potential for involuntary migration, the breakdown of communities, political instability and armed conflict. Indeed, human, environmental and social vulnerability come together with unusual force and symmetry in the world's drylands. Climate change will only exacerbate such pressures.

全世界近四分之三的草地牧场已经出现荒漠化症状。四十年来，全世界近三分之一的耕地已经变成贫瘠之地，其中大多已被废弃。干旱、饥饿和日益加深的贫困迸发出持久的压力，它造成社会紧张，并埋下了非自愿移徙、社区崩溃、政治动荡和武装冲突的种子。的确，贫穷居民、不良环境和社会弱势的结合，在全世界的干地上爆发出异乎寻常的力量，并在破坏中留下了各自的印迹。气候变化只会进一步加剧这种压力。

In this International Year of Biodiversity, we must remember that drylands are areas of enormous biological diversity and productivity. Thirty per cent of the crops that are cultivated and consumed in every corner of the world originate in drylands. The biodiversity of dryland soil also plays a critical role in transforming atmospheric carbon into organic carbon – the earth's largest pool of organic carbon.

在这国际生物多样性年，我们必须牢记，干地蕴藏着巨大的生物多样性和生产力。干地为全世界贡献了30%的粮食。并且，干地土壤的生物多样性在把大气碳转变为有机碳——地球最大的有机碳库方面发挥着举足轻重的作用。

When we protect and restore drylands, we advance on many fronts at once: we strengthen food security, we address climate change, we help the poor gain control over their destiny, and we accelerate progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. On this Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to combating desertification and land degradation and mitigating the effects of drought; and let us recognize that enhancing soils enhances life.

对干地进行保护和恢复，我们就能同时在几个方面取得进展：我们就能加强粮食安全，我们就能应对气候变化，我们就能帮助穷人掌握命运，我们就能加速实现千年发展目标。值此防治荒漠化和干旱世界日，让我们重申对防治荒漠化和土地退化以及减少干旱影响的承诺；我们应当认识到，改善土壤，就是改善我们的生活。