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THE WOCATEER (No. 17 - December 2008)
(WOCAT Newsletter)

13th WOCAT Annual Workshop & Steering Meeting
20 - 25 November 2008, Switzerland

The 13th WOCAT Annual Workshop & Steering Meeting (WWSM) was organized by the WOCAT secretariat, the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) in Switzerland.
Preceding the WWSM proper, a 1-day symposium on ‘Promoting Sustainable Land Management for its local and global Impacts’, took place in Bern on October 20th. The symposium aimed to bring together various partners and donors involved or interested in SLM and natural resource management. About 100 people from 33 countries participated at this unique WOCAT event.

The morning presentations at the symposium gave an impression of WOCAT and its national or regional initiatives. In his overview of WOCAT and its history Hans Hurni, director of the CDE, emphasized that WOCAT has grown from a project to an established network and to a global institution. Hanspeter Liniger, WOCAT coordinator, subsequently highlighted the WOCAT activities at the global level and the various national and regional initiatives. In the afternoon presentations reflected global partnerships and future developments of WOCAT, including speakers from the TerrAfrica, FAO, Global Environment Facility, UNCCD and the University of Bern.

The WWSM13 itself was held in Gwatt at the Lake of Thun from Tuesday 21-10 till Saturday 25-10. Progress reports of the different WOCAT partners and special topics were presented and discussed. Considerable progress was reported by national/ regional institutions. China and Nepal presented their national overview books based on the WOCAT 4 page summary format. At the global level the new or strengthened involvement in international organizations such as UNCCD, TerrAfrica and GEF was stressed.

The (revised) WOCAT/ LADA mapping methodology, the new WOCAT questionnaires and watershed module, the decision support tool and how to react and cover global issues were discussed in more detail. Each session was followed by group work, giving the participants the possibility to get an in-depth impression/ idea about the different topics. The WWSM participants were especially interested in the WOCAT/ LADA mapping and how they could start implementing it in their own countries. Also the session on decision support, showing the DESIRE-WOCAT and the Sustainet tools, was highly appreciated.

Specific global activities foreseen for the coming year are among others the completion of the watershed module, the development of the new on-line database system, the new WOCAT homepage and the enhancement of the collaboration with international organizations.

On the field day two Swiss farms were visited providing the participants an impression about the Swiss agriculture and the no-till system in particular. A special highlight was also the visit of a Swiss cheese dairy factory in the famous ‘Emmental’ region.

The next WWSM will be held in Morocco in November 2009. The full proceedings of the 13th WWSM and of the symposium can be expected early 2009 and will be accessible on the WOCAT-website.

Group photo of the 13th WWSM participants at the lake Thun. (Photo: Hanspeter Liniger)

WOCAT on-line system development in progress

The WOCAT databases are going entirely on-line, which means that a truly interactive database system is being developed to replace the current “passive” on-line databases. The new system will allow users not only to view existing data, but also to add, edit or comment on it – though of course not all data can be edited by anyone, but only by the original contributor or other authorised persons.

The on-line WOCAT address database is already operational since some time (please register if your name is not yet included in the “User list”).

The Approaches questionnaire (QA) interface is now the next one to be ready for on-line testing till the end of the year (http://cdewocat.unibe.ch/wocatQA). For this we are heavily relying on as broad a testing group as possible, so we kindly invite you to try it and we would highly appreciate your comments. Please send them to the WOCAT secretariat before the end of the year. You can also contact the secretariat (wocatonline@cde.unibe.ch ; kurt.gerber@cde.unibe.ch) for questions or problems you might encounter with regard to the system.
Please do realise that the database so far only contains a few “nonsense” case studies for testing purposes. You can therefore play around with these data as you like, or rather add new data yourself and play around with that. For the same reason you should NOT focus on the data contents, but on the user-friendliness of the interface, lay-out and appearance, etc. So far only an English version is available. After testing has been completed, French and Spanish versions will be developed a.s.a.p.

NB: Please do not enter any “serious” (real) data at this stage! All entered data will be deleted at the end of the year and then replaced by existing data in the current database. In the meantime you are of course most welcome to send any new data to the WOCAT secretariat by Email.

DESIRE plenary meeting
17-22 November; Eskisehir, Turkey

The 3rd plenary DESIRE meeting was held from November 17th until November 22nd 2008 in Eskisehir, Turkey. Almost 60 participants from all over the world attended the meeting which was organised by the Turkish DESIRE partners from Eskisehir Osmangazi University. WOCAT was represented by Godert van Lynden (Work block 1; ISRIC) and Gudrun Schwilch and Felicitas Bachmann (Work Block 3, CDE). More details on this meeting can be found on the DESIRE Website.


UNCCD / CRIC meeting
3-14 November; Istanbul, Turkey

International policy makers urged to listen to scientists and farmers to help arid lands keep producing food

A discussion paper “Is the UNCCD stuck in a knowledge traffic jam?” was published by the DESIRE project, Drynet and enID during the UNCCD and CRIC7 meeting in Istanbul, Turkey early November. With increasing concern over global food supplies, there is growing interest in finding ways to maintain food production. This is most challenging in the driest parts of the world that are often most vulnerable to climate change.

The convention attempts to stop the spread of deserts and degraded land through international action. While it has the potential to provide solutions, it is widely seen as ineffective. One of the reasons why it has been less successful than its sister conventions on climate change and biodiversity, is that it is less well informed by scientific evidence and local knowledge. A partnership of three organisations representing around 100 researchers and members of Civil Society Organisations from around the world today launched a discussion paper in which they propose a range of measures that could enable international policy makers to base their decisions on more sound evidence.

One of the suggestions they make is to establish a scientific panel on desertification like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. There are also calls for policy makers to listen to organisations representing those people affected by desertification. Although the convention tries to involve local people, there are currently few ways in which their voices can be heard at international level.

Download the full discussion paper at:
http://www.desire-project.eu/images/stories/newsitems/CRICpaper-online.pdf

DESIRE brings together researchers and NGOs to come up with alternative strategies for the use and protection of vulnerable drylands: www.desire-project.eu. WOCAT plays a significant role in DESIRE. Contact: Coen.Ritsema@wur.nl (Prof. Coen Ritsema)

Drynet brings together 14 CSOs to strengthen civil society networks to influence dryland development policies: www.dry-net.org.

eniD is the European Networking Initiative on Desertification, a working group of European CSOs working on participatory processes for sustainable dryland development: http://www.eni-d.net. Contact: mjb@bothends.org (Marie Jose van der Werff ten Bosch).