If you were to put the main humanitarian story of the summer in a nutshell, you might describe it as just "Too Much Water".

But, ironically, one of the main threats facing the developing world in the next few years is the opposite problem of "Too Much Dry", or - to put it more technically - desertification.

The earth's creeping deserts and their likely impact on food production is one of the humanitarian world's under-reported stories. Yet the problem is urgent and large-scale, with the United Nations warning desertification could drive 50 million people from their homes in the next ten years. And it's likely that the poor will bear the brunt, as the loss of cultivable soil and vegetation brings hunger to millions in Africa and Asia.

But, while the world seems to have woken up to the threat of climate change, desertification has failed to grab much attention, featuring neither in politicians' speeches nor in aid agency campaigns highlighting the link between environmental trends and poverty.

The disconnect isn't lost on Rajeb Boulharouf, spokesman for the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). "How is it that we're talking about climate change and not desertification, when it directly affects more than 1 billion people in developing countries?" he asks. "For a long time, desertification has been considered a far-away problem, touching far-away people."

This is particularly short-sighted, he adds, given the connection with the more fashionable global warming: "You cannot address climate change without desertification, and vice versa."

A PLAN AT LAST

But now desertification's fortunes are on the turn, Boulharouf feels, following a conference gathering experts from 191 countries in Madrid earlier this month. The Eighth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD finally agreed a 10-year strategic plan to tackle desertification, setting targets and a clear time-frame for measures such as public awareness campaigns and policy formulation.

The plan complements the wealth of technical expertise that already exists on tackling desertification, including sustainable agricultural practices to improve soil, agro-forestry and good water management. And its adoption goes some way to dispelling fears that the Convention, established a decade ago, is little more than a particularly low-profile talking shop.

Nonetheless, in a development symptomatic of desertification's Cinderella status, the meeting failed to agree a budget, despite talks stretching late into the night.

The Japanese delegation, lacking authority due to the sudden resignation of the country's prime minister, failed to agree to a 5 percent increase in the 17 million-euro ($24.1 million) bi-annual budget - a mere 5,000 euros a month for Tokyo.

It's hoped the budget will finally be settled during an extraordinary session at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Otherwise, Boulharouf says, the 33-person desertification secretariat will have to close.

LOCAL SOLUTIONS

While the big players wrestle with funding and the difficulties of achieving international consensus, another archetypal aid-world story is playing out on the ground.

According to the World Conservation Union (IUCN), many measures to tackle desertification and its accompanying loss of food production already exist within the communities affected.

"Local people have got important customary knowledge and institutional systems on how to manage their landscapes and risk," says IUCN's technical co-ordinator for forest and dryland conservation in Eastern Africa, Edmund Barrow.

"Local people are starting to recognise that there are problems with their own environment, and are seeking ways to rectify this, so that they and their environment benefit."

Barrow says the big players should tap into and foster this locally rooted expertise, rather than becoming over-absorbed in high-flown technical remedies that fail to involve affected communities - a point IUCN has made to the Convention.

"What's needed is more recognition from governments and donors about the importance of building on the wealth of customary knowledge," Barrow says.

From his vantage point in the United Nations, Boulharouf agrees that the answer is in human hands.

"With desertification, the good news is that the solution exists, and it's much less complex than climate change," he says. "It's really a matter of political will, and putting resources where they are needed."

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