This year the day is celebrated under the slogan "together we will overcome the drought".
This holiday was declared by the UN in 1995 in order to raise awareness about the threats and consequences of desertification and drought.
The term "desertification" should not be interpreted as an increase in the territory of existing deserts or the emergence of new ones. This is a complex and complex phenomenon that is the result of climate change and drought.
That is why the fight against desertification includes not only the effective organization of work on the protection and use of natural ecosystems, their components and natural resources, but also efforts to mitigate the impact of factors contributing to the disruption of the ecological balance of the environment, such as social and economic factors.
The main criteria of desertification are a tendency to decrease the humidity coefficient, an increase in daily fluctuations in air and soil temperature, a decrease in precipitation, a change in the nature of soil formation, a decrease in biodiversity, a decrease in river runoff, etc.
Every year, 12 million hectares of land in the world turn into a desert.
The Republic of Armenia is a full member of the UN Convention against Desertification.