National Action Programme to Combat Desertification in the Sultanate of Oman.

This National Action Programme (NAP) to Combat Desertification is a nationwide sectoral document aiming at identifying the factors contributing to desertification and practical measures necessary to combat desertification and mitigate the effect of drought under the guidelines of the UNCCD. It proposes a long-term strategy that sets two main steps (i) a horizon for 2005-2020 and (ii) a short-term horizon for 2005-2010 including priority programs and projects. Considering the size of the proposed programs and the priority in the NAP, their implementation and coordination requires creation of a competent institutional set up.
To accomplish the basic aim of desertification control, 7 principal objectives are set, as follows (i) raise the percentage of self sufficiency in food production and improving the status of food security; (ii) improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of lands affected by desertification and protect the environment; (iii) ensure the sustainable development of the two most concerned factors (water and land); (iv) ensure public participation in design and implementation of the programs, improving the public awareness about the problem; (v) achieve development of indigenous national and regional scientific research and technology capabilities; (vi) establish institutional and technical facilities for assessment and monitoring of desertification; and (vii) strengthen regional and international cooperation in the campaign against desertification.
In order to help eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, especially in rural areas, the NAP envisages to establish or strengthen food security systems, including storage and marketing facilities.
To make agriculture and forestry more productive and sustainable, a number of interventions are proposed, such as (i) develop sustainable irrigation programs for both crops and livestock and protect the existing available water resources which have been seriously affected by development; (ii) introduce sustainable, and also improved, management systems of soil, water, and crop in irrigated and rain-fed lands; (iii) reduce the misuse of water resources and agriculture land; (iv) undertake an integrated approach in land utilization together with a campaign on stabilization of shifting sands; (iv) introduce appropriate and improved technologies which are socially and environmentally feasible and compatible with new land use system; (v) control water salinization, increase the groundwater resources by artificial recharge and other non-conventional resources; (vi) regulate and protect forest and range land; and (vii) develop a system whereby farmer and pastoralists carry out collaborative range land and husbandry management.
Rural poverty reduction can be tackled through (i) an integrated comprehensive rural development that aims at providing better conditions of life and at raising the income of farmers, herders and other under-privileged groups through various improved technologies and management procedures; and (ii) by removing the inequalities in resource availability and development, within one region or between different Governorates, to help the poorest people living in marginally productive arid and semi-arid lands, through policies that extend credit facilities to the needy and which also provide subsidies for vitally needed inputs.
To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the NAP proposes two main interventions: the implementation of preventive measures for land not yet degraded or only slightly affected by or prone to desertification program, and the introduction of improved land use systems in these areas. Other measures are (i) the establishment, or strengthening where they exist, of early warning systems; (ii) the strengthening of drought preparedness and management, including drought contingency plans; and (iii) the furtherance of public awareness and perception of the desertification problem and methods of its control, so that ensuring people’s increasing involvement in the discussions of the problems, in planning of and project preparation and in their execution.
As for the Governance, it is necessary the establishment or strengthening the nation institutional capabilities for implementing the NAP, at both local and national level. In the first case, will be established Local Focal Points (LFPs) to be responsible for the organization of local discussion platforms bringing together the different stakeholders (municipalities, cooperatives, the NGOs) to discuss relevant environmental issues and develop remedial and local development plans and communicate them to the national bodies through yearly reports. At national level, a National Coordination Body (NCB) will be made up of representatives of the different concerned Ministries and relevant government institutions and research centers. The NCB shall be also in charge of steering the UNCCD implementation process.