Highlights:

The Guideline on the Integration of Sand and Dust Storm Management into Key Policy Areas is a high-level primer aimed at raising awareness and promoting the effective management of sand and dust storms (SDS), their sources, and impacts. It is not a technical or exhaustive treatment of SDS issues but an accessible introduction for policymakers and stakeholders, with links to key references for further information. The document encourages the integration of SDS management into national strategies and action plans mandated through global and regional agreements to promote a more holistic approach to SDS source and impact mitigation.

Key Points:

1. The Guideline is voluntary and can be used by regional, national, and sub-national authorities responsible for formulating and implementing SDS initiatives in key policy areas.

2. It aims to raise awareness on development challenges related to SDS risk, vulnerability, and exposure that are often not fully appreciated or considered by policymakers.

3. The Guideline outlines the principles and enabling environment to prevent and reduce SDS sources and their social, economic, and environmental impacts while improving productivity and resilience.

4. Agriculture: SDS policies, programs, and investments related to food production should be guided by the integrated management of land, soil, crops, livestock, and water. Nature-based solutions are recognized as cost-effective ways to prevent and reduce anthropogenic SDS sources.

5. Human Health: Epidemiological studies can be used to better understand the impact of different types of SDS events on chronic and acute health risks and the populations most affected. Enhanced coordination among the health sector and institutions monitoring air quality would enhance the ability of early warning systems to forecast and broadcast the health risks.

6. Infrastructure: SDS impacts on transportation are linked to unsafe travel conditions and those that compromise built infrastructure. While the interruption of air transport and safety risks from SDS events have been substantially reduced by modern navigation technologies, disruptions in road and rail travel remain a significant challenge.

7. Sectoral Linkages: The Guideline recognizes the need for multi-sector planning and policy coherence for the holistic management of SDS. SDS events often have cross-sector implications, requiring planning and coordination within and across sectors and levels of governance (local to national) to improve SDS management and reduce their socioeconomic impacts.

8. Gender, Youth, and Equity: Disasters can exacerbate prevailing generational and gender inequalities. The Guideline encourages meaningful youth engagement and gender-responsive measures to address inequalities in SDS policies, strategies, and action plans.

9. Enabling Environment: A combination of awareness and knowledge, stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and regulatory mechanisms are essential to create an appropriate enabling environment for SDS management.

10. Early Warning Systems and Technical Interventions: Early warning systems can reduce the socioeconomic and environmental costs of SDS events and inform the design and application of technical interventions to prevent and mitigate them.

11. Knowledge Resources: A wealth of knowledge resources on the management of SDS are available to support and facilitate policy and actions. The Guideline provides links to primary references and repositories of evidence-based information, tools, technologies, and knowledge products for policymakers and decision-makers.

12. Guiding Principles for Sand and Dust Storms Management: The Guideline can be adapted to specific contexts and applied in key policy areas consistent with sustainable land and water management approaches and existing obligations under national and international law. It encourages the integration of SDS management measures into national strategies and action plans mandated through global and regional agreements.

13. Conclusion: The Guideline aims to raise awareness, mobilize political will, activate collaboration, and attract financial resources needed to support informed and concerted actions to better manage SDS sources and impacts. As SDS impacts on communities and key sectors continue to grow, political attention and funding for SDS management should increase proportionally.

Section: Sand and Dust Storms and Agriculture

The Guideline on the Integration of Sand and Dust Storm Management into Key Policy Areas highlights the importance of addressing SDS issues in the agricultural sector, as it is a significant source and impact area for SDS events. Agriculture-related SDS policies, programs, and investments should be guided by the integrated management of land, soil, crops, livestock, and water, ideally at landscape scales to ensure optimal outcomes among a mosaic of land uses, including the protection and restoration of natural ecosystems.

Key Points:

1. Sustainable land and water management practices, mainly in the agriculture, forestry, mining, and livestock sectors, are recognized as practical and cost-effective ways to prevent and reduce anthropogenic SDS source areas.

2. Multi-storey and alley cropping, hedgerows and windbreaks, traditional water harvesting, and soil moisture retention practices can help reduce the susceptibility of agricultural land to becoming a temporary or permanent source of SDS.

3. The use and management of water resources, primarily surface and groundwater for irrigation or mining activities, is an important consideration when creating incentives for more efficient water resource use to reduce SDS sources and impacts.

4. In areas where SDS sources are considered natural, a combination of risk mitigation measures (e.g., ecosystem restoration, afforestation, soil/sand stabilisation), along with planning for adaptation, response, and recovery, can help mitigate SDS impacts on surrounding crop and grazing lands.

5. Inclusive and responsible land governance frameworks that improve tenure security for farmers and herders can be a powerful incentive to catalyse and sustain technical and non-technical interventions at the farm or community level.

6. The Guideline on Monitoring and Reporting the Impact of Sand and Dust Storms through the Sendai Framework Monitoring provides countries from the Asia-Pacific region with a practical step-by-step guide to support their efforts to monitor and report the impacts of SDS through the Sendai Framework monitoring.

7. The United States Department of Agriculture's Dust Mitigation Handbook provides some of the most extensive descriptions of SDS source management methods based on field experiences and practitioners' research.

8. The FAO Sand and dust storms: a guide to mitigation, adaptation, policy and risk management measures in agriculture, published in 2023, provides an overview of SDS and the impacts on agriculture and food systems. It examines how agriculture can create SDS sources and highlights the impacts of SDS on agricultural production in both source and deposition areas. The guide includes a searchable database of more than 150 high-impact, location- and context-specific practices to reduce SDS sources and impacts on agriculture at the local level, comprising technical and non-technical interventions. Moreover, it assesses how SDS risk is addressed at the policy level and discusses options for integrating SDS at national and regional levels into multi-hazard disaster risk reduction and management strategies or sectoral development programs.