The 10^th General Meeting for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP10), one of the three 'Rio' conventions to fight deforestation, desertification and mitigate the effects of drought was held on 10-21 Oct. in Changwon City, Gyeongsangnam-do Province. The first General Meeting ever held in Asia was visited by over 100,000 people, including senior officials representing 194 countries, representatives of international organizations and inter-governmental bodies, and delegates from NGOs and observer nations. The conference was composed of regular sessions as well as side events such as Desertification and Forest Photo Exhibition and International Forest Fair.

   Today, 41.3% of the global terrestrial area is affected by desertification and 1/3 of the global population live within the area. As desertification emerged as a global issue of urgency inseparable from social problems such as poverty, Gyeongsangnam-do has carried out desertification prevention projects in cooperation with NGOs to mitigate the impact of yellow-dust storms in China and Mongolia. Also it plans to launch a tree planting campaign for carbon- neutral environment together with private organizations.