In
2012, I went to Inner Mongolia to see how local nomadic communities were fighting an advancing desert. I was very fascinated to
see how they were building a green wall in the middle of a sandy land. It was then that I heard an expert from the
United Nations Convention for Combating Desertification (UNCCD) say, ‘many
countries, especially India, have so much of knowledge and technology in their
labs. But little of that is reaching the people on the ground. We need to make that happen.”
Two
year later, today, at the 4th Asia Pacific Climate Change Adaptation Forum in Kuala Lumpur, I heard many experts expressing the same view again – a logical,
practical and extremely timely expression.
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| Putting life back in lifeless sand. In Inner Mongolia, scientists and locals have worked hand in hand to make this miracle happen. |
One
of them was Rajib Shaw, a professor of disaster and risk management at Kyoto
University.
