The UN on Monday launched the Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification (2010- 2020), an 11-year long effort to raise awareness and action to improve the protection and management of the world's drylands, home to a third of the world's population and which face serious economic and environmental threats.

The UN says desertification -- land degradation in drylands -- affects 3.6 billion hectares, which accounts for 25 percent of the Earth's terrestrial land mass. It threatens the livelihoods of more than 1 billion people in some 100 countries.

Using a 10-year strategic plan, the United Nations aims to raise awareness of the causes of, and solutions to, desertification and promote actions that will prevent further deterioration of the world's drylands.

As well as highlighting the serious risks posed by desertification, the Decade for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification will also promote the importance of deserts and drylands to many communities across the world.

"Continued land degradation -- whether from climate change, unsustainable agriculture or poor management of water resources -- is a threat to food security, leading to starvation among the most acutely affected communities and robbing the world of productive land," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a statement announcing the launch.

"As we begin the Decade on Deserts and the Fight against Desertification, let us pledge to intensify our efforts to nurture the land we need for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and guaranteeing human well-being," he added.

While concerns about desertification are growing, it is not all doom and gloom.

According to UN statement issued in Nairobi, efforts have been made to address land degradation and while there have been positive outcomes, more action is needed to arrest and reverse land degradation and creeping desertification worldwide.

Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, warned that the international community is at a crossroads, and must decide between a business-as-usual approach that will be characterized by severe and prolonged droughts, flooding and water shortages or an alternative path, that "channels our collective action towards sustainability."

He added that the Decade's message stresses that land is life, "so, we must ensure the drylands, remain productive and working" and that the vision for the Decade is to "forge a global partnership to reverse and prevent desertification and land degradation and to mitigate the effects of drought in affected areas in order to support poverty reduction and environmental sustainability".

Recent studies indicate that drylands are home to 2.1 billion people; that is one in every three people worldwide.

Moreover, one in every three crops under cultivation today has its origins in the drylands. Drylands also support 50 percent of the world's livestock and serve as rich wildlife habitats.

Against this backdrop, member states of the United Nations addressed growing desertification and land degradation by adopting a resolution to dedicate the next decade to combating desertification and improving the protection and management of the world's drylands in 2007.

The Decade of events is spearheaded by the Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in collaboration with the Department of Public Information (DPI) of the UN Secretariat in New York, UNEP, UNDP and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2010-2020 the UN Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification and in December 2009, it mandated five UN agencies to spearhead activities related to the Decade.

The Decade is designed to heighten public awareness about the threat desertification, land degradation and drought pose to sustainable development and ways leading to their alleviation.