India became a signatory to the UNCCD on 14th October 1994 and ratified it on 17^th December 1996. With about 32% of its land being affected by land degradation, India has high stakes and stands strongly committed to implementing the UNCCD. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is the nodal Ministry in the Government of India for the UNCCD, and Desertification cell is the nodal point within the Ministry to co-ordinate all issues pertaining to the convention. India actively participates in international events on desertification and is currently the Chair of the Regional Implementation Annexe for the Asia and the Pacific region. 

Though India does not have a specific policy or legislative framework for combating desertification as such, the concern for arresting and reversing land degradation and desertification gets reflected in many of our national policies (for e.g., National Water Policy 1987; National Forest Policy 1988; National Agricultural Policy 2000; Forest (Conservation) Act 1980; Environment (Protection) Act 1986; National Environmental Policy 2006; National Policy for Farmers 2007; National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA)- 2007) which have enabling provisions for addressing these problems. It is also implicit in the goals of sustainable forest management (SFM), sustainable agriculture, sustainable land management (SLM) and the overarching goal of sustainable development which the country has been pursuing. The subject has in fact been engaging the attention of our planners and policy makers since the inception of planning. The first five year plan (1951-1956) had ‘land rehabilitation’ as one of the thrust areas. In the subsequent plans too, high priority has been consistently attached to development of the drylands.

The DLDD issues and livelihoods security is addressed by the various projects and programmes under various Government of India agencies like Ministry of Agriculture (Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Department of National Rainfed Area Authority, etc), Ministry of Rural Development (Department of Land Resources, NREGA), Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Department of Science & Technology and Planning Commission.

Programme and initiatives have been underway over the past 40 years with Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) of 1973–74; followed by Watershed Development Project in Shifting Cultivation Areas (WDPSCA) -1974–75; Desert Development Programme (DDP) 1977–78; Reclamation & Development of Alkali Soil (RAS) 1985-86; Integrated Wasteland Development   Programme (IWDP) 1989; Integrated Afforestation and Eco-Development Projects Scheme (IAEPS) 1989-90, National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA) - 1990-91;Soil Conservation in the Catchment of River Valley Projects (RVP) 1992; Association of Scheduled Tribes and Rural Poor in Regeneration of Degraded Forests (ASTRP), launched in 1992-93 and subsequently merged into National Afforestation Programme, the National Afforestation Programme (NAP) 2002-03 and the Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) 2008.

India formulated and submitted in 2001 a National Action Programme (NAP) to combat desertification, in accomplishment of one of the obligations that parties to the Convention (UNCCD) are required to fulfill. A broad roadmap to combating desertification, NAP recognizes the multi sectoral nature of the task, in view of the fact that many of the drivers of desertification have cross cutting dimensions. As for instance, poverty of the masses has long been known to be a key driver of desertification and land degradation, which needs to addressed.

To address the issues of DLDD and build synergy with other RIO conventions (UNFCCC & CBD), the Sustainable Land and Ecosystem Management Country Partnership Program (SLEM CPP) was developed. The SLEM Programme is a joint initiative between the Government of India (GOI) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), under the latter’s Country Partnership Programme (CPP). The objective of SLEM Programmatic Approach is to “promote sustainable land management and use of biodiversity as well as maintain the capacity of ecosystems to deliver goods and services”. Under this SLEM Programmatic Approach, seven projects have been formulated, out of which six are under various stages of implementation.