Combating desertification — the Portuguese Tribunal de Contas auditing the National Action Program to Combat Desertification
Climate change has many facets: land degradation, ultimately leading to desertification is one of them. And it is one where human activity is contributing most directly to the problem through an unsustainable use of water reserves. Member States in the south of the European Union are most affected by this phenomenon. As for almost all aspects of climate change, actions to mitigate or adapt to land degradation are generally long term. Helena Abreu Lopes is a Member of the Tribunal de Contas, the supreme audit institution of Portugal, and was reporting Member for the recent audit her institution did on combating desertification in Portugal. Below she goes into the programme’s design, its operational aspects and to what extent monitoring is being carried out to ensure that action is taken to meet the commitments made.
By Helena Abreu Lopes, Member of the Tribunal de Contas of Portugal
Desertification in Portugal
When land degrades in such a way that biodiversity is severely lost, water is scarce and of poor quality and soil is infertile, we are facing desertification. Desertification results from several factors, including climatic variations and human activities. Climate change influences desertification due to high temperatures and low rainfall, while, at the same time, desertification accentuates climate change because desertified soils absorb less carbon and greenhouse gases.
The climate in southern Europe is increasingly dry. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, when assessing the impacts of climate change in Europe,(1) estimated for the southern countries (including Portugal) and for the period 2071–2100, potential losses in Gross Domestic Product of between 1.8% and 3% (depending on which scenario was applied). These losses are mainly associated with reduced production in agriculture, higher energy consumption, an expansion of the area affected by forest fires and an increase in the number of people affected by droughts (2).
Within the framework of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which Portugal subscribed to in 1994, Portugal declared that it was affected by desertification. An estimated 58% of continental Portugal’s territory is vulnerable to desertification, mainly in the south and inland areas in the centre and north of the country. Forecasts of climate change indicate that desertification risks will increase in the future.
In 1999 Portugal prepared its first National Action Programme to Combat Desertification (Plano de Ação Nacional de Combate à Desertificação — PANCD) and revised it in 2014. This programme is the national instrument for the operationalisation of the UNCCD.
Our audit of the National Action Programme to Combat Desertification
In July 2019, the Court of Auditors of Portugal — the Tribunal de Contas — completed an audit on the National Action Programme to Combat Desertification as revised in 2014 (PANCD 2014), with the objective of assessing the programme’s design, implementation and monitoring, to ascertain whether it contributes effectively to combating desertification in Portugal.
Considering that desertification is a typical cross-border phenomenon, the Tribunal de Contas coordinated this audit with a similar one undertaken in 2018 by the European Court of Auditors at European level. It also agreed with the supreme audit institution (SAI) of Spain — the Tribunal de Cuentas — to coordinate this work with a parallel audit they were conducting in 2019, comparing results and producing a joint report in 2020.
The Portuguese audit concluded that the PANCD 2014 was well designed, based on an adequate diagnosis and including objectives and lines of action that address the main desertification risks in Portugal. However, it observed that operationalisation, effectiveness and evaluation of the programme were compromised by the lack of an implementation perspective and by non-existent monitoring and assessment. Thus, it was not possible to determine the current state of implementation of the PANCD. The audit also identified a significant risk of non-compliance with the commitment to achieve national soil degradation neutrality by 2030.
What did we say about the design and content of the programme?
In our audit we considered that the PANCD was designed following a detailed and science-based diagnosis and a satisfactory participation process. The objectives and lines of action of the programme follow the UN recommendations and refer to the main factors contributing to the progress of desertification in Portugal. It includes measures related, for instance, to: mitigation of and adaptation to climate variations; protection, conservation and recovery of soils; sustainable use and management of water; promotion of sustainable agriculture and livestock practices; promotion, conservation and adequate management of montados (cork oak forests, known to be very effective in maintaining sustainable eco systems); protection of biodiversity, and improvement of living conditions for populations in areas that are vulnerable to desertification.
However, the PANCD does not yet include the efforts that Portugal should make to achieve its commitment concerning soil degradation neutrality, agreed in 2015 under the United Nations 2030 Agenda (target 15.3) and the revised UNCCD strategy. According to this commitment, countries must achieve soil degradation neutrality, avoiding, minimising and reversing the trends of this degradation in such a way that, in 2030, the global balance of productive soils, in biological and economic terms, remains stable or has improved compared to the initial situation. By the date of the audit, no other programmes or guidelines were in place in order to achieve that target.
Although the PANCD formulated adequate objectives and lines of action, it did not identify concrete activities to be carried out, or the bodies or government departments responsible for their implementation. Also, it did not include the deadlines for the completion of activities, the costs involved or coordination with the programmes/funds needed to finance the necessary actions.
The programme was designed as a strategic planning instrument, to be detailed in other related programmes and strategies. This means that the concrete activities for the implementation of the stated lines of action are quite disseminated. The problem of desertification and the strategy to combat it has been generally recognised and mainstreamed into several other national plans (for example on forest management, water management, nature and biodiversity conservation). However, operationalisation is still lacking in some important areas, such as, for example, soil protection.
What did we say about the implementation of the programme?
Our main conclusion was that the PANCD governance structures are ineffective, due to the lack of human and financial resources. This hampered both the supervision and monitoring of the implementation of the programme, and a systematic build-up of knowledge about desertification.
The main instruments for implementing and financing PANCD objectives are related to EU funds, particularly the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (PDR 2020). This fund finances measures that are relevant to combat desertification, such as agri-environmental and climate change-related measures, aid for less-favoured areas, forestry measures and investments in irrigation. For the 2014–2020 programming period, the expenditure on measures contributing to the fight against desertification amounts to €2 795 million. However, the information available does not allow identification of the specific amounts allocated to the implementation of the PANCD. Although the framework of the PDR 2020 funding includes a recommendation to favour projects located in areas that are vulnerable to desertification, the audit concluded that its application proved to be inconsistent and had little impact.
What did we say about the monitoring and results of the programme?
The programme includes a relevant, but complex, matrix of indicators to monitor and assess results. Nevertheless, the organisational structure responsible for monitoring the programme is not operational and the information is not collected systematically. No analysis or evaluations of the implementation of the programme were carried out. Thus, the current state of implementation of the PANCD is not known and its results and effectiveness cannot be assessed, even though the financial data shows a good pace of implementation of the measures and the projects analysed reveal the investments had a positive impact on the objectives.
A permanent, systematic and updated system to monitor the dimension and risks of desertification and soil degradation in Portugal has not yet been fully implemented. Although the PANCD has an action line for cooperation between Portugal and Spain in the context of combating desertification, no measures for its implementation have been adopted so far.
Our recommendations to the Portuguese government
In our audit, we included two sets of recommendations to the Portuguese government. The first set relates directly to reviewing the PANCD in order to:
- align it with the UN 2030 Agenda and its 2018–2030 strategy, notably regarding the commitment to achieving soil degradation neutrality by 2030;
- specify the concrete actions to be developed, the entities responsible for implementation, deadlines, costs and sources of funding;
- reconsider the composition, competences, financing and operationalisation of the coordination structures;
- effectively implement and deploy a system to permanently monitor and update the progress of desertification and soil degradation in Portugal; and
- make sure that implementation of PANCD is monitored and evaluated, by defining and explaining indicators, goals, methodologies, information sources and permanent update procedures and assessment reports.
Our second set of recommendations is more general, recommending the government and its partners should:
- introduce indicators in the European funding programmes that make it possible to identify the measures that combat desertification and the respective costs and results;
- provide for more effective positive differentiation mechanisms favouring European-funded investments that contribute to combating desertification and soil degradation;
- implement incentives and guidelines for the adoption of crops and agricultural practices that combat desertification and soil degradation;
- promote the approval of legislation to protect soil from degradation and contamination and stimulate the respective remediation; and
- consider the implementation of the PANCD line of action that calls for a joint programme with Spain to combat desertification.
We also addressed recommendations to national administrative authorities that they should reinforce the human resources allocated to the implementation and monitoring of the PANCD, to operationalise the implementation and monitoring structures and procedures and to complete the digital platform and websites related to the PANCD and its projects.
Coordination with other SAIs
Desertification, as well as climate change, is not a national problem. It crosses borders, affecting parts of the world with common risks.
In Europe, desertification and its negative impacts affect mainly the southern regions, as the ECA acknowledged in its 2018 audit report on this subject. This audit focused particularly on the EU’s southern countries, Portugal among them. The Portuguese and the ECA’s audits were not a formally coordinated task but, since they were developed close to each other in time, they can be seen as complementary. While the ECA looked into the problem from a European policy perspective, the Tribunal de Contas seeked to provide a more in-depth analysis of the national implementation of a set of needed measures. Audit teams from both SAIs contacted each other (e.g. during fieldwork conducted by the ECA in Portugal and in a seminar in Lisbon) and shared information, approaches and findings.
Within the European southern regions, the Iberian Peninsula in particular presents similar challenges, mainly in the south and interior of both Portugal and Spain. This calls for common approaches to tackle the problem, as envisaged by Annex IV to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the national programmes to implement it. The SAIs of Portugal and Spain agreed to cooperate on this subject, deciding to conduct similar audits in 2019, covering not only anti-desertification efforts but also initiatives to fight forest fires (as one of the important factors to be considered). Audit teams exchanged information on how to address the underlying problems, on audit programmes and questions and on audit findings and reports. In 2020, a report will be produced on the common findings, issues and recommendations arising from those audit reports. This will allow us to identify lessons learned from each other and common areas to be explored by both countries.
This article was first published on the 2/2020 issue of the ECA Journal. The contents of the interviews and the articles are the sole responsibility of the interviewees and authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Court of Auditors.
