This 2015 Scientific Conference in Cancun was the third iteration of an attempt to make the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) more relevant by shoring up its Committee on Science and Technology (CST). This initiative arose out of reviews of the convention as it neared its 10 years of implementation, amid critiques that the convention was not living up to expectations. These critiques in particular focused on the CST as being a contributor to “institutional weaknesses.” This chapter examines successive redesigns of the science advice committee undertaken between 2007 and 2017, bringing in particular the “body of knowledge” to the fore.

Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought

The 1994 UNCCD defines desertification as “land degradation in arid, semiarid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities” (Article 1). In advance of the negotiation of this text, the term “desertification” was already contested, notably among scientists. As documented in Chapter 2, the question of challenges faced in arid zones was already the focus of an advisory committee as early as 1951 within UNESCO (the UN Educational, Social and Cultural Organization). The more recent institutionalization of the problem of “desertification” is commonly traced back to the 1977 UN Conference on Desertification (UNCOD), organized in response to droughts in Africa leading up to the early 1970s.