The them for the United Nations in 2006 was "Deserts and Desertification, referring to the formation, expansion or intensification of degraded areas of soil and vegetation cover. It is this degradation of the land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas that make survival there increasingly difficult. Desertification is about land degradation: the loss of the land’s biological productivity, caused by human-induced factors and climate change. It affects one third of the earth’s surface and over a billion people.

     In 2006 Ethiopia, one of the countries most effected by desertification issued a set of four map stamps focused on desertification as a theme. The low value of the set has a representation of the UN logo or emblem., the polar azimuthal equidistant projection., adopted in 1947 as the official emblem of the UN. Also all the stamps have on the left side a representation of the IYDD logo.

     Apart from the low value the three upper values have maps that show the areas of vulnerability to desertification in Ethiopia, Africa and the World.