* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"The dunes are invading our land and consuming the villages and we are very worried. They used to be far away, but now they are much closer and our plots of land are being completely consumed. In years to come, this village is likely to disappear."
These are the words of Seidou Samba Guindo, the chief of Anakila village. The village is close to the desert areas of northern Mali and the Sahara.
Here, communities are struggling to hold the desert at bay and fight desertification - a process where sand dunes swallow up swathes of fertile land and with it the hopes of families desperate to hold onto their traditional ways of living.
Mali is a huge country, twice the size of France with a population of 13 million people. Poverty is stark.
As we drove through the country we spotted people washing and drinking from the same muddy water along the roadside. Appalling images that are unjustifiable in the 21st century are juxtaposed with some of the most stunning hills and glistening waterfalls. It is a beautiful country.
When we visited, the rainy season had just started, and with a deceptively green landscape you could be forgiven for thinking climate change was not a problem here. But it is.
The chief and other villagers that gathered for our arrival were only too keen tell us about the shifts in weather patterns and the impact this was having on them.
"We have seen big changes in the last 10 years. There has been less rain, but when it comes it's heavier," the chief said.
"We remember the days when farms flourished and everything was beautiful. May God help us from having to move our families. The dunes are eating our land; we are poor and will never be able to grow a good harvest."
The dunes are majestic mountains of gold sand and would be impressive were they not so devastating to the community.
Tearfund has local partners working in this village, carrying out dune fixation programmes which consist of planting euphorbia hedges and trees to fix the soil and hold back the sand.
As we were about to leave, I told the chief that our visit was in preparation for the UN climate talks in Cancun. I asked him if he had a message for the political leaders attending the summit.
He simply said: "We need help, but not just help - emergency help. If I knew where the meeting was taking place I would deliver the message myself.
"My strong message is that there have been many meetings but no agreement. As the dune is consuming our village, they must find a solution."
A fair solution - and one that political leaders could manage - is to agree on a climate fund that disburses $200 billion annually by 2020 of new money, to help countries like Mali adapt to climate change and develop sustainably.
Perhaps if dunes were threatening lives in the Western world, we would have seen this agreement already.
The world cannot afford to delay on climate action, because later the human and financial costs will be greater. That's news people living in countries like Mali could do without.
Esther Williams is an environmental press officer for aid agency Tearfund.
