Desertification and Drought Day 2021

Desertification and Drought Day 2021 focused on turning degraded land into healthy land to build economic resilience, create  jobs, raise incomes and increase food security.

Land restoration helps biodiversity to recover. It locks away the atmospheric carbon warming the Earth, slowing climate change. It can also lessen the impacts of climate change and underpin a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

UNCCD worked with the Ministry of Environment (MINAE) of Costa Rica, the host of the global observance, to encourage households, communities, private sector and countries to have a better relationship with nature as we recover from COVID-19.

"Land restoration can contribute greatly to post-COVID19 economic recovery. Investing in land restoration creates jobs and generates economic benefits, and could provide livelihoods at a time when hundreds of millions of jobs are being lost." 
— Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary

"The COVID19 pandemic has reinforced just how much we need our forests, drylands, wetlands and other land ecosystems: for food, for the green economy, for eco-tourism, as a buffer against extreme climate events. In Costa Rica, our unique tropical forests are a limited and precious natural resource that we cannot neglect. On Desertification and Drought Day, I urge us all to push hard to restore our lands. We all have a role to play, because we all have a stake in our planet’s future." 
— Andrea Meza, Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica

You can watch the event programme here:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• High-level dialogue
• Talk show