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The Capacity Building Marketplace (CBM) presented the UNCCD Secretariat's exposition at the recently concluded Subsidiary Bodies Session 48 (SB48) of the United Nations Climate Change (UNCC) held at the World Conference Center in Bonn, Germany, from 30th of April to the 4th of May. The CBM team shared with visitors to our stand information on the importance of achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) as part of efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change worldwide; and on the great opportunities and possibilities offered on the CBM, specifically concerning addressing climate change. The team consisted of Dimitrios Karatassios (Greece), Philip Kendekka Sinyan (The Gambia), Raluca Ionita (Romania) and Daniel Gonzalez Carmena (Spain). The exposition depicted inter alia: The link between the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3 (Land Degradation Neutrality) and SDG 13 (Climate Action) as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations; The undeniable connection between land-related issues which the UNCCD tries to tackle and matters of climate change; The platform of the Marketplace and its main on-going exercises, showing that it is a tool that can be used by anybody interested in matters of land and sustainable land management. Visitors were able to obtain various publications, both physically and digitally. The team made sure the stand was very interactive through inter alia assisting visitors with navigating the official UNCCD website and showing several videos about concrete initiatives and actions taken by the Convention. Many attendees of the Conference expressed their interest in the topics and promotional materials, and their disposition to collaborate with the Convention as a whole and more specifically the CBM through the establishment of partnerships for action.

If you track science in the news regularly, you may have noticed the release of the IPBES Assessment Report on Land Degradation and Restoration, a landmark global scientific assessment of land degradation and restoration and its summary for policy makers. Most of the press reported the almost unfathomable extent of the problem. About 75% of all land is impacted by degradation. This is compromising the well-being of nearly half of the people on Earth and costing 10% of the annual global gross product in lost ecosystem services. The impending doom is not to be taken lightly. But the press reports obscure a wealth of information in the Assessment, which can lead to solutions

The UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI) released the Scientific Conceptual Framework for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in English, Spanish and French. The conceptual framework provides a scientific basis for understanding, implementing and monitoring LDN. It has been designed to create a bridge between the vision and the practical implementation of LDN and has found immediate application in the LDN Target Setting Programme.  Read more: The UNCCD Science-Policy Interface Land degradation neutrality The LDN target setting programme