Stories

UNCCD presents some of this year's milestones, which have become a reality thanks to the continued cooperation and unwavering support of the UNCCD family and stakeholders: 25 anniversary of UNCCD was celebrated this year 123 countries are now part of the Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting Programme 84 countries have established their voluntary LDN targets 67 countries had mapped ideas for transformative LDN projects and programmes 26 more countries joined the Drought Initiative this year, raising the total number of participating countries to 72, out of which 35 have completed their national drought plans Land degradation indicator 15.3.1 has achieved the highest status in the SDG indicator framework COP14 was the main UNCCD media event of 2019, with over 2 000 articles published in over 60 countries and the global audience of over 1.4 billion people reached Nearly 6 000 participants took part in UNCCD COP14 with 10 days of meetings, 11 high-level, 30 committee and over 170 stakeholder meetings, 44 exhibitions and 126 side events  The number of visitors to the COP14 page was twice as much as for any previous COP, with 20 000 views per week 1 400 attendees used the conference app during COP14  The Drought ToolBox has been launched, with Pillar I "Drought Monitoring" covering all countries under the Drought Initiative Drought vulnerability indicator became a part of UNCCD reporting process, to help countries build better disaster preparedness and response that best fits their needs 64 countries reported their World Day to Combat Desertification events, and 3 000 people attended the global observance event in Türkiye First UNCCD Capacity Building Training Fair in Guyana attracted more than 300 participants from more than 110 countries as well as over 30 NGOs 12 000 new opportunities have been shared through the UNCCD online Capacity Building Marketplace UNCCD published 22 new titles this year, including 4 regional Global Land Outlook reports and 3 UNCCD Science-Policy Interface reports More than 12 200 people watched Sadhguru and Ibrahim Thaw Twitter Live discussion on how land users, governments and the civil society can collaborate to promote sustainable land management Almost 20 000 people joined us on social media in 2019, four times more than the previous year                 

Eleven million saplings have been planted in three hours in 2 023 locations in 81 provinces across Turkey during “Breath for the Future” campaign on 11 November 2019.

Durban, South Africa – The UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw presented outcomes of the UNCCD COP14 to the high-level segment of the seventeenth session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) on Thursday 14 November. In this speech, Mr. Thiaw emphasized the central role of land in addressing the 2030 Agenda and the leading global challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. AMCEN is bringing together representatives of many African countries as well as international organizations and CSOs under the theme "Taking action for environmental sustainability and prosperity in Africa." The conference will prepare African participants for the upcoming UNFCCC Climate Conference and 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference, and will also review the recent Climate Action Summit and other fora. Read more: UNCCD: the regions The speech of the UNCCD Executive Secretary

Join @UNCCD on Twitter on Monday, 18 November at 11:30AM (UTC+1) for a Twitter Live Event with Sadhguru and UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw to discuss how land users, governments and the civil society can collaborate to promote sustainable land management globally. 

UNCCD organized a side event on the GEO Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Initiative which raised awareness on the potential of EO data to be used at the national level. Awards were given to Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, for developing robust land degradation mapping methods and to Conservational International for the Trends.Earth tool for accessing big EO datasets.

The training provided assistance in developing financial project proposals that target the Green Climate Fund and are focused on reaching national commitments in the framework of the LDN and Forest and Land Restoration initiatives.