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Accelerating land restoration in the Sahel through media Media practitioners, broadcasters, representatives from print media and multimedia producers from the eleven Great Green Wall countries participated in a two-day virtual capacity building workshop with the theme "Media as agents of change to accelerate land restoration in the Sahel" on 12 – 13 August 2021. Facilitated by a team of technical experts from UNCCD, the African Union and the Pan-African Agency for the Great Green Wall, the training was held as part of capacity building activities in line with pillar five of the Great Green Wall Accelerator, announced by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders in January 2021 at the One Planet Summit on Biodiversity. The training also sought to form a coalition of Sahelian journalists to commence continuous engagements with the media for increased advocacy about the Great Green Wall Initiative, Africa’s epic ambition to restore degraded lands and grow an 8000 km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa and project the Sahel as a land of opportunities to spur investments and improve the economy of communities in the Sahel. While declaring the media workshop open, Dr. Birguy Lamizana, Senior Programme Officer for the Sahel at UNCCD stressed the important role of the media in raising awareness and advocating for land and the environment. Earlier in her remarks, Dr. Lamizana informed journalists that the Great Green Wall has been borne out of an urgent need for concerted efforts and urgent response to the challenges faced by the region like the impact of desertification, climate change, land and water resources degradation, loss of biodiversity, loss of livelihoods due to poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition and the recent conflicts by armed groups which has led to irregular migration. She noted that these challenges not only affect Africa as climate issues have no barriers, sighting the recent wildfires in Greece, Italy and the sand dust in Europe near the north of Africa – all results of climate change. A call to the media to use their tools to advocate for land and the environment even in local languages was made by Dr. Lamizana, while urging the media to be active participants in the newly launched media network for the Sahel, to advocate and lobby government to commit budgets to the National Agencies for the Great Green Wall in the 11 Great Green Wall countries, for the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative’s activities to meet the targets of the initiative as set out by the year 2030. Similarly, Mr  Elvis Paul Tangem, the African Union Coordinator for the Great Green Wall highlighted the importance of the Great Green Wall in providing peace, jobs and stability in the Sahel region. He noted that concerted efforts by all stakeholders such as the media will be required for success to be achieved. Journalists during their group and plenary sessions highlighted and presented challenges of land degradation in their communities and identified story ideas they would be working on in coming weeks to raise awareness and bring attention to issues of land degradation and drought as well as efforts of countries signing up to reverse, avoid and restore degraded land to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Targets set out by the 11 Great Green Wall countries for the LDN programme of UNCCD. Land degradation is a crisis affecting communities in the Sahel where people and communities live off the land – in a literal sense - and depend on its productivity for their everyday survival. About  80% of the population in Africa still rely on rain-fed agriculture for work but 65% of African land is degraded. In the last 30 years, the Sahel has been devastated by severe droughts and massive loss of fertile land due to climate change and unsustainable land management practices. The Great Green Wall Initiative is regreening the Sahel, restoring degraded lands and providing decent livelihoods for its people, snaking the Sahel all the way from Senegal in the West to Djibouti in the East, restoring degraded lands and providing jobs and opportunities for millions of people in Africa. The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement launched in 2007 by leaders from the Sahelian countries, with an epic ambition to grow an 8,000 km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa, involving at least 11 countries and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. It is estimated that around 33 billion US dollars of investment – from private, national and international sources will be needed to achieve the targets/goals of the Great Green Wall Initiative by 2030 – restore 100 Million hectares of degraded land, create 10 million jobs and sequester 250 Million tones of carbon. In a post-COVID context where Sahelian countries are struggling with budgets and funding, the Great Green Wall Accelerator announced at the One Planet Summit in January 2021 will help meet financial requirements and turbocharge the achievement of its goals.

The Earth is warming fast, and even faster on the land. This trend is “virtually certain” to continue and no region of the world will be spared, according to the Working Group 1 assessment report released Monday by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Governments laid out their national pathways to address multiple aspects of food systems during the concluding day of the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit

Kick-off meeting of the study "Climate Change, Land Degradation and Migration Nexus in Central Asia" took place on 19 July online, with the UNCCD Secretariat representatives, UNCCD national focal points and experts from Central Asia and Russian Federation. The participants discussed the main objectives and the outline of the future research as well as the work plan and expected outcomes. The study aims to provide evidence on how the increasing land degradation and climate change on land-dependent economic sectors in five Central Asian countries affects availability of resources and jobs, driving out-migration and, in some cases, instability. Central Asia is becoming a new hotspot for environmental and social challenges. The combination of rapid population growth, increased urban pressures, poverty and dependence on the agricultural sector  for over 50 per cent of the population together with environmental and climate crises, lead to growing migration and social risks. COVID-19 outbreak has amplified existing socio-economic problems in the region, leading to disruptions in food supply and increasing vulnerability of rural communities, as well as massive return of labor migrants and loss of jobs. The meeting participants agreed on the importance and timeliness of the study, which results will be presented at the upcomingConference of the Parties in May 2022. The interlinkages between land degradation and migration are embedded in the main objectives of the Delhi Initiative of the Central Asian countries and the Russian Federation, which set up the Interregional Group "Central Asia – Russia" at theprevious UNCCD COP14. The research project is implemented by the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and financed by the voluntary contribution from Russian Federation.

This team of students from Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh is committed to raising awareness on sustainable agriculture and knowledge of plant properties through workshops on organic farming organic and composting under the hashtag #ExploreGreenTreasure.  They focus on empowering young people and communities to choose environment-friendly alternatives when planting a garden or buying food. In 2019 and 2020, the team planted more than 1478 saplings on school grounds and in various public space in nearby villages.  They are also planning to scale up their seed ball initiative to create a seed nursery to promote local plant varieties while making the plant material accessible for more people.   Recently, the climate impact app Captain Cool app that the team developed has been featured in the press. The app helps calculate the carbon footprint of daily activities, such as watching TV, charging mobile devices or using a washing machine, so that the users can make better and greener lifestyle choices. Instagram: @nature.bodies  Twitter: @BodiesNature  Facebook: @NATUREBODIESECOCLUB 

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Changwon Initiative, UNCCD and Korea Forest Service are launching two global contests: a virtual choir competition and a video contest to to promote efforts to combat desertification and restore degraded lands and forests. The submission deadline is 30 September 2021. The winners will be announced at the anniversary ceremony in Changwon, South Korea on 15 October 2021 and will receive cash and other prizes.  How to enter: Virtual choir competition Video contest