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UNCCD secretariat regrets to inform that we are postponing the third webinar on land-based jobs for youth originally scheduled for Thursday 6 May 2021. Asia is hard hit by the current wave of COVID-19 infections, he region this webinar aims to support. But keeping the focus on everyone’s health condition and situation is our priority. We apologize for any inconvenience. We will email you as soon as possible to confirm the date of the next webinar. Tentatively we are planning for either 16 July 2021 or 12 August 2021. Please take note of those dates. We will stay in touch and let you know when the next podcasts is accessible. In case you have questions that you would like to submit to the panel before the webinar, you can send it to us on a video of not more than 1 minute, on horizontal format and to be sent to press@unccd.int latest Tuesday, 15 June 2021. If you participated in the other two webinars, we would like to ask for testimonials from you if you found the webinars beneficial. For example, you can do so by sending us a text of about 400 words on: Which region/country you are from Which webinar (s) you participated in What do you find to be most beneficial What the webinars mean for people like you If you would allow us to share this testimonial with your name and age. We remain available for any inquiries you may have on the webinars and we continue to vie for job creation for the youth. Sincerely yours, UNCCD secretariat
The UNCCD secretariat is deeply saddened by the news that Mr. Philbert Brown, UNCCD National Focal Point (NFP) for Jamaica for many years, passed away on 1 May 2021. His contributions to the convention over the years touched every aspect of the UNCCD process and included serving as a Chair of the CRIC, Chair of the CST, President of the COW, Vice President of the COP, Closing President of the COP in Geneva and Jamaica’s UNCCD NFP for 20 years. Mr. Brown was one of the major negotiators in the UNCCD process and a dedicated supporter of the implementation process at the regional and sub-region levels. He also helped develop several National Action Plans for countries in the Caribbean sub-region and was honored by the Jamaican government for his representation of the country within the UNCCD process, and for his contribution to the process at the global, regional, sub-regional and national levels. He will be remembered fondly by many as an inspirational colleague and a mentor who successfully built positive and productive relationships between various Annexes of the Convention. Photo: IISD/ENB
This young climate advocate studied agronomy and forestry and is leading the movement Art 4 Climate Zambia that cleans up plastic litter and makes it into art. Together with other activists, David collects and sorts litter to make animal sculptures. He also teaches how to repair broken objects instead of throwing them away. He plans to expand this concept and build greenhouses out of litter, exploring the structural color theory. For Desertification and Drought Day 2021, David will lead a tree-planting project in Zambia's capital Lusaka with environmental societies in universities, school groups and the media. Facebook: @davey.chapoloko Twitter: @DavidChapoloko Instagram: @davidchapoloko/
A poster featuring Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) programme in South Africa created by M.Sc. student Laura Quast has become a part of the gallery "Global Change Poster Explorer" developed as part of the "Hot Spots of Global Change" module of the Master's programme in Physical Geography at the University of Freiburg. As one of the countries in the LDN programme, South Africa has set national and sub-national targets to address land degradation. With 91 per cent of land surface made up of drylands and population highly dependent on agriculture, LDN is a high priority, as evident from the Sustainable Land Management Programme that works to implement nationwide policies and secure multiple ecosystem benefits in three pilot sites. The poster gallery, conceptualized and supervised by Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Glaser and developed by Michael Kahle on FreiDok is used as part of the Global Change lecture series. Posters in the gallery follow a variety of topics and can be filtered by theme, location, concept and landscape types as well as displayed on a map. Read more: Land Degradation Neutrality Countries setting LDN targets
A recent graduate of a geography and environmental management programme in Nigeria, Ibrahim volunteers with several organizations to plant trees and raise awareness among the youth on the effects of desertification and ways to address it. He writes a blog and draws cartoons to convey messages about land restoration. You can find him on: Facebook: @ibro941 Twitter: @Ibrodollars Instagram: @ibrodollars/
At just 20 years old, Kehkashan is already a global influencer, environmentalist, TEDx Speaker, social enterprise innovator and author. In 2012, she founded the Green Hope Foundation to provide a platform for engagement and empowerment of children and youth, especially those representing vulnerable groups, and turn them into changemakers who address the sustainability issues at a local level. Today, the foundation has 2060 members in 16 countries across Middle East, India, Brazil, USA, Canada, Europe and South East Asia. Empowering young people is Kehkashan's passion, and she spends a lot of time personally training and guiding many of them through workshops on mangrove conservation and tree planting. Kehkashan is a tireless civil society advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals and holds leadership positions in several organizations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kehkashan continues her advocacy work through webinars and the #WomenImpactingTheWorld series. You can find her on: Facebook: @greenhopeyouth.greenhopefoundation Twitter: @KehkashanBasu / @GreenHopeYouth Instagram: @kehkashan5basu / @greenhopefoundation