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Women and climate is the focus of a new charitable non-fungible token (NFT) art drop, launched 21 January on the margins of the World Economic Forum’s digital edition of Davos. It will land on the pioneering marketplace SuperRare, featuring digital artwork inspired by the interlinked challenges of gender equality and climate justice.  This carbon-net negative event is a collaboration between the climate tech non-profit Code Green co-founded by  UNCCD Land Ambassador Inna Modja and the World of Women NFT collection that unites female artists to celebrate women’s diversity and power. Inna says she was inspired to create this auction by her experience traveling along the Great Green Wall — an African-led initiative growing an 8000-km green corridor across the continent to improve the lives of millions of women on the frontline of climate change.  "Being from Mali, I have seen with my own eyes that women and girls disproportionately bear the brunt of the global climate emergency. They are the main stewards of natural resources like land, making up 80 per cent of the agricultural workforce. Through absolutely no fault of their own, climate change is destroying their livelihoods and sparking widespread food insecurity, mass migration and conflict. The Great Green Wall is a powerful solution that can help empower women to take charge of their own destinies." — Inna Modja Inna contributed some of her own artwork to the Women and Climate charitable NFT drop that will channel 70 per cent of all proceeds to women-led land restoration solutions along the Great Green Wall. Image: Twin Mamas by Inna Modja Read more: Great Green Wall initiative Land and gender UNCCD Land Ambassadors NFT community supports climate action, sustainably

Currently, one in every five hectares of land on Earth is unusable and by 2050 only 10% of land could be healthy Businesses are failing to help protect the resources of healthy ecosystems they depend upon such as land for farming The good news is that initiatives like The Great Green Wall are proving that action can be taken now to reverse land degradation By 2050, 90 per cent of land could become degraded. How can businesses help restore the resources they depend upon? Land restoration, with a ballpark cost of $500 per hectare, is one of the most cost-effective ways to combat business risks. Restoring just 350 million hectares of degraded land could, by 2030, remove greenhouse gases roughly equal to half the world’s annual emissions from the atmosphere. Restoring land can earn an extra $1.4 trillion in agricultural production every year. Focusing on regenerative land use is an opportunity to safeguard businesses from the impacts of climate change and land degradation. Restoring ecosystems and soil biodiversity is among the most effective weapons against weather extremes. Restoring land can create employment and help a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the US, first movers have demonstrated that under certain conditions, farms with regenerative practices are an estimated 78% more profitable than those using conventional practices. Read the latest blog by the UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw for the World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/how-businesses-can-help-restore-land-resources/ Read more: The Great Green Wall initiative Achieving Land Degradation Neutrality UNCCD science-policy blog

The workshop “Development of Project Proposal to Combat Desertification in the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) region” took place on 14-16 December 2021, organized by the Republic of Turkey, the General Directorate of Combating Desertification and Erosion, and the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

On Friday 17 December 2021, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution on the implementation of UNCCD, recognizing that combating desertification, land degradation and drought are important for sustainable, inclusive and climate-resilient recovery from the COVID-19 crisis

The online meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG) on drought on 13-15 December 2021 brought together 30 regional representatives, scientists, international organizations and members of civil society, to review new policy and institutional measures that can help address drought effectively under the Convention. The novel findings and recommendations are the result of the two years of work since the IWG was established by Parties at UNCCD COP14 in New Delhi, India in 2019. The final recommendations of the IWG will be presented to Parties at UNCCD COP 15 which will take place in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire in May 2022. The holistic approach to drought proposed by the IWG are expected to support early action on drought to help the most vulnerable communities and ecosystems. Read more: Land and Drought The Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought

Remarks by UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw Dear colleagues and friends I am honoured to participate in the launch of this year’s State of the World's Land and Water Resources, and I thank our friends and partners at FAO for their kind invitation and for our continued collaboration. The document we have in front of us today is a timely contribution to the sustainable development agenda and bolsters the evidence base needed to drive regenerative solutions that our societies urgently – and rightly - demand. Observing the confluence of crises – from drought, wildfires and floods to persistent epidemics and devastating pandemics – we are rapidly approaching certain limits in the planetary system -- and if I may say -- pushing the envelope that keeps us all safe. Many of the breaking points in our food systems are due to our activities, specifically the over-exploitation and poor management of land and water resources. Likewise, its within our power and capacity to transform our actions so that we avoid land degradation, reduce land resource pressures, and begin planning and preparing for the future. Protecting and restoring nature is an urgent priority and requires an immediate response– pivoting from reactive to proactive. The objective of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is to assist countries with the “rehabilitation, conservation and sustainable management of land and water resources, leading to improved living conditions” Land restoration is all about creating opportunities for people by transforming the governance of land resources to facilitate a shift to regenerative management practices. Everyone has a role to play in restoring land – individuals, communities, businesses, governments, and international organizations all have a stake in the future. And we are here to support all of you in that quest. Our convention provides the multilateral legal and institutional framework not only to tackle, together, desertification, land degradation and drought, but to advance together in unveiling the opportunities that land restoration offers to all of us in terms of food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation and ecosystem conservation, to name a few. Under the UNCCD, for example, response actions committed under the Land Degradation Neutrality targets focus on improving health and productivity of our land. We expect to advance on this agenda, along with other important aspects of land restoration, at our upcoming COP15 that will take place in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, during the 2nd and 3rd weeks of May 2022. In closing, I would like to encourage you to join us in our journey to Abidjan and to conserve, protect and restore our precious land, for the health and the development of people and planet. Thank you very much.