Press releases

6 September, New Delhi – The High-Level Segment of the14th session of the Conference of Parties (COP14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, opens on Monday, 9 September 2019, in New Delhi, India. Accredited journalists intending to participate must collect their badges from the conference venue tomorrow, Saturday 7 September, between 12 noon and 08:00pm and be seated in the plenary hall by 09:59am on Monday, 9 September. Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi will open the high-level segment. Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina J. Mohammed, President of COP14 and Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in India, Mr. Prakash Javadekar and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, along with other dignitaries, will attend the opening ceremony taking place from 10:30AM to 11:30AM in the Plenary Hall at the India Expo Centre and Mart, Greater Noida.    After the opening ceremony, a press conference with COP President Javadekar and Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed will take place at 02:30-03:00pm in the Press Room.  All bona fide press and media representative are welcome to participate at both events, but must first get approval to participate, and then pick up their badges before 08:00pm tomorrow evening Saturday, 7 September from the conference venue. Apply via this link. A separate advisory regarding travel and security arrangements will be issued tomorrow. Detailed information about the Conference is available from the online Press Kit. Transportation from New Delhi City center A shuttle service for journalists will run from the National Media centre (Raisina Road, Windsor Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110001, India) to the conference venue on  9 September. All other days, the shuttle service will run from the Ministry of Environment (Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, Jorbagh Road, New Delhi 110 003) to the Conference venue. Accredited media may use these services for free. Background documents and information on COP14 are available online.   Social media for the Conference can be found Twitter, Facebook and Instagram   #UNCCDCOP14 @unccd For further information, please contact: wwischnewski@unccd.int asrivatsava@unccd.int abhishek@prprofessionals.in  

The Fourteenth Session of the Conference of Parties (COP14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification opens on Monday afternoon, 2 September 2019, in New Delhi, India, and ends Friday, 13 September 2019.

Our individual consumption and production choices have a lasting impact on land. Thus, restoring and protecting fragile areas is the responsibility of everyone who wants to eat, drink or breathe. Restoration of 150 million ha of degraded land can generate US$40 billion for small farmers and feed 200 million people. Agriculture and urbanization, the two new drivers of land degradation today also demand action.   French Spanish Arabic Chinese Russian Ankara, 17 June 2019. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for urgent action to protect and restore degrading land in a bid to reduce forced migration, improve food security, spur economic growth and help to address the global climate emergency.  Noting that the world loses 24 billion tons of fertile soil and dryland degradation reduces national domestic product in developing countries by up to 8% annually, Guterres said much remains to be done, and stressed the imperative of combatting desertification as part of our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Ibrahim Thiaw, head of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification – the world’s only agreement binding countries to tackle land degradation and desertification and to mitigate the effects of drought – said our simple, everyday choices have a huge and enduring impact on the land, climate and biodiversity. He called for quicker and smarter individual and professional choices, if we want our society, economy and environment to grow together.  When only 20 per cent of the surface is habitable and one percent of freshwater is accessible to a global population that will reach nine billion in three decades, the simple, everyday choices we make to produce or consume goods ripple across our intricately interconnected lifestyles with incredibly long-term impacts, he stressed.  Recent assessments show that one out of every four hectares of productive land has become unusable. Moreover, three out of every four hectares have been altered completely from their natural state.  Under these conditions, Thiaw said increasing food production by 50 percent, when land degradation and climate change will be decreasing crop yields by 50 percent makes restoring and protecting the fragile layer of land an issue for “anyone who wants to eat, drink or breathe.”  Thiaw made the call from Ankara, Türkiye, during the global observance of the worldwide celebrations to mark both the 2019 World Day to Combat Desertification and 25 years of international cooperation in restoring and protecting productive land.  World day to Combat Desertification is celebrated every year in every country on 17 June to promote good land stewardship for the benefit of present and future generations. Türkiye’s President Recepp Tayyip Erdogan presided over the global observance celebrations hosted by his government, and attended by ministers from 10 countries. Some 196 countries and the European Union are parties to the Convention, of which 169 are affected by desertification, land degradation or drought.  In 2015, the international community agreed to achieve a balance in the rate at which land is degraded and restored by taking concrete actions to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation, generally referred to as achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN), and mitigate the effects of drought. n the last four years, 122 countries have committed to take voluntary, measurable actions to arrest land degradation by 2030. And 44 of the 70 countries that have suffered drought in the past have set up national plans to manage drought more effectively in the future.  Whereas a significant amount of the land degradation and transformation has occurred over the last 50 years, Thiaw stressed that the success stories of land restoration and conservation, such as in Türkiye’s Central Anatolia region, offer hope that change is possible when traditional knowledge, technology and faith communities come together creatively. He said the restoration of 150 million hectares of farmland by 2030 can generate up to USD40 billion in extra income for smallholders, feed another 200 million people and sink several gigatons of carbon dioxide. Scaling it up across all our degraded land could prevent biodiversity and climate from disintegrating and bequeath new opportunities to the next generation, he added. He warned, however, that urbanization is a growing challenge because half of the global population now lives in urban areas and consumes resources produced in an area 200 times the size of the city. What’s more, regions such as Asia and Africa could lose 80 percent of their cropland to cities.  Restoring the two billion hectares of land that is already degraded would help meet that growing demand from urban areas and create sustainable jobs and stabilize vulnerable areas, he argued. Thiaw said the actions taken by countries in the context of the Convention show that the world is determined to switch from destroying the Earth to making it productive enough to grow a better future for everyone by 2030. ~ ends ~ About UNCCD The UNCCD is an international agreement on good land stewardship. It helps people, communities and countries to create wealth, grow economies and secure enough food and water and energy, by ensuring land users have an enabling environment for sustainable land management. Through partnerships, the Convention’s 197 Parties set up robust systems to manage drought promptly and effectively. Good land stewardship based on a sound policy and science helps integrate and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to climate change and prevents biodiversity loss. Notes to Editors Background information about the 2019 celebrations in Türkiye and around the world are available here: https://www.unccd.int/actions17-june-world-day-combat-desertification/celebrate-2019wdcd Factsheet: Summary of Recent Assessments of Land Degradation Speech: Executive Secretary, UNCCD on the Occasion of World Day to Combat Desertification For interviews contact: wwischnewski@unccd.int

New York, 4 April 2019 – Sixty-plus international organizations, led by the United Nations and including the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group and World Trade Organization, jointly sounded the alarm Thursday in a new report, warning that unless national and international financial systems are revamped, the world’s governments will fail to keep their promises on such critical issues as combatting climate change and eradicating poverty by 2030. In their 2019 Financing for Sustainable Development Report, the international organizations find some good news: investment has gained strength in some countries and interest in sustainable investing is growing, with 75 per cent of individual investors showing interest in how their investments affect the world.   And yet, greenhouse gas emissions grew 1.3 per cent in 2017; investment in many countries is falling; and 30 developing countries are now at high risk or already in debt distress. At the same time, global growth is expected to have peaked at around 3 per cent. Changing the current trajectory in financing sustainable development is not just about raising additional investment, says the report. Achieving global goals depends on supportive financial systems, and conducive global and national policy environments. Yet the report warns that creating favorable conditions is becoming more challenging. Rapid changes in technology, geopolitics, and climate are remaking our economies and societies, and existing national and multilateral institutions -- which had helped lift billions out of poverty -- are now struggling to adapt. Confidence in the multilateral system has been undermined, in part because it has failed to deliver returns equitably, with most people in the world living in countries with increasing inequality. “Trust in the multilateral system itself is eroding, in part because we are not delivering inclusive and sustainable growth for all,” said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his foreword to the report. “Our shared challenge is to make the international trading and financial systems fit for purpose to advance sustainable development and promote fair globalization.” The international agencies recommend concrete steps to overhaul the global institutional architecture and make the global economy and global finance more sustainable, including: supporting a shift towards long-term investment horizons with sustainability risks central to investment decisions; revisiting mechanisms for sovereign debt restructuring to respond to more complex debt instruments and a more diverse creditor landscape; revamping the multilateral trading system; addressing challenges to tax systems that inhibit countries from mobilizing adequate resources in an increasingly digitalized world economy; and addressing growing market concentration that extends across borders, with impacts on inequality.  At the national level, the report puts forward a roadmap for countries to revamp their public and private financial systems to mobilize resources for sustainable investment. It introduces tools for countries to align financing policies with national sustainable development strategies and priorities.   One example of the opportunities and challenges the report discusses is in new technologies and fintech (digitally enabled innovation in the financial sector).  With more than half a billion people gaining access to financial services in recent years, the appeal of fintech is clear.  But as new players enter and rapidly change the financing marketplace, regulators struggle to keep pace. As fintech grows in importance, activities outside the regulatory framework, if left unsupervised, may put financial stability at risk. Fintech’s promise can pay off with regulatory approaches that address these concerns, but these need to be implemented without stifling innovation. To this end, the report emphasizes the importance of discussions between fintech companies, financial institutions and regulators. It finds that regulatory attention will need to shift to financial activities and their underlying risks, no matter the entity that engages in them, rather than by institutional type. “We have a major opportunity to overcome bottlenecks in sustainable financing in 2019”, said Mr. Zhenmin Liu, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Chair of the Task Force that issued the report. “The responsibility rests with governments to recommit to multilateralism, and to take policy actions that will create a sustainable and prosperous future.” Background:  The report is a joint product of the Inter-agency Task Force on Financing for Development, which is comprised of more than 60 United Nations Agencies and international organizations. The Financing for Sustainable Development Office of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs serves as the substantive editor and coordinator of the Task Force, in close cooperation the World Bank Group, the IMF, WTO, UNCTAD, and UNDP. The Task Force was mandated by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and is chaired by Mr. Zhenmin LIU, Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs. The full copy of the report and the annex will be uploaded to: https://financing.desa.un.org/iatf/iatf-Home This report is the basis for discussions at the ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development (15-18 April 2019), where Member States agree on measures necessary to mobilize sustainable financing. The SDG Investment Fair, which brings together government officials and investors, will also be held 15-16 April at the UN Headquarters.  More information on both events is at: https://www.un.org/esa/ffd/ffdforum/ For further information, please contact: Kate Donovan, UNDESA, Tel: 1718 362 0606 Kathryn.donovan@un.org  

Bonn, Germany – Reviving damaged lands and the livelihoods of people affected by desertification, land degradation and drought can be possible by 2030, according to participants who attended the intergovernmental committee that reviews the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).  Participants at the seventeenth Committee to Review the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC17), which ended yesterday in Georgetown, Guyana, stated that the speed at which countries are implementing the Sustainable Development Goal target of land degradation neutrality puts it within reach, and stated two other reasons. The process of setting the target at the country level has drawn in other land-related sectors at the country level, and triggering positive change. In addition, countries are spending more money on activities to contain land degradation and desertification and to manage drought effectively. In the four years since countries reached the agreement to achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030, 120 of the 169 countries affected by desertification, land degradation or drought have started identifying where to reduce the risk of degradation and where to recover degrading land. The process of setting the 2030 country targets for LDN has broadened action to other land-related sectors. As a result, the Committee was able to review the first-of-its-kind global assessment of land degradation by governments, which is based on quantitative earth observation data collected and analyzed in at least 127 countries. The assessment’s uniqueness lies in that countries are working to measure and monitor three essential indicators of land degradation in the same way over the same period, so that the status of LDN can be determined for the globe. Based on the assessment, the Committee laid out a range of actions that address issues such as land rights, drought and gender equality, for governments to consider and agree on when they meet in September of this year in New Delhi, India, during the fourteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP14).  “We have seen a sea-change and huge progress” since the Convention was negotiated in 1994, said Monique Barbut, the UNCCD Executive Secretary, during the closing of the meeting.  “With a tiny budget we’re getting things done. We have the LDN fund up and running. We have LDN projects taking shape in more than hundred countries. A project preparation facility with the other Rio conventions is in the pipeline. Drought plans are being developed in nearly 50 countries. Land degradation and drought are recognized in the Global Compact on migration as key areas of concern,” Barbut said. Countries said “LDN is a visionary target” and expressed their satisfaction with this first collaborative analysis and assessment of land degradation. Many countries praised the achievements in data gathering and stressed the added value of the provided tools, which facilitated the use of national data to derive the indicators of land degradation using internationally standardized methodologies. However, many also called for the improvement of the tools, training in their application and support to generate more detailed national data. Barbut, whose term as head of the Convention ends in February, admitted she “was very suspicious and very tough about UNCCD and what it could achieve” in the very early days when she was part of the team that negotiated the three Rio Conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification. “But the potential of this convention has only just started to be realized,” she said, and urged countries to use their creativity and imagination to help amplify UNCCD and help it reach its full potential and stressed that “it is not an impossible ambition.” The Committee thanked the outgoing Executive Secretary for her contribution to raising the visibility of the Convention at a global level. In a statement released yesterday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres thanked Barbut for “her outstanding commitment and dedicated service to the Organization,” and announced the appointment of Ibrahim Thiaw of Mauritania as her successor. The CRIC has met for its seventeenth session with 94 countries in attendance.  For more information about this press release, contact: wwischnewski@unccd.int

Georgetown, Guyana – Momentum to repair degraded lands and to manage droughts more effectively has picked up, according to reports released for review by an inter-governmental meeting that opened today in Georgetown, Guyana. An assessment of land degradation in 127 countries revealed that close to 20 percent of healthy land was degraded in the first 15 years of this Millennium. Globally, 169 countries are affected by land degradation, desertification or drought. In the last four years, 82 countries have set targets aiming to halt land degradation by 2030 and 44 of the 70 countries regularly hit by drought are setting up drought management plans to ensure droughts do not turn into disasters. The findings are the most comprehensive to date, with data submitted by 135 countries and an assessment of degradation monitored using Earth observations.  The seventeenth Session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the UN’s Convention to Combat Desertification (CRIC17) taking place in Guyana will review the reports over the next three days. Their recommendations on further actions to ramp up this momentum will be tabled at the fourteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to be held on 2-13 September 2019 in New Delhi, India. “Momentum is with us”, announced Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary of the Convention, during the opening of CRIC 17.  “The first piece of good news is that we know more and more about what is going on…. how much land we have degraded globally in the first 15 years of this Millennium, how life has changed for the communities living on degraded lands, how droughts are evolving globally, the changing status of endangered biological species, and the financial resources available to address desertification,” she said. She also described as good news the reports’ findings that “in all regions, rural populations now have more access to safe drinking water, poverty has declined by 27% overall, at least 120 countries will eventually have targets to curb land degradation and there is growing interest from domestic and global private finance to invest in land management.” Ms. Barbut, who steps down as the Convention’s Executive Secretary next month, however cautioned that “aspects such as land governance, education, demography and land use planning still have a long way to go,” and called on governments not to underestimate their ability to trigger change in the most pressing areas, but to be “brave.” Joseph Harmon, Minister of State, Guyana, said “although milestones have been achieved… we still have to be steadfast in addressing land degradation.” “The continuing degradation of land and soils is a severe threat to the provision of ecosystem services and economic development globally,” he said.  Harmon said “the pressures on land are increasing due to urbanization, population growth and rising demands for food, feed, fuel and fiber. Halting land degradation is therefore a prerequisite for sustainable development,” he stressed.  Global efforts to combat desertification began in 1977. However, the rapid loss of productive land due to a combination of poor land uses and growing extreme and erratic weather effects now affects more people than ever before. Two other recent reports examined the extent and effects of land degradation on livelihoods. The Global Land Outlook released in 2017 found a persistent loss of 20 percent of the Earth’s vegetative cover from 1998-2013. The Assessment of Land Degradation released in 2018 showed that land degradation impacts over 3.2 billion people. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change is expected to release its own assessment of the effects climate change on land degradation later this year. CRIC 17 ends Wednesday, 30 January. About UNCCD The UNCCD is an international agreement on good land stewardship. It helps people, communities and countries to create wealth, grow economies and secure enough food and water and energy, by ensuring land users have an enabling environment for sustainable land management. Through partnerships, the Convention’s 197 Parties set up robust systems to manage drought promptly and effectively. Good land stewardship based on a sound policy and science helps integrate and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to climate change and prevents biodiversity loss. Notes to editors Download a factsheet of the findings from the report Download the detailed report For specific country reports, see here For interviews with UNCCD staff contact wwischnewski@unccd.int  To interview specific country delegates Opening Speech of Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary

"The Group of Earth Observations launches a new, innovative initiative to put Earth Observation (EO) data in the hands of national and local decision makers in order to halt and reverse land degradation, and Germany immediately pledges EUR100,000 (USD$113,000) for the initiative." Kyoto, Japan. Over 75% of the world’s land surface is significantly impacted by human activity. The consequences are evident in more and severe droughts, high loss of wildlife and new trends in internal displacement and forced migration. Inaction on land degradation for most of the 169 countries affected by land degradation is due to the lack of accurate data and the tools to monitor it. In a landmark decision, the Group of Earth Observations (GEO)  today launched a new, innovative initiative that will put Earth Observation (EO) data in the hands of national and local decision makers, addressing this need. The GEO LDN Initiative unveiled in Kyoto will bring together Earth Observation data providers and governments to develop the quality standards, analytical tools and capacity building needed to strengthen land degradation monitoring and reporting, using remote sensing and data collected on site. At the touch of a button, governments will have the right data to prioritize interventions and monitor outcomes in order to plan and manage land better. Following the announcement, Germany pledged an initial contribution of EUR100,000 (USD113,000) for the initiative. To date, 119 governments have pledged to take the measures needed to avoid, halt and reverse land degradation to ensure the amount of productive land stabilizes by 2030 and beyond. “The world is gripped by a growing sense of crisis regarding the sustainability of the global environment, and the deteriorating global environment affects our daily life. Within this context, we are being tasked with taking action, as ‘global citizens’, against the various global issues that cannot be solved by one country alone,” said Keiko Nagaoka, Japan’s State Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, when he opened the GEO 2018 Congress. GEO, an intergovernmental organization whose mandate is to improve the availability and sharing of data on Earth observations to benefit all life on Earth, is made up of government, academic and research institutions, data providers, businesses, engineers, scientists and experts who share data to create innovative solutions to pressing global problems. “Land degradation is an existential crisis. Until now, monitoring it in real time felt like an insurmountable challenge. No longer. With Earth observation datasets and the practical tools to use them readily available, decision-makers and land users will have immediate and actionable information to scale up sustainable land management and planning. It is a first step to boosting our resilience,” said Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The Initiative responds to a call made from the UNCCD’s Conference of the Parties last September to bring data providers and data users together to support global efforts to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation globally. Welcoming the Initiative, Jennifer Morris, President of Conservation International said, “it is time to move from measurement and monitoring to action. From Conservation International’s experience in the field we know restoring nature is an important piece of building healthy lands that can support productive and sustainable landscapes. Earth observation, and tools like Trends.Earth, can support local and national governments in prioritizing and implementing restoration actions.” To ensure the initiative gets off to a flying start, three Working Groups emerged from the discussions in Kyoto. One will focus on building national capacities; the second will develop data quality standards and protocols for the SDG indicator land degradation (15.3.1) and its sub-indicators; and, the third will establish platforms with high computing capacities so partners can collaborate on big data analytics, such as open data cubes. According to Barron Joseph Orr, Lead Scientist, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, “if the ability to process, interpret and validate geospatial data can be enhanced, it would lead to real national ownership. UNCCD Parties are clear about their data needs so delivering for governments and local communities will drive the work programme of the new GEO LDN Initiative.” The partnership and cutting edge technology developed for the GEO LDN initiative will move efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals target on land degradation into the fast lane. The target of achieving land degradation neutrality is widely accepted to be an accelerator and integrator for achieving the other 17 Goals. ------- Notes to Editors Media Contact: wwischnewski@unccd.int For inquiries about the GEO LDN Initiative, contact: salexander@unccd.int For information about the GEO LDN Initiative, click here: http://www.earthobservations.org/activity.php?id=149 For information about the German contribution, click here: https://www.earthobservations.org/article.php?id=326  

Espagnol 17 June 2018, Quito, Ecuador. More than 3.2 billion people, or 2 in every 5 people, are impacted by land degradation today and up to 143 million people could move within their countries by 2050 to escape water scarcity and falling crop productivity due to the slow onset impacts of climate change. To avoid these threats, Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, has called on consumers and the private sector to join governments to save healthy land. She added that lack of preparedness for future droughts in particular, could lead to massive social and political upheavals. “Everything we produce and consume has a land footprint. A bicycle requires 3.4 square meters of land. Ten square meters of land are used to produce a laptop. Producing one kilogram of beef takes 22 square meters,“ but few people give thought to these daily processes “because the losses are not visible – or at least not accounted for - in the products we consume,” Barbut stated. “We are all decision-makers because in our daily lives, our choices have consequences. Our small decisions transform the world,” she stressed, and called on consumers to make choices that reward land users whose practices protect the land from degradation. Barbut, who heads the international agreement that deals with desertification, land degradation and drought effects, also warned that it is dangerous to reduce the true value of healthy land to its economic value alone. She made the remarks in observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification on 17 June. The global observance event took place in Quito, Ecuador. Ecuador promotes a bio-economy among its agriculturalists in order to diffuse sustainable land management technologies, which maintain the land’s productivity. The country is also pursuing the Sustainable Development Goal target of achieving land degradation neutrality, which means avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation to ensure the amount of healthy land it had in 2015 is the same in 2030, and stays stable thereafter. Barbut also underlined the need to “go beyond conscious consumerism” to engage the private sector and governments in better land uses because “the real value of the land is not just economic.” “Land is worth so much more than the economic value we attach to it. It defines our way of life and our culture – whether we live in the city or the villages. It purifies the water we drink.  It feeds us.  It surrounds us with beauty. But, we cannot meet the needs and wants of a growing population if the amount of healthy and productive land continues to decline so dramatically,” Barbut said. Tarsicio Granizo, Minister of Environment, Ecuador, said “desertification is a matter that not only has to do with the environment, but also with food sovereignty and with protection of the agricultural soil.” The Global Land Outlook (The GLO) of 2017 states that 45% of the food consumed globally comes from the world’s dryland areas, and that falling productivity, food shortages and water scarcity in these regions is creating insecurity. The GLO warns that about 20% more productive land was degraded from 1983-2013, and that Africa and Asia face the greatest threats, going forward. “We must do far more to recognize the immense value of healthy and productive land in strengthening the resilience of the world’s poorest communities, which are facing more drought and other slow-onset climate disasters,” said António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, in marking the Day. Five of the 8 slow onset events identified by the Climate Change Convention as potential future sources of huge losses and damage are manifestations of declining land productivity. These are desertification, salinization, land and forest degradation, biodiversity loss and rising temperatures. Globally, about 2 billion hectares of land are degraded. Most of it can be restored back to health. “Science has given us the knowledge and tools we need for managing land to build resilience to drought and the impacts of climate change. Governments and the communities whose lives and livelihoods depend on the land can take steps now to prepare for future drought,” Guterres said. The sustainable land management technologies needed to minimize and reverse many of these effects exist, but the policy instruments and investments to promote their spread are non-existent. As a result, some of the most land-dependent communities are exposed to the growing powerful and adverse weather effects, such as recurrent droughts, unpredictable rainfall and disappearing ground water sources. Barbut highlighted three critical actions that consumers and the private sector can take to encourage land users and governments to save healthy land from further degradation and to recover nearly barren lands. First, changing consumer behavior and unsustainable production patterns. Second, adopting more efficient land use planning. Third, creating mechanisms like the LDN Fund that will motivate the private sector to invest in land restoration. “The public needs to be empowered.  If they know that the choices they make every day can make a difference in terms of how the land is used – whether it is abused or nurtured – I am sure they will choose and consume more wisely,” she said. “Governments must create incentives that can encourage the private sector to see that sustainable management of the land and the restoration of degraded land is the socially responsible thing to do. The UNCCD is ready to help initiatives that can restore degraded land at scale,” she said. She called on countries to formulate the targets to be achieved by 2030, which signals that “a country has a systematic plan to ensure sufficient high quality land is available in the long-term to meet the demand for essentials like food and water.” Minister Granizo said “the Government of Ecuador is proud to host, for the first time in Latin America, the celebration of this international day, which was attended by prominent authorities of the Convention to Combat Desertification.” World Day to Combat Desertification is observed every year on 17 June to raise awareness about the status of the land resources, especially at country level, and to mobilize required actions.  ----- About UNCCD The UNCCD is an international agreement on good land stewardship. It helps people, communities and countries to create wealth, grow economies and secure enough food and water and energy, by ensuring land users have an enabling environment for sustainable land management. Through partnerships, the Convention’s 197 Parties set up robust systems to manage drought promptly and effectively. Good land stewardship based on a sound policy and science helps integrate and accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to climate change and prevents biodiversity loss. Notes to Editors For information about sustainable land management technologies For information on global progress towards achieving land degradation neutrality To learn the meaning of achieving land degradation neutrality For background information about the 2018 World Day to Combat Desertification Media Contacts For inquiries about the World Day, contact: wwischnewski@unccd.int.

9 May 2018 - Bonn, Germany – The global economy will lose a whopping USD23 trillion by 2050 through land degradation, a review by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) warns. To take urgent action now and halt these alarming trends would cost USD4.6 trillion – only a fraction of the predicted losses. The outcomes of the review have been assembled into comprehensive and easy-to-use Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Country Profiles, of which 21 are already available online. The LDN Country Profiles reveal that average losses for these 21 countries are equivalent to 9 percent of GDP. This figure is even higher for some of the planet’s worst affected countries, such as the Central African Republic, where the total losses are estimated at a staggering 40 percent. Asia and Africa bear the highest costs, estimated at USD84 billion and 65 billion per year respectively. “Healthy land is the primary asset that supports livelihoods around the globe – from food to jobs and decent incomes. Today, we face a crisis of unseen proportions: 1.5 billion people – mainly in the world’s most impoverished countries – are trapped on degrading agricultural land. This reality is fuelling extreme poverty, particularly in areas such as the Sahel and South Asia, where extreme and erratic weather events are on the rise due to the impacts of climate change,” says Juan Carlos Mendoza, Managing Director of the UNCCD Global Mechanism. The LDN Country Profiles aim to help guide policy decisions on land use management. The profiles are based largely on the analytical work undertaken by the Center for Development Research of the University of Bonn, the Economics of Land Degradation Initiative and the International Food Policy Research Institute. Globally, 169 countries are affected by land degradation and/or drought. Of these, 116 countries are committed to achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) under the UNCCD LDN Target-Setting Programme that supports countries in reaching target 15.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Target 15.3, on Land Degradation Neutrality, encourages countries to halt land degradation in order to ensure the quantity of productive land remains stable. The target is now also recognized as vital for accelerating other SDGs, such as: Goal 1 (No poverty), Goal 2 (Zero hunger), Goal 5 (Promote gender equality), Goal 6 (Clean water and sanitation), Goal 8 (Decent work and economic growth), and Goal 13 (Climate action). The 21 countries whose profiles have been released today are also engaged in the LDN target setting process, formulating targets and associated measures to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation. For example, the Central African Republic, has committed to restore more than 1 million hectares of degraded land – equal to 15 percent of its territory – which will limit its potential losses and economic burden nationwide. “The LDN Country Profiles provide policy-makers with easily accessible and scientifically sound information that can help estimate the value of their investments in land restoration and make informed choices on the economic returns they can expect from taking assertive action now. Moreover, the profiles illustrate the equivalent monetary value of land degradation and its impact on the international community, while providing strong incentives for cooperation among countries,” Mendoza adds. A broader picture of the economic costs of failing to act decisively and restore available land resources will emerge as additional country profiles are released. ------- About the UNCCD The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is an international agreement on good land stewardship. It helps people, communities and countries create wealth, grow economies and secure enough food, clean water and energy by ensuring land users an enabling environment for sustainable land management. Through partnerships, the Convention’s 197 parties set up robust systems to manage drought promptly and effectively. Good land stewardship based on sound policy and science helps integrate and accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to climate change and prevents biodiversity loss. For more information on the study review, contact: Pablo Munoz, pmunoz@unccd.int  

French Spanish Bonn, 7 February 2018. The World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD) to be marked worldwide on 17 June 2018 will focus on how consumers can regenerate economies, create jobs and revitalize livelihoods and communities by influencing the market to invest in sustainable land management through what we buy. Unveiling the theme, Monique Barbut, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), said “the campaign slogan, ‘Land has true value. Invest in it.’, reminds us that land is a tangible asset with measurable value beyond just cash. That value is lost through degradation. But we can encourage land users to use land management practices that keep the land productive by the decisions we make every day in what we buy to eat, drink and wear.” A mapping of the impacts of our individual decisions by the Global Land Outlook shows the real picture. An analysis of the food consumed in the city London found that around 80 per cent of the food is imported from other countries. The footprint for the Netherlands shows that the country needs four times its own land area to feed its people. Thirty percent of all land is degraded, and has lost its true value. Land grabbing and a headlong rush for productive land signals a growing recognition that access to productive land will be crucial for future economic growth, peace and stability.  The sustainable development goal target to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030 is an important response to these challenges. It will help to recover degraded lands, stop land grabbing, fight climate change, increase food production and provide clean water. “Every coin a consumer spends determines where investments by the private sector and governments go – either to land degrading ventures or towards good land use practices. Let’s not underestimate how our small individual decisions transform the world, so let’s choose wisely with our purchases,” Ms Barbut said. The global observance of the Day in 2018 will be hosted by the Government of Ecuador.  Ecuador promotes smart and healthy consumerism and supports the use of sustainable land use practices such as bioeconomy, which is an impact indicator of the National Development Plan (2017-2020). The World Day to Combat Desertification was established by the UN General Assembly 23 years ago to be celebrated by every country in order to raise global awareness about the status of, and the priority actions taken at global and national levels to reverse desertification land degradation and strengthen responses to drought.  Notes to Editors