Statements

Quoi de plus intimidant pour un expatrié qui a passé ces trente dernières années à pérégriner à travers le monde, que de devoir parler du développement durable en Mauritanie devant un tel parterre de personnalités et de spécialistes ? Déconnectés. Ne connaissant plus les réalités du pays….autant de qualificatifs dont on nous affuble à nous, émigrés.

To our mothers, sisters and daughters – we honor your life-giving force, we salute your contribution to bringing about a more sustainable world, and above all we are inspired by your resilience in the face of tremendous adversity. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by desertification, land degradation and drought. This is not because they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rather it is a result of traditions, customs, or religious practices that have not yet evolved to recognize and respect their legitimate human rights. As we face an unparalleled confluence of natural and human-induced crises, cultures and societies can no longer afford to disrespect or disregard women and girls’ role as primary caregivers and as educators as well as their contribution to household health and income, food and water security, and sustainable development. This recognition is important as we strive towards a more equitable and just society. However, it is not enough. On this International Women’s Day 2022, I am calling on governments and communities to welcome women and girls as equal partners and harness their knowledge and talent to address the existential challenges of today. An important first step is their full and meaningful participation in decision making and investments that will determine the quality of life on land for our children. Inclusive land restoration begins with reforming legal, regulatory, customary, and administrative frameworks to be gender responsive. Inclusive land restoration also means upholding women’s legitimate rights to access and control land resources – soil, water, and biodiversity. This opens doors to credit and finance, markets and networks, and training and extension services that improve family and community health and shared economic prosperity. On this Day, I reiterate my call to governments and communities to empower women and girls and recognize their legitimate human rights, including their right to own and manage land. This will lead the way for a prosperous, equitable, and sustainable future for them, and for all.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Report on Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability released earlier this week paints an alarming picture for the future of people and the planet over the next 20 years — the space of a single generation.

A statement by UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw With the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, the world has put nature and sustainable land use at the heart of the global battle against climate change and biodiversity loss. And not a moment too soon! At UNCCD, we know the conservation, protection, sustainable management and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems, including forests and trees, is crucial to our survival as a species and to our collective efforts to combat the worst effects of land degradation, desertification and drought.   We welcome the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration and look forward to working, in partnership with all stakeholders, on its practical application and the transition to truly sustainable land use. Nature positive agricultural production can go hand in hand with people-centred development when rights are respected and good practices are incentivised.  The bold agenda set out in the Declaration can stop the loss of our precious forests and productive land. To achieve this, it is essential that the Declaration moves rapidly to an implementation phase to mitigate climate change and reduce the vulnerability of rural people and their livelihoods worldwide.  UNCCD and its partners are already working to ensure commitments under the Nationally Determined Contributions and UNCCD’s voluntary Land Degradation Neutrality targets are turned into a pipeline of bankable projects for investment by the public and private sector; there are hundreds of millions of hectares of forests and degraded land with the potential to be restored that have already been identified.  We will go further and faster though by accelerating the transition to an economy that is resilient to climate shocks and advances forest, sustainable land use, biodiversity and climate goals together.  About UNCCD The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the only legally binding international agreement on land issues. The Convention promotes good land stewardship. Its 197 Parties aim, through partnerships, to implement the Convention and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The end goal is to protect our land, from over-use and drought, so it can continue to provide us all with food, water and energy. By sustainably managing land and striving to achieve land degradation neutrality, now and in the future, we will reduce the impact of climate change, avoid conflict over natural resources and help communities to thrive. More info: Other language versions: FR | SP | AR | CH | RU Media inquiries: press@unccd.int About LDN Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use

As the latest round of climate negotiations got underway in Glasgow, at an event co-hosted by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, French President Emmanuel Macron and Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazaouni, it was encouraging to see a strong focus put on efforts to scale up implementation of the Great Green Wall as a critical nature-based solution to climate change in Africa.   

Statement by UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw: Madame Chairperson, Bureau members, distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me first offer my warmest congratulations to you Madam Chair and Bureau members on your election at the helm of this Committee. You are carrying out your duties in difficult times. Permit me at the outset, to formally introduce the report of the Secretary General contained in document A/76/225. Allow me to highlight four elements. First: This planet is the only home there is for the 7.9 B people that we are. Building back better (or, even best, building forward better) from the pandemic will only succeed if we reset our relationships with nature. We live on land. Land provides us with the food we eat, the clothes that protect us, the feed needed for our animals, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. Yet, we have already altered three-quarters of the ice-free land. Science warns us that unless we change gears, by 2050, only 10% of the land will be immune of scars caused by one species: Homo sapiens. Desertification, land degradation are amongst the most serious wounds we are inflicting on ourselves. Droughts remain a major threat to the world economy and stability. There is however a silver lining. Avoiding, reducing and restoring degraded land appears to be amongst the most pragmatic, economically affordable and socially acceptable nature-based solutions to the multiple challenges we face: combatting land degradation and climate change and reducing biodiversity loss. Land restoration also increases food production. Improves water availability and water quality. Creates green jobs and increases social stability. Restoring the ecosystems, we have degraded, the forests we have chopped, connecting land to the people, rich or poor, who live off land. Re-connecting land to our economies. Our current production and consumption patterns require 1,7 planets. Our greed for natural resources, combined with our lifestyle, are affecting our health and wellbeing. Second: Placed at the center of our sustainable development efforts, land offers, as I said before, an avenue for addressing multiple challenges. In this respect, achieving land degradation neutrality as envisaged in SDG.15, is key to achieving other SDGs. Land restoration offers a reliable platform to achieve multiple goals. And here we speak of grasslands, drylands or rangelands which are ecosystems overlooked at a global level. Their sustainable management is the most concrete action that the international community can support and witness a quick impact on economies, and on livelihoods. Third: Building back better in the aftermath of the pandemic will be very costly and the trajectory to achieve SDGs seriously disturbed. As greening the economies has been seen as a pathway to sustainability, land-based jobs can be a game-changer. Land restoration can underpin the future economy.  It can be a formidable machine to create millions of decent green jobs, particularly for women and youth. It can lower the vulnerability index, particularlyin countries which are in special categories, especially the LDCs, SIDs and LLDCs. Lastly, on droughts. Though droughts are not new phenomenon, their frequency and intensity have been amplified by the changing climate. With droughts, most economies are in yoyo. They take a heavy toll on GDPs, destabilize social fabrics. Droughts accelerate forced migrations, both within national boundaries and across borders. Droughts are associated with wildfires, food insecurity and  human tragedies. It is time for the international community to take droughts for what they are: a global emergency. Global emergencies know no borders and are indifferent to political ideologies. Only international cooperation can address them in a meaningful way, as reflected in the report before you. Madam Chair, Permit me to say a few words on the High-level dialogue on desertification, land degradation and drought hosted by the President of the 75th session of the General Assembly. Which indeed was a resounding success. It contributed to raising the profile and the ambitions the global leadership is paying to restoring degraded lands. I take this opportunity to express the gratitude of the UNCCD to the General Assembly for this opportunity. I also want to thank H.E. Volkan BOZKIR, President of the 75th session of the General Assembly for his steadfast support. Finally, let me take this opportunity to inform the Committee that the next Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD (COP 15) will be held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Please note the dates: second and third weeks of May 2022. I wish to request to the delegation of Cote d’Ivoire to convey to the country’s leadership our vote of gratitude as the world prepares to travel to that beautiful country. Thank you very much.

Message from the UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw Excellences, Mesdames et messieurs, Lutter contre le changement climatique est vital. Cela devient critique. Ce ne sont plus seulement les prédictions scientifiques, les faits sont matériels. Gardons cependant en tête que la lutte contre le Changement Climatique doit se faire concomitamment avec la Protection de la Nature. La lutte contre le Changement Climatique ne peut pas être, ne doit pas être contre-nature. Pour lutter efficacement contre le Changement climatique, il faut protéger les terres et les océans. Protéger la Biodiversité et lutter contre l’érosion des sols, promouvoir l’agriculture durable ; lutter contre les effets de la sécheresse. Nous avons rendu notre planète malade. Les assauts humains répétés ont conduit au Changement Climatique, à la dégradation des terres, à la perte de la biodiversité et à une pollution suffocante. Face à un patient souffrant d’une polypathologie invalidante, le médecin sait qu’il a à faire face à un long combat. Mais il sait aussi qu’il doit traiter toutes les pathologies. La planète, comme le corps humain, est un et indivisible. Nous n’avons pas LUNDI pour le Climat, MARDI pour la lutte contre les pertes de terres productives, MERCREDI pour lutter contre la pollution, JEUDI pour lutter contre les inégalités sociales, etc. Pour être efficace et laisser une empreinte positive, nous devons entamer une démarche cohérente et adopter une attitude inclusive. Aucune région de la planète ne sera protégée tant que toutes les régions ne le seront pas. C’est ce qu’on appelle « l’effet papillon », une autre façon de nommer le multilatéralisme. Nous ne lutterons pas efficacement contre les changements climatiques tant que nous continuerons à détruire les milieux naturels. Similairement, nous n’y arriverons pas dans la lutte contre la dégradation des terres ou contre la destruction de la biodiversité, tant que nous n’avons pas une politique climatique cohérente. La bonne nouvelle est que réparer la planète n’est pas une mission incompatible avec le développement économique et la prospérité. Bien au contraire. Je clorais mes propos par deux exemples pour illustrer mes propos : A date, sur les financements destinés à la lutte contre le Changement Climatique, seuls 3% des financements vont à la Nature. Alors que la nature détient 37% des solutions (en matière de mitigation). En détruisant la nature, nous émettons des gaz à effet de serre, alors qu’en la protégeant, nous stockons du carbone. La Grande muraille verte du Sahel : La région du Sahel présente des défis importants. Je reviens à la même image du patient polypathologique. Il faut un remède de cheval. Pas un baume homéopathique. Selon un rapport de UNCCD, il faudrait restaurer 8M ha par an et investir USD 4 B annuellement, d’ici 2030. Au One Planet Summit de Paris en janvier dernier, près de $ 19 billion ont été promis pour 2025, près de 48% de ces fonds sont déjà programmés. Il faut cependant accélérer et simplifier les procédures de décaissement pour transformer au plus tôt « les dollars en hectares ».

Great Green Wall Accelerator: This dynamic team has started coordinating efforts among donors, implementing partners and strategic partners, through ongoing consultations, to implement a harmonized results management framework. The expected result is an online platform with various functionalities, such as: monitoring or matchmaking and the integration of innovative technologies to systematize data collection and analysis. The framework is built on the willingness of stakeholders to be held accountable toward their commitments to GGWA. It will ensure Great Green Wall stakeholders are on a path toward a common vision and objectives that can benefit millions of people through new job opportunities and an urgently needed land-based recovery. LDN targets: Development of the Transformative Projects and Programmes (TPP) by countries that have set their national voluntary Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) targets is progressing well. In many cases, the work is ambitious. It will contribute not only to achieving LDN and land restoration, but will also have components on response to drought, climate change, gender, capacity building and other challenges. Online consultations with stakeholders and partners for both national and regional TPPs are under way. They include regional and multi-country TPPs. Reporting platform: The reporting platform for the upcoming UNCCD reporting cycle (2022) is being developed, with the support of the Global Support Programme (GSP). The Global Environment Facility (GEF) recently approved this new phase (GSP-III) to support finalization and completion of a new reporting portal, capacity building and other relevant activities. UNEP will implement while UNCCD executes it. The new online reporting portal will be launched in the last quarter of 2021. The Global Mechanism presented the new reporting framework on Strategic Objective – 5 through online sessions held on 6 & 7 July 2021. Many government representatives participated and provided their valuable inputs. Drought Toolbox: The work supporting the activities of Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG) on drought and enhancement drought toolbox is in progress, with various inter-agency agreements in the process of being finalized. This work is supported by the Global Environment Facility’s "Enabling Activity project for implementing UNCCD COP Drought Decision," which is implemented by FAO and executed by FAO and GM/UNCCD. The initiative was officially launched at an inception workshop held during the second quarter of 2021, in collaboration with implementing and participating agencies. Things to look forward to: Return to office: During the past 18 months, staff adapted remarkably well to the COVID-19 restrictions and embraced and handled new working methods, despite the challenges of working virtually and the travel limitations. In September, we will start returning to the office at 50 per cent capacity. We will continue to observe the guidance issued by our host Government and the Secretary-General and to prioritize the health and safety as we make this transition. As we look forward to a healthy and productive autumn ahead, let me share some of the achievements and highlights since my last message. Tenth Anniversary of Changwon Initiative: On 12 October 2021, UNCCD and the Republic of Korea will launch the celebration of this milestone event in a virtual format. The Changwon Initiative was launched at COP10 in 2011. It has played a vital role in the birth and establishment of the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) concept, process and activities, and setting up of the Land for Life Award. The celebration is a moment to recognize past achievements and map the way forward for making the Initiative an accelerator of LDN implementation in the coming years. More information on the Changwon Initiative can be found at this link. Restoring Balance with Nature Campaign: The three Rio Conventions (CBD, UNCCD and UNFCCC) are joining forces to ensure that all of us take actions in our own backyards to change the course of history by restoring balance with nature. This joint campaign will be launched in the last quarter of the year. Public outreach: As the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration gains momentum, the Convention is reviewing its communications approach to align it with the public sentiment for action on the land. We are developing an integrated communications strategy with two aims. First, to give the public an intuitive and simple experience with our web presence. Second, to give the UNCCD a fresh and dynamic look, ensure consistency in our messaging and improve our outreach to the public through both the social and mainstream media. These changes will also take place later this year.

The international community needs a strong biodiversity framework to guarantee the future we want, says Ibrahim Thiaw, the UN’s top policy advisor on land. “We live on the land and when we degrade it, we erode the soil and compromise the ability to feed ourselves…. We need a framework that is anchored in ecosystem management, particularly in sustainable land management,” he said. “Reviving ecosystems, which includes restoration of the land, is necessary for successful climate and biodiversity action,” he said. He laid out the triple benefits, in terms of real and immediate action, that follow when land is restored. “It reduces potential emissions from the land use sector. It stores carbon in soils and vegetation. And it enhances the ability of communities and ecosystems to withstand climate change, which also benefits biodiversity conservation.” Ibrahim Thiaw, who heads the Convention that addresses desertification, land degradation and drought, made the remarks during the high-level event on sustainable consumption and production patterns. The event, which was streamed live on Monday, 30 August, was hosted by the Government of Colombia, in the context of the post-2020 framework that will be adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China, in 2022. The latest science on land and  biodiversity loss, desertification and climate change all shows that changing consumption and production patterns are today the leading drivers of the loss of productive land. In response, 127 countries have committed to restore degrading land over the last six years. Over one billion hectares of land is earmarked for restoration by 2030, of which more than 450 million hectares are commitments by over 100 countries under the Convention’s Land Degradation Neutrality initiative. Read more...

Mr. President Duque, Secretary General, Ministers, Friends and Colleagues Warmest greetings from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. We are at a critical point in the discussions on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Hence the timeliness of this meeting. Biodiversity and climate are two sides of the same coin. Land, a precious and finite resource, binds them. Land links species and carbon. It sustains life, above and below ground. Much has already been said. I therefore have a single, simple message to you: We need a strong biodiversity framework to ensure the future we want. A framework that is anchored in ecosystem management. Particularly in sustainable land management. We live in land. When we degrade land, we erode our soils. We inhibit our ability to feed ourselves. We jeopardize the quality of the water we drink. Of the air we breathe. When we degrade habitats, we accelerate species loss. Ecosystem restoration - including land restoration – is a condition to successful climate and biodiversity action. It is the cornerstone of any strategy that seeks to restore balance among humans and nature. The foundation for the achievement of the sustainable development goals. Let me emphasize: restoring land health has a triple benefit in terms of real and immediate climate action: It reduces potent emissions from the land use sector, Stores carbon in soils and vegetation, Snd it enhances the resilience of communities and ecosystems, which in turn benefits biodiversity conservation. It all comes full circle. Land restoration is also a relatively quick way to create jobs to drive a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and make us less vulnerable to the next crisis. I am happy to note that restoration is being given high prominence in the current draft of the framework that is being discussed by your negotiators. I am confident that that this will remain the case. I can assure you that the UNCCD will be an active partner in supporting you to implement the global biodiversity framework once it is adopted. And this is where the synergies among the Rio Conventions will be most noticeable. A comprehensive, complementary approach to the implementation of the three Rio Conventions is necessary. No country will be fulfilling its mandate under one convention without fully implementing the other two. The tools to leveraging the synergies between the three conventions are actually in our hands. Namely: The biodiversity framework, The Land Degradation Neutrality targets and the National Action Plans from UNCCD, And the nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. A land and ecosystems restoration approach will also guide coordinated action with other processes focused on human health, pollution abatement, water management, and disaster risk reduction. Excellencies, The land is not the solution to all of humanity’s problems. We still need to fully decarbonize our economies, rethink how we produce and consume resources and intensively address the loss of species and other components of their habitats – as we are discussing in the context of this very meeting. But if we protect, manage, and restore the land, the benefits will be immense. Working together and collaboratively in policy and action, we can and must unlock these benefits, for people and the planet. Thank you very much.