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As high-level political representatives gather in Addis Ababa this week for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, there are reasons to be optimistic about the fight against climate change and the pursuit of sustainable development. Investments in renewable energies have topped $270 billion a year, and clean sources of power, like the sun and the wind, represent a rising share of the world’s energy production. Meanwhile, sectors such as transportation, urban planning, and construction are undergoing root-and-branch change in terms of energy efficiency and conservation.

Milan, Italy, 17 June 2015 – Land degradation is a growing threat to global security, according to Ms. Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, who spoke today at the global observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification at the EXPO Milano, in Italy.  Noting that land degradation is a driver of migration in the Sahel and that the radicalization of youth in areas with severely degraded land is not a coincidence, she called for concerted international action to strengthen food security and create youth employment.  “When land degradation reaches a level where it seriously threatens people’s livelihoods, it can turn into a security issue. Data from 2007 shows that 80% of major armed conflicts affecting society occurred in vulnerable dry ecosystems,” said Ms. Barbut.  But it is not a fate.   “Sustainable land management practices used in parts of Burkina Faso increased harvests by four times. The water table rose by nearly 10 meters in the Maradi Region of Niger, and in China’s Loess Plateau it resulted in nearly double the grain production,” Ms. Barbut stressed. Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary General, also stressed the link between land degradation and insecurity, noting that it undercuts human rights, including the rights to food and water.  “A world where all rights to food, water and human security are guaranteed is possible.  But we need to change course and start securing every hectare of land that can provide food or freshwater.  Land is a renewable resource, but only if we invest in land degradation neutrality, which has been proposed by United Nations Member States for the post-2015 development agenda. We must avoid degrading more land and, at the same time, rehabilitate all the degraded land that we can. Then, we will also be able to make rapid steps towards controlling climate change,” Secretary-General Ban stressed. Globally, only 7.8 billion hectares of land are suitable for food production. About 2 billion hectares are already degraded, and of these 500 million hectares have been totally abandoned. These lands could be restored to fertility for future use. Between 1983 and 2005, for instance, only 16% of the degrading land was being rehabilitated, mostly in the Sahel region. With 99.7% of our food calories coming from the land, land degradation is a threat to our food security. But its effects are especially harsh for the poorest people who rely directly on the land for survival – food, employment and water. When their lands cannot produce any more, they have little choice but to migrate or fight over what little is left. Mr Giampaolo Cantini, Director-General for Development Cooperation of Italy, said the country, “as both a donor and an affected country within the UNCCD, and as a country bridging the Northern and Southern shores of the Mediterranean, is directly experiencing all the implications of unhealthy soils – productivity, stability and population movements. But Italy is also focusing on the value of soil protection and recovery as an instrument of empowerment, peace and stability for so many, and as a path to general environmental recovery." “Environmental modifications affect our chances of fair and orderly development – basic conditions of peace and stability – when they shrink or shift the location of ecosystem services essential to extract a livelihood of lands,” Mr Cantini said. The effects of land degradation are not unique to Africa. In Mexico, for instance, more than 700,000 people migrate every year from the drylands. Land degradation may lead to the migration of 135 million people by 2045, according to a recent study by the UK’s Ministry of Defence. Yet migrants can be part of the solution, especially when their efforts are invested in improving the lands a majority of their families rely on for food, water and jobs. Migrants in France who left the drought-struck Senegal River valley in the 1970s have invested their remittances in more than 200 development projects in their communities – schools, health care centers, water and even roads. In fact, all the water projects in the Valley have benefitted from migrant remittances.  The health and social benefits of these investments have been significant. What’s more, the cost of rehabilitating degrading land is much lower than the cost we are currently paying to police migrants fleeing resource-driven conflicts. For example, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a mechanized technology inspired from traditional practices, known as the Vallerani system, has helped to restore more than 50 000 hectares of Acacia-based agro-sylvopastoral systems in Burkina Faso, Senegal and Niger. Crop, gum, resin and fodder produce have increased.  The government of Niger has also developed Pastoral Modernization Zones that build on the idea of semi- pastoralism. As a result, pastoral areas have been utilized in a more balanced manner and overgrazing has fallen by 30-45 per cent since 1990. Neither of these high-impact land projects came at a high cost. "Such successes show that the challenges related to land degradation and desertification are not insurmountable,” said FAO's Deputy Director General Maria Helena Semedo, adding that FAO had recently stepped up action against desertification with partners like the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States.  “Bold action and investment in sustainable land management can boost food security, improve livelihoods and help people adapt to climate change," she stressed. The rehabilitation of China’s Loess Plateau is one of the World Bank’s most celebrated projects. It lifted 2.5 million people out of poverty and restored over 50,000 hectares of degraded land. “The World Bank is engaged in concerted efforts around the world to prevent further loss and protect the livelihoods of those most dependent on natural resources for jobs and sustenance,” said Ms. Paola Agostini, Global Lead for Landscapes and TerrAfrica Coordinator at the World Bank. Ms. Agostini drew attention to the New Climate Economy Report, which estimates that restoring just 350 million hectares of degraded lands could provide agricultural produce and land resources worth $170 billion every year, while helping to mitigate climate change. To celebrate the World Day, Ms Barbut called on countries to put land and its sustainable management at the forefront of their national priorities. She said the Convention is “developing the goal of Land Degradation Neutrality to promote actions that will enable us all, as a global community, to get to the point where we are not losing more fertile land than we are reclaiming.” World Day to Combat Desertification is a UN day observed in all countries of the world to raise awareness about the problems and solutions to land degradation - termed ‘desertification’ when it occurs in the world’s vulnerable dry areas. The observance event at EXPO Milan was attended by high ranking government officials, heads of International organizations and the public. It was jointly organized by the Government of Italy, the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD, the UNCCD Secretariat and World Bank/TerrAfrica, with the support of the UN EXPO team. For more information contact: wwischnewski@unccd.int

Women are not only the world’s primary food producers. They are hardworking and innovative and, they invest far more of their earnings in their families than men. But most lack the single most important asset for accessing investment resources – land rights.

“Eighty percent of the potential land suitable for forest and landscape restoration (FLR) can be found in drylands”, said Eduardo Rojas, Assistant Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), during the closing session of a two-days expert consultation on Private investments in Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR), co-organized by FAO and the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD on 30 June and 1 July 2015 in Rome, Italy. Rojas also underlined that FLR contributes to the provision of livelihood opportunities for communities in rural areas and the reduction of forced migration. The workshop brought together some 30 international experts from multilateral, bilateral and non-governmental organizations, research institutes and the private sector to identify ways for increasing private sector investments in FLR. Currently, it is estimated that 12 million hectares of land are degraded every year, resulting in a total stock of more than two billion hectares of degraded land that offer opportunities for restoration, and three quarters of this area being suitable for mosaic restoration.  Initiatives around the world aim at up-scaling FLR in order to contribute to global ecosystem restoration goals and promote land degradation neutrality. Impact investors like the Moringa Fund invest in agroforestry systems such as coffee plantations in order to promote sound and viable management strategies at landscape level. Private companies such as EcoPlanet Bamboo promote largescale bamboo restoration for the production of fibre. At the same time, regional initiatives such as TerrAfrica in Africa and “Initiative 20 by 20” in Latin America, as well as national initiatives such as Payment for Environmental Services for sustainable cork oak production in Portugal, supported by WWF and Coca Cola, offer a variety of mechanisms to upscale investments in FLR. The workshop identified concrete opportunities to upscale FLR, for example through aggregating financial resources at landscape level, bringing together different stakeholders and sectors involved, thus preventing inter-sectoral or resource-use conflicts. However, participants also highlighted that certain key conditions must be in place in order to tap into increased finance for FLR, including an adequate enabling investment environment, the existence of local champions with the necessary skills, and the availability of bankable investment proposals that focus on promising value chains within landscapes. Missing information on possible returns on investments (e.g. ex-ante cost benefit analysis) as well as investment risk assessment and mitigation mechanisms, unclear tenure situation, and lack of coherence among possible investors and landowners/users have been highlighted among the key barriers that need to be overcome for increased investments in FLR. In order to identify key action required to upscale FLR, FAO and the GM of the UNCCD – through its Rome Liaison Office - established a partnership to deliver a Discussion Paper on “Sustainable Finance for FLR”. The paper will review best available information, discuss issues and success stories related to FLR funding, and assess opportunities to increase access to financing in support to FLR implementation at scale. The workshop report and the Discussion Paper will be made available soon on the FAO and GM websites. All the material from the workshop, including background papers and presentations, is also available via at the links below.   Related links: Workshop materials and presentations The FAO FLR Mechanism The Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration The Bonn Challenge

“The UNCCD and its 195 country Parties work with a broad range of stakeholders not only to protect and sustainably manage land resources, but also to rehabilitate degraded land. On 20 and 21 March, the Bonn Challenge 2.0   – a high level summit – brought together governments and international organizations committed to achieving a clear vision: to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020. Of the 2 billion hectares with restoration potential, identified by the Bonn Challenge, 75% are considered mixed-use or “working” landscapes, in which people manage the land as a mosaic of multiple uses, increasing productivity in a sustainable manner while protecting natural capital for future generations. With the Bonn Challenge as a backdrop, the Global Mechanism (GM) of the UNCCD hosted two meetings which contributed to this process and also promoted relevant operational synergies between UNCCD priorities and those of relevant partner institutions working on forest and landscape restoration efforts at the country level: On 19 and 20 March, the GM hosted a meeting of the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration (GPFLR), of which it is a member. This technical meeting brought together representatives from IUCN, UNEP, WRI, USDA Forest Service, the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, IUFRO, FAO, UNEP-WCMC, CIFOR, the CBD secretariat, ICRAF, and the GM/UNCCD.  It took stock of the work of GPFLR members to date, and discussed how this partnership could evolve in the near future in order to best mobilize the knowledge and expertise of its members in support of forest and landscape restoration activities on the ground. On 21 March, the GM also hosted a meeting of the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (FERI), bringing together representatives from the CBD secretariat, the Republic of Korea’s Forest Service, Biodiversity International, UNEP-WCMC, IUFRO, FAO, CIFOR, ICRAF, ITTO, IUCN, the GEF, WRI, and the GM/UNCCD. Following the official launch of FERI at the CBD COP 12 in Korea in October 2014, this was its first operational meeting, which further defined the involvement of relevant partner organizations and the scope of upcoming activities, including the organization of relevant capacity building workshops, the assessment of degradation and restoration potential at (sub)national level, and the provision and coordination of technical support.”

Les débats actuels sur les migrations internationales n'ont-ils pas oublié un point essentiel ? Le changement climatique est en train de saper la position des pauvres dans le monde en détruisant leurs ressources naturelles vitales et en leur enlevant la capacité à décider de leur propre destin. Les transferts monétaires et les savoirs-faire des migrants sont en train de devenir vitaux pour la survie de leurs communautés d'origine, mais ils sont aussi cruciaux pour la paix et la stabilité politique de nombreux pays d'émigration.