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UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw has welcomed the Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives that were made public this week. The Initiatives aim, among other things, to restore roughly 240 million hectares of degraded land in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East

Statement by UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw: All of our planet’s inhabitants – humanity, and all wildlife species – require water to survive. We learn very young that life cannot exist without water. Yet over 2 billion people still lack access to safe water today. This year’s World Water Day celebrates the theme ‘Valuing water.’ This fundamental need has enormous and complex value for our societies, households, food, culture, health, education, economics and the sustainability of our environment. Global water use has increased sixfold over the past 100 years, driven by intensive agriculture and population growth. The demand for water just in food production may reach 13 trillion cubic metres annually by 2050 – 3.5 times greater than the total human use today. The importance of water for land is obvious: humanity’s relentless production and consumption relies heavily on water use and is a prime cause of desertification and land degradation. In a warming world beset by weather extremes, droughts will become more common, more intense, and more prolonged in many places – including places already at the margins of habitability. Drought and desertification are not just problems for the global South. We already see impacts, and land degradation, in highly productive and populated parts of the developed world – including California, Spain and Australia. Land degradation and desertification reduce evapotranspiration, disrupting regional rainfall patterns. In contrast, healthy land promotes consistent seasonal and annual rainfall and aids flood mitigation, soil health and aquifer recharge, helping to bring back landscapes from the brink. The UNCCD’s Drought Initiative is working globally to support our Parties to develop drought preparedness systems, spearheading regional efforts to reduce drought vulnerability and risk. Our Drought toolbox provides resources to support actions that aim to boost the resilience of people and ecosystems. Land restoration is a vital ally to World Water Day. As we celebrate today, let’s remember that we must value water and land equally as part of the same challenge – to build a better, more equal, healthier planet post COVID-19.

Statement by UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw: This year’s International Day of Forests theme of ‘Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being’ emphasizes the role forests must play in building a better, heathier and more equitable world as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.  We need forests to absorb our emitted carbon dioxide, to stabilize rainfall patterns, lower temperatures, and to hold back desertification. Yet, we continue to destroy them: an alarming fifty million hectares of forests have been lost between 2015 and 2020. Research suggests tree mortality in some forests has doubled in recent decades as a result of a drying climate and chronic anthropogenic disturbance. Ensuring that forests don’t just survive but thrive is a cornerstone of the UNCCD’s mandate to achieve land degradation neutrality. The seedlings and saplings we plant today will support our well-being for generations to come.  Africa’s Great Green Wall across the Sahel has the potential to transform the lives of millions of humanity’s most vulnerable people. By creating a mosaic of green and productive landscapes, it can provide stability, livelihoods and a path out of poverty. We’ll create green jobs, harnessing the Sahel’s abundant solar energy to power a future for those most at risk. We are not just planting trees –we are planting hope for the most vulnerable – women and youth.  We can restore forests and restore hope, in tandem. We can turn the economic catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic into a better, heathier and more equitable world. Forests are also threatened by human conflict. In politically unstable situations, the management of natural resources is challenging. Rapid reconstruction often neglects sustainable management of natural resources, undermining future peace. The Peace Forest Initiative, launched at UNCCD COP 14, aims to nurture collective efforts for cross-border cooperation on ecosystem restoration including forests, linking stability and peace to land degradation neutrality. This year, let us reaffirm our will to act. Seeing our forests renewed will help humanity recover better, become more resilient, and restore our planet’s health – for all our futures. Read more Forests at the heart of land degradation neutrality Great Green Wall of Africa Peace Forest Initiative

Monsieur le Président du CRIC, Monsieur le Vice-Président, Cinq jours de débats en ligne, en raison de 2 heures par jour, n’auront naturellement pas suffi pour remplir pleinement notre mandat de revue de la mise en œuvre de la Convention. La situation est loin d’être idéale. Grâce à votre coopération, aux talents et à la patience de votre présidence, vous avez néanmoins pu échanger, réitérer vos points de vue et donné des directives à votre Secrétariat. Je puis vous assurer que nous avons pris note de votre feed-back et de vos orientations. Comme vous le savez, la pandémie continue de se propager dans le monde, jetant une certaine incertitude sur la tenue de notre COP15 aux dates et conditions fixées par la décision 33 de la dernière conférence des parties. Nous allons soumettre des options au Bureau de la COP lors de sa réunion du 8 avril prochain, et vous tiendrons naturellement informé des directives et orientations que nous aurons reçues. Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, Land has nourished humanity for millennia. It can safely provide us with its good services for many more. But only if we must stop destroying the land in the name of short-term, and ultimately destructive, economic growth. We must instead protect the land. Through adopting less land-hungry production systems. Through adopting more sustainable consumption patterns. Individually and collectively: our diets, our clothing, the food we waste or lose. The forests we abuse. The water we misuse. Humanity ought to treat land for what it is: a finite resource. We must instead better manage the land. Through sustainable and efficient management techniques that grow more food with less land and water. Through regenerative practices such as organic agriculture and agroforestry. We must instead restore the land. Through delivering on existing commitments to restore one billion hectares of degraded land. Through adopting a landscape approach, not a shortsighted, spot-focused view. Through repairing the planet, conserving its vital biodiversity. Storing emitted carbon back to the soil where it belongs. Through turning degraded land back to production. To future generations, the slash and burn is no different from an attitude of scorched earth. Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen, We ought to grab the tryptic of protect-manage-restore land. This begins with using COVID-19 recovery packages to enhance investments and policies promoting sustainable land management. Successful post-COVID economic recovery programs should target land managers and small-holder farmers. Those millions of producers, Those indigenous people, Those women producers, Those rangers who protect our beautiful tourist destinations, whose work is often invisible to many, are unsung heroes of our economy. They sustain their livelihoods thanks to land. Land is their only asset. Their only capital. In fact, land is OUR real collective capital. Indeed, combatting land degradation requires us to reach out to players beyond the confines of our convention focal ministries. We should engage every ministry, business, community, and policy makers that impact on the land. As you discussed during this meeting, mitigating the impact of drought requires a multi-pronged approach. Disaster risk reduction; building the resilience of farmers and pastoralists; stress-testing our national economies; developing compensation packages to assist, as appropriate, the most vulnerable. If we take our chance to protect, manage and restore the land, the benefits will be immense. We will accelerate recovery from the COVID-19 economic crisis. Slow climate change and protect biodiversity. Free millions of people from poverty and hunger. Help to create a world of peace, prosperity, and equity. This, dear ladies, and gentlemen, is our collective vision. And it is one we can make a reality, together. Excellences, Mesdames et Messieurs, Permettez-moi de conclure par des remerciements : À vous tous, délégués et observateurs, pour votre engagement, votre clairvoyance Au Président du CRIC, et son vice-président, qui ont conduit nos travaux avec compétence et patience A nos collègues de UNOG pour leur capacité à s’adapter et pour la qualité du service A nos interprètes sans lesquelles notre réunion serait une belle cacophonie Vous me permettrez aussi que j’adresse une mention très spéciale au personnel de l’UNCCD (Secrétariat et Mécanisme mondiale) pour leur excellent travail. Je suis très fier de l’engagement, l’agilité, la créativité et de la capacité d’adaptation de cette équipe. Merci pour ce que vous êtes. Merci pour ce que vous faites. Merci à tous.

The Group on Earth Observation Land Degradation Neutrality (GEO-LDN) Initiative announced the winner of its international technology innovation competition on the development of tools to support land use planning for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). The team that presented the “LUP4LDN”(Land Use Planning for Land Degradation Neutrality) tool won the competition and will receive financial and technical support valued at USD 100,000 to transform their prototype into an operational and scalable tool. LUP4LDN integrates LDN into participatory land use planning via an interface that allows users to evaluate land use and land management transition scenarios, providing visual and quantitative representation of land degradation gains and losses. “LUP4LDN supports users to answer where is most crucial to focus land restoration efforts and what sustainable land management interventions are optimal and feasible ito achieve LDN” said Pythagoras Karampiperis, CEO of SCiO, and leader of the LUP4LDN team, which includes experts in agriculture, sustainable land management, land preservation and conservation, as well as users from Tunisia and Burkina Faso. On behalf of the Jury Panel, Douglas Cripe, Senior Scientific Adviser at the Group on Earth Observation Secretariat, highlighted the achievements of the winning team during an online award ceremony in the margins of UNCCD CRIC19. “Of the tools presented, the LUP4LDN tool is the most innovative and the most directly responsive to the Competition’s challenge. LUP4LDN goes beyond analyzing data –  it brings stakeholders together. It directly facilitates collaborative land use planning and the process guidance provided is applicable globally. We recognize the value of the tool in training land use planners toward embedding LDN in planning processes,” said Cripe. In his welcoming remarks, Neil Sims, Co-Chair of the GEO-LDN Initiative and Chair of the Jury Panel, expressed his satisfaction in the large turnout for the competition. “We received entries from 23 teams, with participants from 36 countries across all continents, which reflects the significance of land degradation to countries around the world. The high level of engagement for this competition also demonstrated the value of coordination efforts such as the GEO-LDN Initiative,” he added.    Other finalists included the LDN Analytics tool, developed by a team led by Vanja Westerberg, co-Founder of Altus Impact, jointly with Simon Reynolds and Luis Costa, and users from Haiti and Ghana; and the Multi-layered Land-Dynamics Tool (ML-LDT) developed by a team led by Claudio Zucca, University of Sassari, and technical implementers and users from the Republic of Korea, India and Mongolia. “We would like to thank all three finalists' teams for their outstanding efforts, their contribution toward more transparent and well-informed land use planning and management, and their commitment to solving one of the world’s greatest environmental challenges,” said the jury in its official statement. “We were very impressed by the quality and the diversity of the finalists' tools, with approaches ranging from neural networks to expert knowledge. Through the direct engagement and co-development of the tools with end users from Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, the finalists' teams created tools that have the potential to better address the specific context, behaviors and expectations of the people who will directly interact with the technology. Especially in these difficult times, the competition provided an indispensable space for innovation and collaborative action,” said the Jury. In her closing remarks, Sara Minelli, Programme Officer at the UNCCD Secretariat, invited country Parties to express their interest in supporting further development, testing and pioneering of the winning tool. On behalf of the UNCCD Science Policy Interface, which was represented in the jury panel by Nichole Berger and Peter Verburg, Minelli said: “Land use planning is the place where different land objectives come together to enhance productivity and support livelihoods, while conserving biodiversity and combating climate change. The tools developed for this competition will provide the critical step for policy makers to include LDN in land use planning. We look forward to watching how these winning solutions – will contribute to bringing a scientific understanding of LDN into land use planning practice.” For more information or to express interest in supporting further development and testing of the winning tool, please contact Ms. Sara Minelli sminelli@unccd.int, Programme Officer on Monitoring and Assessment. Learn more:  LUP4LDN tool at a glance LUP4LDN demonstration Statement of the jury GEO-LDN Competition Competition playlist on UNCCD YouTube channel GEO-LDN Initiative

Remarks by UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw: Welcome to the nineteenth session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention. This is a unique session, for reasons that we would have preferred to avoid. This is the first session of the UNCCD to be held online. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the distancing rules that we must all follow, has forced us to meet this way. I thank you for your commitment and patience in this time of great disruption and difficulty. While the pandemic has forced us apart, it has also emphasized the importance of the UNCCD’s work. Healthy land is essential to humanity. It is at the core of what we do, of what we are. And it is at the core of human and planetary health – by feeding us, buffering us from zoonotic diseases, regulating our climate and providing the home for crucial biodiversity.    So, even though our work has become more difficult, we must redouble our efforts to protect, manage and restore the land – particularly with COP 15 and the beginning of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration just around the corner. Colleagues, At this session, you might not be negotiating decisions, or issuing agreed recommendations, as you have done in previous years. But what you do over the next five days remains vital nonetheless. At this session, you will discuss the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) target-setting programme and the efforts of the Global Mechanism to help countries develop Transformative Projects and Programmes. You will hear a report from the Global Mechanism on the LDN Fund, which has in its short life already received backing of more than USD 150 million. You will receive an update on the drought initiative, gender action plan and land tenure frameworks. And you will hear the interim report of the Intergovernmental Working Group on drought, which is looking at options for the UNCCD to provide focus and emphasis to the work on drought. Now, I do understand that some of these issues are still the subject of lively debate among Parties, which is why this online session holds great relevance. You will share your experiences on these issues and processes with your counterparts. You will put forth your points of view and listen to those that do not necessarily align with your own. You will, I hope, start to move towards common ground. In so doing, you will set the stage for negotiations on these pivotal issues at the COP. It is my sincere wish that we make as much progress as practically possible at this session, and in its wake. Colleagues, Given the pressures building on the planet, we really have no time to waste. If you ask me: healthy land will be essential for a sustainable recovery from the pandemic. Sustainable land management, land restoration, creates green jobs. Mitigates climate change, slows nature and biodiversity loss. Increases food security and frees millions of people from poverty and hunger. Protecting natural habitat and species reduces the risk of future pandemics. In a nutshell, combating desertification can contribute to creating a world of peace, prosperity and equity. The work we do under this Convention is essential to protecting, managing and restoring healthy land to seize all of these benefits. But we can only fulfill the land’s full potential if we do it together. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences. Thank you.