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UNCCD CSO Alliance is launching a new campaign for 2020 Desertification and Drought Day. This year’s UNCCD theme is Food.Feed.Fibre, and to support this theme CSO Alliance has chosen food as the campaign focus for its campaign. The campaign will focus specially in raising awareness about food waste and the implications in the land. Everyone can participate and only need to upload a photo of a finished meal on social media channels such as Instagram with hashtags #dndd #zerofoodwaste #unccd #cso_alliance. The campaign kit in multiple languages is available here.
If, like us, you are inspired by the 80 countries that have pledged to restore 400 million hectares by 2030, you can choose to support communities and restore their land. By doing so, you restore hope too. Your choices matter, and no choice is too small.
UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw interview with Deutsche Welle on 8 June 2020 "Time for nature" is the theme of World Environment Day 2020. On this occasion, the UNCCD Executive Secretary reviews the recent coronavirus global emergency. He explains that it is also linked to our way of life and believes that the current crisis should be an opportunity to rethink our consumption patterns. Listen here...
UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw speaks with Deutsche Welle on 5 June 2020 In this interview Ibrahim Thiaw, the executive secretary of UNCCD points out that the situation in Sahel is dramatic. There is less land available for the needs of an ever growing population. People have less land due to the degradation of the natural environment, due to drought, due to climate change. And on the other hand, Sahel is facing a growing demography. So the inflection point has been reached for a long time. There are more crises in the Sahel region and we are far from having solved the Sahel problem. Will the international community come to support in order to stabilize the situation in the Sahel, to prevent what we are experiencing in the Sahel from spilling over to the rest of Africa or even the rest of world? This situation must be taken very seriously. Listen to the interview...
Nearly 5 000 people from six continents gathered for the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Digital Conference “Food in the time of crisis.” from 3 to 5 June 2020. The online conference was broadcast around the world from 185 countries, launching a dialog conversation on transforming food systems to protect human well-being and planetary health in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The three-day programme of the conference included a number of experts from the UNCCD secretariat who contributed to discussions on such topics as land tenure and drought risk management. At the closing ceremony UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw emphasized the important role of ecosystem restoration and sustainable land management in the project of “building back better.” He called for investments in land to address climate change, create green jobs and to develop eco-tourism, resilient agriculture and invest in renewable energy providing basic services that support livelihoods. Other speakers at the closing ceremony included Siti Nurbaya (Speaker) Minister of Environment and Forestry, Republic of Indonesia; Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UN Environment Programme; Naoko Ishii CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme. In view of the current situation, the conference, initially scheduled to take place in Bonn Germany, moved to the online platform, allowing a much larger number of participants to interact, connect and network while keeping carbon emissions low and health risks minimal. The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) is the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on integrated land use, and is led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in collaboration with its co-founders UNEP and the World Bank and Charter Members. See also: GLF highlights
Dear friends! This year's World Environment Day finds us all struggling to overcome the disastrous effects of COVID-19. Yet, together with the understanding that stressing out ecosystems and habitats creates a way in for the next crisis, we come to realize that the lasting solutions we need to rebuild our lives can only come from nature itself.