Press releases

Bonn, 28 January 2020 – A unique global initiative to promote peace through land restoration was signed today by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Korea Forest Service (KFS). Conflicts over natural resources are among key peace and security challenges of the twenty-first century. With the right approach, cooperation in the management of natural resources can offer countries recovering from violent conflict an opportunity to achieve stability and trust while re-building livelihoods and economies. To meet this need, the new Peace Forest Initiative (PFI) will promote cooperation between countries to rehabilitate degraded land and forest in fragile and post-conflict locations while promoting peace and confidence. On 28 January 2020, Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD and Mr. Chong-Ho Park, Minister of KFS, Republic of Korea, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the framework for the new initiative. Bridging the goals of peace-building and land restoration, KFS and UNCCD have joined forces to realize the common sustainable development targets, including Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). LDN is a universal goal to tackle land degradation in the context of the sustainable development at global, regional and national levels. It is also an accelerator for the achievement of multiple Sustainable Development Goals. Restoration, rehabilitation and sustainable management of forests play a vital role in the achievement of LDN and create a number economic gains, such as increased production of non-timber products, food security and health, reduced soil erosion, disaster risk reduction, improved watershed management and carbon sequestration. “The Peace Forest Initiative, welcomed by the last Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD, is an innovative way to link peace and security with Land Degradation Neutrality. The Initiative will help address some of the most challenging situations of transboundary management of shared natural resources while promoting peace and cooperation. UNCCD is excited to join forces with The Republic of Korea and other key partners to launch this promising new endeavor," said Mr. Thiaw. “We have now embarked on our journey. The PFI is an effective tool to promote cooperation on the restoration of degraded land and forest in conflict-affected areas. Republic of Korea is committed to making this endeavour a great success. Together with UNCCD and other partners, we will continue to work together for peace and prosperity,” said Mr. Chong-Ho Park.  Launched on 10 September 2019 during the 14th Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD in New Delhi, India, the PFI will function as a practical platform to facilitate collaboration on sustainable land and forest management in diverse environments. In addition to the needs assessment, the platform will provide guidance on sharing resource wealth and management; ensuring transparency of resource contracts, payments and the potential social and environmental impacts of the activities; management of land tenure and other resource rights; engaging stakeholders and civil society in decision-making and maintaining positive transboundary dynamics that draw on national and local capacity for resolving disputes and grievances. The UNCCD Secretariat welcomes the expression of interest from countries willing to work together to make the Peace Forest Initiative a reality and contribute to LDN implementation through partnership building for peace and security. About Peace Forest Initiative and Land Degradation Neutrality Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is a unique approach that balances the expected loss of productive land with the recovery of degraded areas. Today, over 120 countries with various economic and geographical conditions are successfully integrating voluntary LDN targets into their planning systems. UNCCD is the custodian agency for LDN. The UNCCD Parties have recognized LDN as a strong vehicle for driving the implementation of the Convention and adopted it as a key goal. The growing demand for natural resources – in particular to productive land and water – combined with environmental degradation and climate change, serves to intensify competition between countries and communities over resource access, ownership and use. Natural resources are set to become key drivers in a growing number of disputes, with significant consequences for international, regional and national peace and security. However, integrating management of environmental resources with peacebuilding activities can provide the pathway to lasting security and sustainable poverty reduction. Understanding risks and opportunities associated with access to natural resources can help decision makers manage natural resources in ways that create jobs, sustain livelihoods and contribute to economic growth without creating new grievances or significant environmental degradation. In post-conflict situations, assigning priority to the management of natural resources and the environment can be challenging. In many cases, the drive for rapid reconstruction comes at the expense of transparency, equitable sharing of resource wealth and the sustainable management of natural resources. When countries emerging from conflict postpone decisions on natural resource management until stability is restored, the impact on long-term sustainability can be disastrous, undermining the fragile foundations of peace. Wise management of shared natural resources in cross-border situations can create platforms for dialogue, confidence building, and cooperation between divided groups to avoid new grievances and environmental degradation. The PFI aims to forge a broad partnership engaging diverse stakeholders, including governments, civil society organizations, local communities, donors, technical experts and international organizations. The UNCCD secretariat will collaborate with partners including UN agencies, institutions and think tanks to deliver the objectives of the new initiative. PFI concept can be found here https://www.unccd.int/sites/default/files/sessions/documents/2019-09/ICCD_COP%2814%29_MISC.1-1915411E_0.pdf 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 that land users have an enabling environment for sustainable land management. Through partnerships, 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 the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to climate change and prevents biodiversity loss. For more information, please contact Mr. Utchang Kang: ukang@unccd.int /+49 228 815 2846 For media inquiries, please contact Ms. Yukie Hori: yhori@unccd.int/+49 173 268 7590

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and UNCCD Land Ambassador Ricky Kej are pleased to announce the release of the official music video titled Born from the Land. Award-winning musicians Ricky Kej and Baaba Maal, another UNCCD Land Ambassador, perform the song, which also features Lonnie Park and IP Singh.

Droughts have decimated communities and livelihoods in Africa for long. This year alone, over 45 million people across Africa, mostly in Eastern and Southern Africa, are food insecure due to prolonged droughts. The Africa Risk Capacity (ARC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) announced they will collaborate to support the development of financial tools to help Africa to adapt and become resilient to future drought and other extreme weather events.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was agreed in 1994. It made the UN Campus in Bonn its home in 1999. On Monday, 30 September, the city, together with the Convention’s employees, partner organizations, Bonn’s Mayor Ashok Sridharan and Ibrahim Thiaw, the Convention’s Executive Secretary, will celebrate this double anniversary at the city’s Old Town Hall. They will highlight past achievements and cooperation as well as the outcomes of the Conference of the Parties held in Delhi, India, two weeks ago. 

On the eve of the UN Climate Action Summit, global leaders from government, business and civil society are issuing an urgent call to action to grow an 8000km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of the African continent. 

The framework used for reporting action will be improved to ensure it captures key issues, such as gender equality, drought response and the influence of consumption and production patterns and flows on land degradation. Through the Delhi Declaration, ministers expressed support for new initiatives or coalitions aiming to improve human health and well-being, the health of ecosystems, and to advance peace and security.

We, the Ministers and Representatives gathered for the high-level segment at the fourteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), held on 9–10 September 2019 in New Delhi at the invitation of the Government of the Republic of India,  Expressing our sincere appreciation to the Government of the Republic of India for its hospitality and to the UNCCD secretariat for the organization of the high-level segment,  Recognizing that desertification/land degradation and drought undermines health, development and prosperity in all regions and acknowledging that dryland ecosystems are areas of special focus, Deeply concerned that the impacts of desertification/land degradation and drought are felt most keenly by vulnerable people,  Recalling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UNCCD 2018–2030 Strategic Framework and looking forward to comprehensively reviewing and monitoring progress with the aim of accelerating the implementation of both, Recalling also that striving to achieve land degradation neutrality has the potential to act as an accelerator for achieving a number of the Sustainable Development Goals and as a catalyst for attracting sustainable development financing to implement the Convention,  Acknowledging those practices which conserve and restore land and soil affected by desertification/land degradation, drought and floods, contribute towards achieving land degradation neutrality and can also have long-term multiple benefits for the health, well-being and socioeconomic development of the entire society, especially for the livelihoods of the rural poor,  Noting the link between the restoration and sustainable management of land and the creation of decent jobs, including green jobs initiatives and other employment-generating opportunities, for vulnerable communities in degraded areas, Recalling that the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration, recognized by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its fourteenth session, called for synergies in addressing environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change, Noting the findings of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment and its Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, as well as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems, which recognize the role of the land-use sector,  Recognizing the contribution of effective and responsible governance and stewardship of natural resources, especially land and water, for combating desertification/land degradation and drought and for the sustainable development of current and future generations, Convinced that diverse multi-stakeholder participation, as appropriate, at local, subnational, national and regional levels and from all sectors of society, including civil society organizations, local government and the private sector, will be crucial to achieving the objectives of the UNCCD, Renewing our commitment to concerted international cooperation for the effective implementation of the Convention, Encourage the development of community-driven transformative projects and programmes that are gender-responsive, at local, national and regional level, to drive the implementation of the Convention;  Also encourage, in the context of projects aimed at combating desertification/land degradation and drought and achieving land degradation neutrality and resilience-building, inter alia and as appropriate, the transition and increased access to energy in rural and urban communities, within the scope of the UNCCD; Further encourage a proactive approach to reducing the risks and impacts of desertification/land degradation and drought through the implementation of drought preparedness plans and increased risk mitigation for drought and sand and dust storms; Invite development partners, international financial mechanisms, the private sector and other stakeholders to boost investments and technical support for the implementation of the Convention and the achievement of land degradation neutrality, create green jobs and establish sustainable value chains for products sourced from the land; Promote opportunities that support, as appropriate and applicable, the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and the development of an ambitious post-2020 global biodiversity framework, taking into consideration land-based solutions for climate action and biodiversity conservation and the mutually supportive implementation of the three Rio conventions;  Welcome the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030), commit to adopting an integrated, best-practice approach to land restoration based on scientific evidence and traditional knowledge that offers hope to vulnerable communities and invite Parties, observers and other relevant UNCCD stakeholders, including the private sector, to accelerate and scale up relevant initiatives at all levels;  Take note of the benefits brought to participating countries by the accelerated implementation of initiatives that support a transformative narrative in the Sahel through, inter alia, the Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative and the Initiative on Sustainability, Stability and Security;  Also take note of the launch of the Peace Forest Initiative and its potential contribution to increasing cooperation on land degradation neutrality, including land restoration and reforestation in transborder areas in participating countries, where appropriate; Reaffirm the relevance of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security for better access, control and stewardship over land and equitable tenure security, in accordance with relevant national legislation, for the implementation of the Convention and the promotion of sustainable land management; Encourage local governments to adopt integrated land use management and enhanced land governance to rehabilitate the natural resource base that makes cities sustainable, taking into consideration the New Urban Agenda, including by reducing rates of land consumption and soil sealing along with biodiversity and ecosystem loss; Welcome the various initiatives targeting land degradation neutrality by India such as Har Khet Ko Pani, More Crop Per Drop, the National Afforestation Program, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and the Soil Health Card Scheme; Also welcome the proposed adoption of a voluntary land degradation neutrality target by India that includes the restoration of degraded land and the legacy programme announced to support South–South cooperation following this Conference of Parties.   

The Group of friends (GOF) held a ministerial and high-level breakfast on 10 September 2019 in the sidelines of COP14 under the Co-Chairmanship Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, Minister of Environment and Natural resources of Iceland, and Penomwenyo Pohamba Shifeta, Minister of Environment and Tourism of Namibia.

On the road to the Climate Action Summit, the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India and President of COP14, His Excellency Mr. Prakash Javedkar, and the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Her Excellency Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, hosted a high-level luncheon on land and climate on 9 September 2019, on the margins of the UNCCD Fourteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP14). The event was co-facilitated by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).    During the meeting, participants underscored that land resources are the basis for human health, livelihoods, food security, and for our economic, cultural and spiritual well-being. Some 25 per cent of the world’s land is degraded (IPCC, 2019), affecting the lives of 3.2 billion people, particularly smallholder farmers, those in rural communities and the world’s poorest populations (IPBES, 2018). Women in particular are on the daily frontline struggle to salvage the large area of agricultural land already affected by land degradation. And the stewardship of indigenous peoples is essential to safeguard the world’s remaining biodiversity. All vulnerable groups who depend on sustainable land management and who can contribute to land restoration need our support.  Participants welcomed the IPCC’s special report on Climate Change and Land which constitutes the first comprehensive study of the entire land-climate system. As such, they agreed that it is a fundamental contribution to global negotiations on climate change, biodiversity and sustainable land management, and calls for synergies between the Rio Conventions. The report provides a sound basis for ambitious actions contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity conservation as well as to combat land degradation and enhance food security. Participants stressed that restoring degraded lands and achieving land degradation neutrality (SDG 15.3) provided an integrated solution to increase ecosystems and populations resilience as well as to enhance the capacity of our land for carbon sequestration. Land use must therefore be an integral part of the climate solution, rather than a cause of GHG emissions.  This will strengthen biodiversity conservation, increase livelihoods and human security. It will also curb emissions from degrading lands and help close the projected emissions gap between Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Paris Agreement objectives. Most importantly, land degradation neutrality will improve the living conditions of affected populations and the health and productivity of their ecosystems.  Participants agreed that land restoration will deliver co-benefits to many Sustainable Development Goals and that the three Rio Conventions can actively work together to support restoration activities as an important contribution to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Participants agreed that the critical role of land restoration for climate mitigation and adaptation must be visible. The Climate Action Summit will send a strong political signal for more public funding and private investments to enable land restoration for impact at the scale needed, through gender-responsive, transformative projects and programmes that seek to generate and sustain fundamental and sustainable positive change. Every 1 USD invested in land restoration is expected to generate up to 10 USD in returns for society through more efficient agricultural practices, integrated water management, and vital ecosystem functions (GPFLR, 2018). Participants indicated that time had come to turn the vicious circle between land and climate into a virtuous one by reinforcing the positive elements of the relationship, helping to manage emissions on the one hand and adapting to climate impacts on the other. Participants therefore called for more concerted policy action, more investments, and more capacity to scale up land restoration to achieve land degradation neutrality. They expect the Nature-Based Solutions Coalition to propose concrete and ambitious actions at the Summit. Participants supported the global effort to achieve land degradation neutrality through ambitious initiatives such as the Bonn Challenge target of having at least 350 million hectares of degraded land under active restoration by 2030 and the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative. Participants also welcomed the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 (UN General Assembly resolution 73/284) as a unique opportunity to galvanize political will, increased investments, and action on the ground for land restoration at massive scale across the world.  Participants called for the UN Climate Action Summit to be the starting point for the establishment of a coalition of countries, to accelerate massive scaling up of land restoration activities worldwide, and to act as the building block of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030). A coalition of active countries could federate and accelerate the achievement of existing ecosystem restoration goals of all into the UN Decade – a decade of action and impact on the ground for the planet, for the people and for prosperity. Participants included Armenia, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Fiji, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Haiti, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, South Africa, Tajikistan, The United Kingdom, the European Union as well as CBD, GCF, GEF, FAO, IPBES, IPCC, UNCCD, UNDP, UNEP, UNFCCC, UNRC India and the World Bank. For further information, please contact:  Ms. Wagaki Wischnewski, wwischnewski@unccd.int, Cell: +91 74284 94332 Mr. Tim Christophersen, tim.christophersen@un.org, Cell : +254706044045 

New Delhi, 9 September 2019 – Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called on the international community to set up a global water action agenda as the central theme to achieve land degradation neutrality. He announced that India will restore an additional 5 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, raising the land to be restored in India to 26 million hectares.  Modi made the announcement when he opened the ministerial segment of the 14th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification that opened in New Delhi, India, a week ago. The restoration is part of India’s commitment to achieve land degradation neutrality, a flagship initiative under the UNCCD. To date, 122 of the 170 countries affected by land degradation have committed to achieve land degradation neutrality. India’s Initiative complements and strengthens two other previous initiatives, namely, the Changwon Initiative of the Republic of Korea and the Ankara Initiative of Türkiye, also launched at previous COPs.  Prakash Javadekar, India’s Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the current COP14 President, also announced that the Delhi Declaration will be adopted from this special ministerial segment of the Conference.  The segment is meant to draw attention to the human face of desertification, land degradation and drought, he said, and ensured the stakeholders that “India has the COP presidency for the next 2 years. We will work with all of you and I can ensure that our positive actions will help us give a better earth to the future generations.” Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint-Vincent The Grenadines, said, “The collective responses of nations globally have not measured up adequately or sufficiently to the enormous task at hand, so as to obviate disaster. Accordingly, COP 14 convened under the aegis of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is a seminal staging post in  humanity’s quest for a better and sustainable condition of our lives, living and production.”  Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations welcomed the Prime Ministers and other dignitaries to the Conference, and said, “we no longer have the luxury of spending the next 10 years meeting preparing the targets. We have two weeks to move our common agenda in the right direction to bend the curve on a planet of less than 2 degrees, towards action and impact.” She highlighted that 800m people are still going hungry and that crop yields are dropping, and demand for food is set to increase by 50 percent in the coming decades. Restoring 150 million hectares of farmland could feed 200 million more people every year. At the same time, it would provide greater resilience and over 30 billion dollars a year in increased income for small stakeholders and sink an additional 2 gigatones of carbon dioxide per year.  It is in these critical times where our individual and collective responsibilities will be needed, even more than they ever have been.  It is a massive effort but together we can lift and achieve the aspirations of the climate agenda,” she added. “The [Climate Action] Summit “is not the first and last stop. It is the first step towards concrete actions and we are asking commitments from our member states. I will say considerable engagement with financial sector is really important, since there is a barrier, if we don’t have resources. So, we are saying public funds, must move. We are not correct in saying the Green Climate Fund  doesn’t have money on the table, they do, and the states do make contributions that is a good signal towards the climate action summit in the next two weeks. It is continuous engagement, that is what it is about,” she added. Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary, highlighted the present and inter-generational impacts of land degradation globally and underlined the plight of the children being born “whose future is not in the hands of the parents alone, but of humanity at large.” He drew attention to recent scientific assessments that revealed the harm caused by land degradation, stressed importance of the current COP in laying “the groundwork for change” for the five United Nations Summits to be held in New York soon, and said “combining our land with three little concepts of equality, partnerships and scale could take us a very long way towards our common goals.” Thiaw also concurred with Mr. Mohammed regarding the role of the private sector in ramping up land restoration particularly for vulnerable, rural and smallholder farmers, and clarified that the engagement with the private sector is not the same as privatizing land. COP14 President Javadekar said that, “combating desertification have to be a national goal. In India, we are already on the way of combating desertification, the green covering is rising in India. From 24% in the last 5 years, it has increased by nearly 15,000 square km and we are inching towards our target of having 33% of green cover.”  “If human actions have done damage to the world and the environment, now positive human actions will make a difference and will give a better earth for future generations,” he added.  Over 8,000 delegates, including ministers, heads of United Nations and intergovernmental bodies, youth, local governments, business leaders and representatives of non-governmental organizations are attending the Conference, whose theme is “Investing in Restoration to Unlock Opportunities.” COP14, which ends Friday, is expected to adopt over 30 decisions and a few country-led initiatives on the actions governments will take to reverse land degradation especially over the next two years, and also beyond.  Notes to editors India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention for Combating Desertification (UNCCD). The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is the nodal Ministry of Government of India (GoI) that oversees implementation of the Convention in the country.  India’s population is projected to reach 1.7 billion by 2050. About 2 billion hectares of land – an area over three times the size of India – are degraded, but can be restored back to health. India was one of the first countries to commit to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal target of achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN). India is the current President of COP14 and will serve for 2 years. As with previous COP sessions, a high-level segment is in progress to raise political momentum for the negotiations and boost the engagement of stakeholders in the Convention’s implementation.  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. Background information and resources For background materials, including photos for use, and other resources are available here. The opening statements will also be uploaded on this page as soon as they are available to the secretariat Free photographs for use with credits are available here. Contact Information For further information, please contact:  Ms. Wagaki Wischnewski, wwischnewski@unccd.int, Cell: +91 74284 94332 Mr. Abhishek Srivatsava, asrivatsava@unccd.int, Cell: +91 99991 80790 Ms. Yukie Hori, yhori@unccd.int, Cell: +91 74284 94331