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Bonn, Germany – The Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD COP13 requested by the decisions 3/COP.13 and 14/COP.13 he Global Mechanism of the UNCCD to continue developing partnerships in support of the implementation of the Convention and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) as well as to promote gender responsive approaches in line with the Gender Action Plan. Moreover, country Parties have emphasized the need for support during the early stage of project preparation, for which limited sources of funding are available. This stage is critical for conceptualizing projects and programmes and engaging both national and international technical and financial partners to support their preparation and implementation. In 2018, the Global Mechanism started helping countries to design Land Degradation Neutrality Transformative Projects and Programmes (LDN TPPs) as follow-up to the LDN target setting process and the request of country Parties. The provision of technical support by a dedicated national consultant with additional technical support from the Global Mechanism helped to further develop a project idea into a sound concept note that could be used to tap into targeted funding sources, including climate finance. The Global Mechanism also facilitated dialogue at national level to identify implementing partners and strengthen partnerships to reinforce the capacities of national accredited institutions. As of 31 May 2019, more than twenty countries are benefitting from this support and twelve LDN TPP concept notes have already been prepared. The Global Mechanism is pleased to invite additional country Parties to express interest in receiving support for the development of LDN TPPs and translate country-specific LDN targets into concrete actions. The selection of applicants will be based on a set of criteria and availability of funds. Eligible countries are invited to express interest by 31 July 2019, with project design to start after the upcoming UNCCD COP14.  

Ibrahim Thiaw Under Secretary-General & Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification World Day of Combat Desertification Ankara, Türkiye, 17 June 2019 Introduction Good morning,  His Excellency Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Türkiye, His Excellency Mr. Bekir Pakdemirli, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,  On behalf of everyone at UNCCD: Thank you for joining us for the World Day to Combat Desertification. And, in particular, many thanks to the Government and people of Türkiye for hosting this special 25th Anniversary edition. It’s said that a cup of Turkish coffee will be remembered for 40 years.  Both for the taste,  And for the lifelong friends you make while savoring the moment.  I’ve made many friends over a cup of coffee, but my colleagues will tell you it always comes with a reminder that: Like so many things we take for granted,  Such a simple gesture reflects how our choices have an impact that ripples across incredibly complex and connected lifecycles. Right now, that impact is damaging the health of our planet and ourselves. Making it the responsibility for anyone who wants to ensure we all have equal rights: To eat, to drink and to breathe;  To make our home in a town, in the country or even just in security;  To access jobs, education, technology, medicine or investment. Simply, to live. Eating & drinking (agriculture) First, think about what it takes to feed 7.5 billion people. Only 20% of the planet is habitable, yet within our own lifetimes: 1 out of every 4 hectares of productive land has become unusable. 3 out of every 4 hectares have been altered from their natural state  And while agriculture drives that change, we waste a third of the food we produce. So, how are we going to Increase food production by 50%,  Even as crop yields decrease by 50% in some regions because of land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss? Well, just as the damage comes from many pockets of local activity, so can the solutions.  We’ve seen how well land responds in Türkiye’s Central Anatolia region. And thank you very much for this wonderful video you have shown. As Karapinar’s vegetation vanished, so did the soil and then the people.  But reforestation, irrigated farming, pastures and bee keeping are restoring both the soil’s organic structure and the local communities. Combining more traditional knowledge, faith communities and technology in that way, that could restore 150 million hectares of farmland by 2030.  Generating up to 40 billion US dollars in extra income for smallholders,  Feeding another 200 million people, And sinking several gigatons of carbon dioxide. Even better, if we can scale it up across all of our degraded land, we can create new opportunities for the next generation.  Making a home (urban growth) That’s important for my second point – helping people enjoy stable homes.  Today, half the population lives in urban areas, which consume resources: Requiring an area 200 times the size of the city to produce. And damaging people and places too often out of sight and out of mind.  That adds to the pressure on: The half the population living with difficulties of land degradation. And the half already living with water scarcity. In turn, making it almost inevitable that even more rural communities will migrate towards towns and cities, and refuel that cycle. Which is where land restoration reveals its true strength.  Because restoration and restoring the two billion hectares of land already damaged: will help meet that growing demand from urban areas.  and create sustainable jobs and stabilize vulnerable rural areas. Look at Africa’s Sustainability, Stability and Security Initiative.  Or Triple S for its friends.  The UNCCD, a dozen countries and some amazing partners, are tackling the root causes of these issues. Our aim is: To increase the productivity of 10 million hectares; To create two million green jobs for vulnerable groups; And to prevent further displacement by improving land rights and planning for natural disasters.  But again, what we need to do now is scale this up.  Equality (poverty & gender) Which brings me to my third and final point. Because to achieve that scale, we must: Not only use all of our incredibly diverse resources,  But also ensure the benefits are evenly distributed. Over a billion people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty since this Convention was formed, but exploitation of natural resources continues to widen the poverty gap instead of reducing it.  And, while women are key to closing that gap, 90% of countries legally restrict their economic activity. For example, they make up 40% of farm workers,  But only one in five women own their land and even fewer control it.  Yet, lifting such restrictions would add 240 million jobs and $28 trillion to the economy by 2025.  That’s like another US economy – and then some – within just six years.  Which is why, the UNCCD Gender Action Plan promotes: More participation in decision making;  More economic and legal empowerment; And more access to resources, education and technology. There is a social tipping point when women’s participation reaches 30%. And we need to reach it quickly, to avoid reaching a tipping point for land, biodiversity or climate.  Conclusion Which means, dear colleagues,  That instead of causing damage costing:  The global economy nearly $20 trillion a year And global warming even more. We must take action to repay our debt to nature and restore our land. Generating a tenfold return on our investment. Multiplying the benefits of the Sustainable Development Goals.  Growing together in a virtuous cycle where everyone contributes and everyone benefits.  Late Hama Arba Diallo, the first Executive Secretary of UNCCD once said that “Success is never granted and there is always a reason to it.” This Convention still takes nothing for granted and is determined to highlight the many reasons why land management can and must improve. I’m happy to say that some old friends will join us for the roundtable to share their experience on how to do that. And I want to thank them for all they did for those 25 years. But I warn you, there’s another break before then: And UNCCD is the only international Treaty protecting our land,  We welcome all the friends we can get. So, I will see you all for coffee to learn more about your actions to restore healthy land and an even healthier future. I wish you all a happy 25th Anniversary.  Thank you. Read more: Celebrate #2019WDCD

Our individual consumption and production choices have a lasting impact on land. Thus, restoring and protecting fragile areas is the responsibility of everyone who wants to eat, drink or breathe. Restoration of 150 million ha of degraded land can generate US$40 billion for small farmers and feed 200 million people. Agriculture and urbanization, the two new drivers of land degradation today also demand action.   French Spanish Arabic Chinese Russian Ankara, 17 June 2019. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for urgent action to protect and restore degrading land in a bid to reduce forced migration, improve food security, spur economic growth and help to address the global climate emergency.  Noting that the world loses 24 billion tons of fertile soil and dryland degradation reduces national domestic product in developing countries by up to 8% annually, Guterres said much remains to be done, and stressed the imperative of combatting desertification as part of our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Ibrahim Thiaw, head of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification – the world’s only agreement binding countries to tackle land degradation and desertification and to mitigate the effects of drought – said our simple, everyday choices have a huge and enduring impact on the land, climate and biodiversity. He called for quicker and smarter individual and professional choices, if we want our society, economy and environment to grow together.  When only 20 per cent of the surface is habitable and one percent of freshwater is accessible to a global population that will reach nine billion in three decades, the simple, everyday choices we make to produce or consume goods ripple across our intricately interconnected lifestyles with incredibly long-term impacts, he stressed.  Recent assessments show that one out of every four hectares of productive land has become unusable. Moreover, three out of every four hectares have been altered completely from their natural state.  Under these conditions, Thiaw said increasing food production by 50 percent, when land degradation and climate change will be decreasing crop yields by 50 percent makes restoring and protecting the fragile layer of land an issue for “anyone who wants to eat, drink or breathe.”  Thiaw made the call from Ankara, Türkiye, during the global observance of the worldwide celebrations to mark both the 2019 World Day to Combat Desertification and 25 years of international cooperation in restoring and protecting productive land.  World day to Combat Desertification is celebrated every year in every country on 17 June to promote good land stewardship for the benefit of present and future generations. Türkiye’s President Recepp Tayyip Erdogan presided over the global observance celebrations hosted by his government, and attended by ministers from 10 countries. Some 196 countries and the European Union are parties to the Convention, of which 169 are affected by desertification, land degradation or drought.  In 2015, the international community agreed to achieve a balance in the rate at which land is degraded and restored by taking concrete actions to avoid, reduce and reverse land degradation, generally referred to as achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN), and mitigate the effects of drought. n the last four years, 122 countries have committed to take voluntary, measurable actions to arrest land degradation by 2030. And 44 of the 70 countries that have suffered drought in the past have set up national plans to manage drought more effectively in the future.  Whereas a significant amount of the land degradation and transformation has occurred over the last 50 years, Thiaw stressed that the success stories of land restoration and conservation, such as in Türkiye’s Central Anatolia region, offer hope that change is possible when traditional knowledge, technology and faith communities come together creatively. He said the restoration of 150 million hectares of farmland by 2030 can generate up to USD40 billion in extra income for smallholders, feed another 200 million people and sink several gigatons of carbon dioxide. Scaling it up across all our degraded land could prevent biodiversity and climate from disintegrating and bequeath new opportunities to the next generation, he added. He warned, however, that urbanization is a growing challenge because half of the global population now lives in urban areas and consumes resources produced in an area 200 times the size of the city. What’s more, regions such as Asia and Africa could lose 80 percent of their cropland to cities.  Restoring the two billion hectares of land that is already degraded would help meet that growing demand from urban areas and create sustainable jobs and stabilize vulnerable areas, he argued. Thiaw said the actions taken by countries in the context of the Convention show that the world is determined to switch from destroying the Earth to making it productive enough to grow a better future for everyone by 2030. ~ ends ~ 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. Notes to Editors Background information about the 2019 celebrations in Türkiye and around the world are available here: https://www.unccd.int/actions17-june-world-day-combat-desertification/celebrate-2019wdcd Factsheet: Summary of Recent Assessments of Land Degradation Speech: Executive Secretary, UNCCD on the Occasion of World Day to Combat Desertification For interviews contact: wwischnewski@unccd.int

The past 50 years has seen unprecedented exploitation and destruction of the land, which produces the food that sustains each and every one of us. Over one third of the earth’s land is severely degraded and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24 billion tonnes a year, in part due to unsustainable agriculture and climate change.

Some international agreements emerge quickly. But the birth of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was a long tortuous journey. In particular, it was undermined by the perception that it was a development Convention. Yet the evolution of its sister Rio Conventions on Climate Change and on Biological Diversity shows that a purist approach to environmental conservation is at best misguided, and at worst dangerous.

Bonn, Germany – UNCCD met with the newly appointed Executive Director of The Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) Mr. Zafar Makhmudov to discuss potential collaboration on regional projects within the UNCCD Drought Initiative as well as on programs that address sand and dust storms. Both organizations expressed interest in a more systematic cooperation to enhance implementation of the convention in five Central Asian countries and Afghanistan. CAREC was established in 2000 as an independent, non-political and non-for-profit international organization with regional mandate to assist the Central Asian governments, regional and international stakeholders in addressing environmental and sustainability challenges across Central Asian region and Afghanistan. CAREC is an UNCCD-accredited NGO. Read more: UNCCD and civil society organizations The Drought Initiative UNCCD Annex V