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The two-day stakeholders' virtual meeting on “Land-Solar Plus” : Integrated solution combining solar-powered Land Degradation Neutrality for food, water and energy security, and ecosystem services organized by UNCCD Secretariat took place on 16 - 17 September 2020 in collaboration with Tsinghua University, China.

COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE The humanitarian effects of environmental degradation, peace, and security. This debate took place on Wednesday, September 17, 2020 by videoconference, and was chaired by the Nigerien Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, African Integration and Nigeriens Abroad, H.E. Kalla Ankourao. The session was marked by the interventions of the President of the ICRC, Mr. Peter Maurer, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, and the Earth Ambassador, Mrs. Inna Modja, representative of the civil society. Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw emphasized how competition over natural resources creates conditions for conflict. He also noted that as desertification progrsses, these resources are becoming increasingly limited. He also noted that environmental degradation increases people's grievances, undermines their livelihoods, and often makes young people more susceptible to recruitment by armed groups. He also called for addressing land degradation and desertification to prevent conflict. Niger's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, H.E. Kalla Ankourao, illustrated the humanita- rian effects of environmental degradation on peace and security. While expressing his compassion for the victims of the current floods in the Sahel in general and in Niger in particular, Minister Kalla Ankourao highlighted the humanitarian effects of climate change, which he described as a disaster and which seriously threatens the populations of the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin. Furthermore, the Minister, pointed to the close correlation between conflicts and climate change in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin, considered that respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of the natural environment, was necessary and should be part of military training manuals and peacekeeping operations programs. The Ambassador of the Earth, artist, activist and daughter of the Sahel, Ms. Inna Modja, gave a testimony on the humanitarian impact of desertification and climate change on the Sahelian populations, particularly on rural women. She called for urgent solutions to be found to address the consequences of desertification and climate change and manage their impact on peace and security. It must be recalled the discussions on the nexus between climate change, peace and security has been the subject of attention by the United Nations Security Council since 2007 under the presidency of the United Kingdom.

Action around land use to slow climate change and biodiversity loss gets vital boost from Commonwealth and United Nations partners A virtual gathering has galvanized political backing amongst Commonwealth countries to tackle the key challenge of land degradation linked to climate change and biodiversity loss, which is impacting ecosystems across the globe and over half of the global population.Alongside the United Nations General Assembly meetings, ministers, high commissioners, officials and experts from across the Commonwealth met for a high-level event organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). With only months before 2021 – a crucial year marked by a series of global summits focused on the environment – the discussions paved the path for sustainable land management to feature as a top priority for enhanced climate action and living in harmony with nature. Delegates agreed to explore how Commonwealth member states can act jointly on the Rio Conventions, and forge a positive, action-based agenda around land use in the run-up to the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, CBD COP15 (May 2021), the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (June 2021), the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26 (November 2021) and UNCCD COP15 in late 2021. At their summit next June, Commonwealth leaders are expected to adopt a ‘Living Lands Charter’, including a programme of action on climate change impacts on land.  Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said: “Without urgent action on how we use and steward our lands, we cannot hope to achieve the targets set out in the Paris Agreement on climate change. Given the impact of COVID-19 our countries have a narrow window of opportunity to establish a ‘new normal’ in the way we interact with our natural environment. Part of this must means a deliberate and systematic focus on a ‘green recovery’ that incorporates climate-smart practices in the way we grow our crops, raise livestock, and use our land resources.” UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw stated: “Youth make up 60% of the Commonwealth population. This is 1 out of 3 youth in the world. Policies that could enable them to jumpstart green land-based jobs such as agriculture, ecological restoration or in the supply chain hold promise for both building back better and living in harmony with nature. In addition, the proposed ‘Living Lands charter’ could drive momentum towards a fair, inclusive and sustainable future.” The land sector generates about a quarter of net carbon emissions caused by humans, due to activities such as logging, raising methane-producing livestock, and unsustainable soil management. Not only do these contribute to climate change, but in turn, the impacts of climate change such as extreme weather, drought and floods further degrade the soil, forests and wildlife.By 2050, between 50 and 700 million people will have migrated as a result of the combination of land degradation, climate change impacts and diminished crop yields.Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) Patricia Espinosa recalled the origins of the three Rio Conventions on biodiversity, climate change and desertification, including the idea that these three issues “naturally coincided”. She urged governments not to look at these issues in isolation, adding:“Never has it been more important that we align our efforts even more strongly than before. We need your help to help people how the issues under the three Conventions intersect and how it impacts them…. We must, must, must work together. But it only works if your policies and programs reflect the importance of these linked issues.” Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) Elizabeth Mrema said: “Nature-based solutions could offer immediate and cost-effective long-term benefits to mitigate climate change, to address increasing threats to biodiversity and to restore degraded land. Nature-based solutions have the potential to not only reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and sequester carbon, they can also build resilience to climate change, as well as provide water filtration, flood buffering, and disaster risk reduction while improving soil health and biodiversity.”Outcomes of the event will lay the groundwork for concrete contributions to the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, as well as global talks at the UN conferences on climate change and biodiversity. Notes to EditorsWatch the full statements on Facebook video stream:  For interviews with the Commonwealth Secretary-General, contact Josephine Latu-Sanft, j.latu-sanft@commonwealth.int or +44 7587657269 (WhatsApp)For interviews with the UN Executive Secretaries, contact: Wagaki Wishcnewski, wwischnewski@unccd.int or +49 (0) 173 268 7593About the Commonwealth SecretariatThe Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal sovereign states. Our combined population is 2.4 billion, of which more than 60 per cent is under the age of 30. The Commonwealth spans the globe and includes both advanced economies and developing countries. Thirty-two of our members are small states, many of which are island nations. The Commonwealth Secretariat supports member countries to build democratic and inclusive institutions, strengthen governance and promote justice and human rights. Our work helps to grow economies and boost trade, deliver national resilience, empower young people, and address threats such as climate change, debt and inequality. www.thecommonwealth.org   About UNCCDThe United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is an international agreement on good land stewardship. Through partnerships, the Convention’s 197 Parties set up robust systems to manage land degradation and 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. Land also plays a key role in the prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, securing rural livelihoods and creating green jobs, supporting community resilience and maintaining the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services.  

High-level open debate of the Security Council on the theme “Maintenance of international peace and security: humanitarian effects of environmental degradation and peace and security” took place on 17 September 2020. PRESS RELEASE COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE View the recorded event on UN Web TV Below is the statement by Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. *** *** *** Allow me to thank the Council Presidency of Niger for extending an invitation to me as the Security Council discusses a very critical topic, namely: "Maintenance of International Peace and Security: The Humanitarian impact of environmental degradation and peace and security". Today’s threats to international peace and security have shifted from conflicts between states to violence due to non-state actors. An assessment of the root causes of these conflicts shows that a large proportion have a link to the environment. Such link is either due to abundance of natural resources (oil, minerals, wildlife…), or to scarcity (land, water, vegetation…). In arid lands, such as in the Africa’s Sahel region, violence often erupts over competition for access to depleted land and scarce water resources. The combination of three factors exacerbate the situation:  A heavy reliance on natural resources for the satisfaction of basic needs. Farmers, pastoralists or fishermen/women. City dwellers may have additional income, but they too are largely dependent on income generated in rural areas  With land degradation, drought and climate change, resources are shrinking  A steady population increase put more pressure on natural resources Satisfying a growing demand of a population that relies essentially on resources that are being depleted at alarming rate makes the situation unpredictable in the long run.  Compounded with weak governance, weak institutions, and limited capacities to respond to emergencies.  Despite heroic efforts of the humanitarian community, lives are being saved but not being changed. Year after year, the vicious cycle spirals. We must dig more deeply in order to address the root causes.  Conflicts over access to natural resources are not new. But the intensity and the frequency are unprecedented. Farmers and pastoralists fight for the control of scarcer fertile land and water. As the users of natural resources are from different tribes or religious groups, and in the absence of a strong judiciary system, there are cases of excessive violence, leading to cycles of dangerous retaliations.  Droughts hit more frequently, more severely. Drought has always been a serious threat to lives and livelihoods. It is a phenomenon that is already affecting every climatic region - with around 70 countries are now regularly affected.  In the last three years alone, more than 25 countries declared a national emergency due to drought.  Drought means water shortages, power outages, degraded health and stalled economic momentum. Droughts wipe out enough produce (annually) to feed 81 million people every day for the entire year. That is the equivalent of the population of Germany.  Episodes of drought can double the risk of rioting in vulnerable communities. Food prices spike, civil unrest erupts, mostly triggered by vulnerable people living in suburbs of large cities. Years of drought generally correspond to years of economic downturn for many countries whose economies essentially depend on the primary sector.   I believe that there are four dimensions to consider when we address environment and security linkages:  First, ecosystem goods and services fundamentally underpin human well-being and human security.  Second, conflict, irrespective of its source, affects the viability or sustainability of investments in environmental protection and their outcomes.  Third, ecosystem degradation, resource competition, or inequitable distribution of benefits increase vulnerability and conflict risk.  Fourth, environmental cooperation can increase capacity for conflict management, prevention, and recovery. The scope of security and insecurity is by no means limited to violent conflict or its absence but includes the roots of sustainable livelihoods, health, and well-being. Different types of violence are associated with the increased rural-urban migration due to drought and desertification. For example, grievances against government might rise when agricultural outcomes are depressed by drought and its induced out-migration.  In other cases, the unfulfilled economic hopes of poor migrants combined with youth street gangs, lead youth in spirals of violence. Desperate and without much perspectives, young people may be easy prays to terrorist groups or to traffickers of all sorts.  Frustrations and dissatisfaction due to inequitable sharing of state income (especially generated from extractives) lead to serious grievances, sometimes rebellions.  The vast majority, of the world’s population relies on ecosystem services rooted in soils. In view of this, the health of land - due to its direct and indirect influences on the economy, degree of empowerment and on human rights - catalyzes the impact of environmental degradation on peace, security and stability. Our capacities to assess and address the security risks driven by environmental degradation and climate change are not keeping pace with the speed with which the ‘risk landscape’ is changing. So, how do we prevent environmental degradation and foster peace and security? We need to understand how difficult it is to mobilize societies against a threat whose costly consequences may not be felt until it is too late to prevent them.  Environmental security underpins the rationale for investment in global environmental benefits and is essential to maintain the earth's life-supporting ecosystems generating water, food, and clean air. Reducing environmental security risks also depends fundamentally on improving resource governance and social resilience to natural resource shocks and stresses. Indeed, the positive angle of the central and fundamental link between humanity and land is that the pendulum may swing in both directions. Protecting lands could thus trigger a broad peace, stability and ecosystem recovery cycle; a constructive feedback loop extending far beyond an initial choice to protect the environment. At the UN Convention to Combat Dersertification, most of our flagship programs tackle environment degradation as a means to promote peace and security.  For example, the Initiative on Sustainability, Stability and Security, which aims at addressing the security challenges linked to land degradation and desertification. It aims at supporting African countries to create decent green jobs in land rehabilitation. Another important Initiative with a similar goal is the Great Green Wall. I am sure Inna Modja will speak more about the vision of the Initiative.  These are just examples of actions, but the risks that climate and environmental change presents to international peace and security need to be addressed across the entire impact chain – by mitigating climate change, attenuating its consequences on ecosystems, adapting its socio-economic systems, better managing the heightened resource competition it will bring about, and strengthening conflict management institutions. To prevent conflicts while protecting our planet, we ought to tackle environment degradation. Our environment is our health, our wealth and our well-being. If we, in a coordinated way, avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation we can better preempt, prevent and manage many conflicts in the World.  Thank you.  

16 September 2020 Statement by UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw Your Excellency Engineer Abdulrahman Al-Fadley,  Your Excellency Shinjiro Koizumi,  Your Excellency Sergio Costa,  Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, At the outset, I would like to thank the Saudi presidency for this invitation.   The close alignment of the overarching theme  and priorities  under the G20 presidency of Saudi Arabia with the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is remarkable.   And timely.  We welcome discussions at a point when our collective interdependence and vulnerabilities – especially in the face of COVID-19 – are very much exposed.  For UNCCD galvanizing our collective efforts to combat land degradation and habitat loss – delivering on SDG 15 - in particular, is critical for the health and welfare of people and for planet earth.  Land degradation drives fragmentation and the disappearance of valuable terrestrial habitats which further exacerbates biodiversity loss.  At a global scale, the area of non-degraded land is still progressively shrinking . We know that 75% of the Earth's terrestrial ecosystems have already been transformed from their natural state.   Country reports, to the UNCCD, show that 1 in 5 hectares are degraded.  The most vulnerable people are the most severely affected of course.  But land degradation undermines sustainable development and prosperity in all regions – including in G20 countries. But if we, in a coordinated way, avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation we can better protect the rich biodiversity and vital ecosystem services that support all life on Earth. There are millions of hectares with the potential to be restored.  There are millions of hectares that can be sustainably managed. And there are millions of hectares that deserve to be protected and conserved.  As we enter the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and as we inch closer to agreeing the post 2020 Biodiversity Framework, UNCCD stands ready to engage with the G20 on these issues.   And on any initiatives pursued under Saudi’s G20 Presidency.   Excellencies, Let me end by thanking the Saudi presidency once more for its strong voice and leadership on land issues. I wish you well in your discussions today.  Thank you!  

ENGLISH | FRENCH We, Ministers, representatives of the member states of the Panafrican Agency of the Great Green Wall of Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and Chad; Deeply concerned by the current global health situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, whose socio-economic consequences in the short, medium and long term will also have a certain ecological impact; Recalling that the establishment of lasting peace and stability in the Sahel region requires joint efforts in the fields of security, economic development and social welfare; Recognizing the vulnerability of Sahelian agriculture linked to land degradation, the impact of drought and the significant needs of the region in terms of adaptation to climate change and in particular the adaptation of its agro-sylvo-pastoral systems whose productivity is strongly affected by global warming;  Recalling that in the Sahel, agroecology, a tool for sustainable land management, represents one of the greatest potential for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on the short-term, the fight against desertification and the conservation of biodiversity and reduction of the impact of drought; and, also recalling the major challenges of food security, poverty eradication and lack of water resources that member countries must tackle by 2030; Convinced in this respect that the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative represents one of the best responses to mitigate the effects of the economic crisis by implementing our land degradation neutrality targets, creating decent green jobs, especially for women and young people in rural areas, and the risks linked to insecurity, poverty, fragile ecosystems and climate change; Noting that, in spite of the multiple challenges, the Sahel and member countries are also a land of opportunities, based on productive natural resources, a rich cultural heritage with a young population receptive to technological progress and which aspires to a positive transformation of the region; Noting that human well-being and communities’ health are intrinsically linked to the productive capacity and resilience of ecosystems that are often the only source of income for rural populations; Welcoming the publication of the progress report on the “Great Green Wall: Implementation Status and Way Ahead to 2030”, prepared with the support of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and further welcoming the fact that the Great Green Wall Initiative has restored about 20 million hectares to date, while creating 117,000 direct jobs; Expressing our gratitude to the technical and financial partners of the Great Green Wall, including technical agencies as well as multilateral and bilateral funding institutions for their current and renewed commitment and support; We make the following declaration: We reaffirm that the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative is and remains a priority for each of our eleven member countries. We reiterate our shared vision of making the Great Green Wall one of the levers for achieving the post-COVID economic recovery, the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, the 2063 Agenda and the Paris Agreement in our respective countries. We call on all our partners to provide sustained and multifaceted support to the member countries of the Pan-African Agency for the Great Green Wall, as the implementation of the Great Green Wall is a priority for our States, which can contribute to the creation of jobs, wealth and prosperity. We urge development partners to combine their efforts and initiatives in order to contribute to, and facilitate, the alignment of interventions aimed, inter alia, at poverty reduction, ecosystems restoration, adaptation to, and/or, climate change mitigation, women empowerment, fight against irregular economic migration and jobs creation in rural areas. We call upon and encourage our partners, in particular the Green Climate Fund, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Global Environment Facility, the World Bank Group, the European Union, the African Development Bank Group as well as the French Development Agency and other interested bilateral partners, to support our States in developing an umbrella program on the Great Green Wall. We call on other partners, in particular the United Nations agencies as well as regional and international organizations to actively participate in this umbrella programme. We invite the private sector to significantly contribute to the implementation of the Great Green Wall Initiative and we pledge to support the principle of greater, more effective and more efficient public and private financing. 7 September 2020 Signed by: H.E. Mme. Marieme Bekaye, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Mauritania, and Chair of the Council of Ministers of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall, on behalf of the ministers of the member countries. Burkina Faso H.E. Mr. Batio Bassiere  Republic of Chad H.E. Mr. Brahim Mahamat Djamaladine Republic of Djibouti H.E. Mr. Mohamed Abdoulkader Moussa Eritrea H.E Mr. Tesfai Ghebreselassie Federal and Democratic of Ethiopia H.E. Prof. Fekadu Beyene Islamic Republic of Mauritania H.E. Mme. Marieme Bekaye Republic of Mali H.E. Mr. Mamadou Gakou (Permanent Secretary representing the minister of environment) Republic of Niger H.E. Mr. Almoustapha Garba Federal Republic of Nigeria H.E. Mr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar Republic of Senegal H.E. Mr. Abdou Karim Sall Republic of Sudan H.E. Mr. Abdelgadir Mohamed Ahmed Turkawi