Other meetings & events

World Soil Day 2017 is celebrated on 5 December under the theme "Caring for the Planet starts from the Ground," with activities aiming to communicate messages on the importance of soil quality for food security, healthy ecosystems and human well-being. Soils not only produce 95% of the food we consume, they also have a huge potential for taking carbon from the atmosphere and offsetting the green house gas emissions. Keeping the soil healthy can bring a multitude of gains, from food security to sustainable livelihoods and climate benefits. Follow UNCCD on Facebook and Twitter to learn more soil fun facts. To learn how the Wold Soil Day is celebrated around the world, please visit the FAO event page. Read more: UNCCD scence-policy brief: pivotal soil carbon Soils and pulses, a symbiosis for life FAO: World Soil Day

November 12, 2017 09:30 – 17:30 Hotel Koenigshof Adenauerallee 9, 53111 Bonn, Germany GREF 2017, co-organized by UNCCD, will contribute to the COP 23 policy discussions by:  Engaging and informing an international audience on state-of-the-art, energy transition applications and policies in two key sectors: Transport (such as strategy roadmaps, electric vehicles, batteries, ‘mobility as a service’, and diesel phase out policies); and Innovative, Integrated Systems ( such as smart cities, heating and cooling) Highlighting the link between land, renewable energy, and climate change; and by Showcasing innovative ways for enabling energy access in the Global South For more information, you can download the event overview and programme. Click here for online registration form.    

Tuesday 31 October 2017, 12:30-14:00 UNOG Library Events Room B. 135 Palais des Nations, Geneva  Special Event With The Winners Of Future Policy Award 2017 Desertification is one of today’s most serious environmental challenges. Every minute, we lose the equivalent of 30 football fields of soil to degradation. We urgently need to act. Can we empower young people at risk? Can we transform drylands, the most conflict-prone regions of the world? The Future Policy Awardees 2017 and renowned speakers show that we can. Through a compelling combination of a high-level discussion with distinguished experts, a multi-cultural performance, and an interactive dialogue with the audience, this special event shows how the destructive drama of desertification can become a constructive theatre of land restoration. This year, the Future Policy Award was organized by the World Future Council in partnership with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). A discussion with: Ousséni Diallo, President, Green Cross, Burkina Faso Atinkut Mezgebu Wubneh, Head of Agriculture and Rural Development Bureau, Tigray, Ethiopia Pradeep Monga, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Alexandra Wandel, Director, Vice Chair of the Management Board, World Future Council Moderator: Rama Mani, Convenor, University of Oxford’s Enacting Global Transformation; Founder, Theatre of Transformation Academy; Councillor, World Future Council Performance by Theatre Transformation Academy Followed by a reception In collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Ethiopia, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, World Future Council, Green Cross International, University of Oxford’s Enacting Global Transformation Initiative and Theatre of Transformation Academy. Learn more about the Future Policy Award.

As part of the Ankara Initiative which was adopted during the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 12) held in Ankara in 2015, the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs of Türkiye will organize the “International Workshop on Middle East (Regional) Dust Sources and Their Impacts” in 23-25 October 2017 in Istanbul, Türkiye. The workshop aims to exchange information and share experience between scientists and related organizations so that they can better evaluate the Middle East dust sources and impacts in the scientific framework. The workshop will focus on; Dust sources and monitoring the changes on these sources over Middle East Region Dust-Climate interaction in the Middle East Dust forecast and modelling Monitoring and impacts of dust transport affecting the Middle East The abstract deadline submission is 28 July 2017.