Stories

What is the relationship between our treatment of land and the likelihood of future pandemics?    Congratulations to everyone who participated in the UNCCD/CDIO Global Essay Competition 2020-2021. We were glad about the sheer number of participants engaged in creating a better future by giving their ideas on averting future pandemics. Our hope is that this experience helps you stay concerned and motivated to address problems concerning sustainability by providing new ideas, products, and services that reduce the ruining of our planet and that benefit humanity. In this regard, all participants are encouraged to remain constructively engaged by continuing to contribute to this necessary action of protecting land. This effort must be made as it inter alia will help raising awareness and in reaching more and more communities across the globe. Background In 2020, we witnessed the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic causing devastating impacts in virtually every facet of people’s lives. To many, the pandemic feels like a force out of their control. Yet, a closer look reveals it is a directly result of our action as a global community. To mark the 2020 World Soil Day (Saturday the 5th of December), the UNCCD Capacity Development and Innovations Office (CDIO) invited people around the world to participate in an essay competition exploring the concept of 'one health' through examining the relationship between our treatment of the planet's land and the increased likelihood of these types pandemics. Participation in the essay competition was open to everyone and was FREE!  Essays of a minimum of 500 and maximum of 1500 words were  submitted in English, French, Russian or Spanish. All entries were original unpublished works written by the participants.   Submissions The goal of this competition was to explore Covid-19, a topic of current and global importance, specifically, how our actions towards the planet's land resources can play a role in dealing with and help in preventing such pandemics in the future. Submitted essays explored inter alia: The diagnosis (the objective reality): The nature of Covid-19 and its relation to our attitude to land. The prescription and solution: What issues must be addressed for our improved relation to land. We have received 179 essays from 69 countries. There was a good distribution from all over the world:   The winners, their stories and their essays The winners were announced in mid July on UNCCD CDIO social media platforms. 1st prize winner Divya Keren Prakash is from Chennai, a bustling metropolis in the south of India. She studies at SBOA School and Junior College and is in 10th grade. Like most teens today, she is inspired by Greta Thurnberg to look a little closer at the places we live in and try to harmonize with nature. At a global level there might be a lot being done, but she believes that a lot more can be done locally. In her essay she argues that if we are to survive, our attitude towards land needs to change. From trampling on everything in our path for self-satisfaction, to alternatively, recognizing the frailty of the gift granted to us and learning to "Live and let live". Not to conquer but to seek balance. To respect other species, no matter how small. To recognize that every life has value and has evolved for a purpose in its ecosystem. Read Divya's essay here 2nd prize winner Latifah Pillay is 18 years old, she lives in Guyana and is a secondary school student. Latifah's essay title was "The plan B". Latifah's work stood out as it encourages one to read to the end. Indeed, she starts directly by writing: "What if I told you the Covid 19 Pandemic was planned?". As we go along, we discover her arguments and her very interesting way of analysing the events of the last two years. She concludes that this crisis can lead us to reform our way of life and consumption: the Corona Pandemic actually gives us a unique opportunity to make the structural changes needed to transition towards a fair and ecologically sustainable economic system. Read Latifa's essay here 3rd prize winner Ilyia Volkov is 26 years old and lives in the Russian Ural region. Currently, he works in the field of management consulting, where he conducts projects in various industries, such as the oil and gas industry, retail information technology. He also engages in projects on a voluntary basis, for example, in the field of environmental protection. His essay was titled "Responsible attitude to the lands and prevention of pandemics". In his essay, Ilya talks about the relationship between earth and the current COVID-19 pandemic. He convincingly proves that if we change our attitude towards the earth, we will be able to prevent the occurrence of pandemics in the future. Read Ilya's essay here Land practitioner category winner Wilfredo Alfaro is a forest engineer and an experienced land practitioner from Chile, and works for the National Forest Corporation (Cooperación Nacional Forestal) which servers as a national focal point to the UNCCD. Wilfredo's essay is entitled "The social function of forests: towards Land Degradation Neutrality, the provision of human health and overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile". In his essay he talks about the damage to human health caused by the natural deficit. He highlights the important role of forests to overcome SARS-CoV2, as forests aerosols could have an antiviral pharmacological action. He underlines the role of the forest aerosol in the reduction of risk factors for covid, as cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome and mental illness. In his essay, Wilfredo also highlights the progress that Chile has made to incorporate the social function of the forests to improve human health and combat the Covid 19. Read Wilfredo's essay here Special prize winners Elizabeth Dolger is 12 years old and lives in Brest, Belarus. Despite her young age, she is very responsible about the environment and the Covid-19 pandemic. She thinks this is a very serious topic. She always monitors the environment in nature and wears a protective mask in public places. Her essay was titled "COVID-19 - a harmless disease or a terrible pandemic?". In her essay, she says that the pandemic has divided life into before and after. But she believes that with the help of modern medicine, knowledge and a high-level of consciousness, humanity will be able to defeat this disease. Meerimgul Rajapova is 16 years old and lives in Kyrgyzstan. She studies at school no. 28 "Uchar" and is currently working on a project to clean ponds in her hometown and plans to expand it. Her essay is titled "Research COVID-19" and discusses her brother's experience as a medic in the "red zone" during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kyrgyzstan. The schoolgirl stresses that we should not underestimate the sacrifices made by health workers.  Alejandro Mejia Gomez is 28 years old and is from Colombia but is presently living in Germany. He has completed his studies in the University of Cologne in Economics and he has worked with policy makers in the areas of economic growth and sustainability. Alejandro's essay title was "Health and land 2021". In his essay Alejandro advocates that a new "One health Governance" should be put into forward to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. This governance arrangement recognizes that the health of the people is connected to the health of our animals and the environment. He argues that it is up to us to learn from this pandemic the fact that we are bound to the land whether we like it or not. Opeyemi Adewale is 43 years old and is from Nigeria. He has worked professionally in town planning, architecture and biomedical engineering. Opeyemi's essay title was "Land use change and the prevalence of zoonosis: The COVID-19 case". In his essay he particularly emphasizes that our readiness for future pandemics depends on how we treat the environment, the priority we place on animal health, and our understanding of its link to human health. Zachary Sadler is 22 years old and was born in the USA, raised in Thailand and studied in Spain. From an early age he was attracted by environmental issues and has led many ambitious projects concerning the same. Zachary's essay title was "The relationship between our treatment of the land and the increased likelihood of future pandemics". He underscores the importance of the interconnection between us (humans), animals and the Earth. For him, this is the most important thing that humans need to understand if they want to prevent events like COVID-19 from happening again. Vrishni Maharaj is 17 years old and lives in Trinidad and Tobago. She is a student, currently in the Sixth Form level, pursuing biology, chemistry, environmental sciences and entrepreneurship, with aspirations to become a surgeon. Vrishni's essay title was "COVID-19 and land resources". In her essay, she argues that "by shifting to a paradigm of sustainability, we can use land resources to our advantage as we fight through COVID-19. She says it is our duty as a global community to act now; tomorrow may be too late". Quotes from the essays Word from the team Isn't it amazing to be able to connect the world altogether around the same topic? Isn't it wonderful to get the views from every part of the globe about land? Isn't it beautiful to realize that we are actually all sharing this same land? These and more are what we found with this essay competition. It was a really wonderful to have this impressive number of participants and an even greater pleasure to discover their work. The essays were of very high quality, and written with sincerity and honesty. None of them disappointed us. It is necessary to understand that our reality can be quite different depending on our location and circumstances. We often find it challenging to put ourselves in other people's shoes, if only to understand better how the world works. However, the damage caused by our lack of care for our land has brought us all closer together. We are all victims of the pandemic. By joining our hands, hearts and minds we become a true a community. We were able to directly discover with pleasure, and sometimes sadness, how the relationship to the land influences the lives of hundreds of people, in countries all around the world. Every word was right, and every sentence should be read worldwide. Whether it was the laughter, the tears, the anecdotes, or the advice, each person who contributed to the exercise gave the world something of real value!! THANK YOU ALL!! Photo gallery Please see the photo gallery of the wonderful activities our winners are engaging in to protect the environment. Future competitions Please look out for our up-coming competitions and other major events. We shall soon be releasing a special competition from primary-school aged children; a special project for women and young girls, and much, much more. So please continue to stay tuned! Conclusion The power of the human mind never ceases to astonish us! Language abilities, face recognition, decision-making, creative thinking, memory, logic, multitasking, emotions, the list goes on. Imagine the potential when several such minds work together! The outcome is creation, innovation! This is what happened in this project. From the team that worked tirelessly to the participants who were willing to write and share their ideas.

On 14-15 September 2021, the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) and UNCCD conducted an expert review workshop to fine-tune the jointly developed methodology used to assess gender-responsiveness of the sustainable land management (SLM) technologies. The event facilitated an exchange between experts and practitioners from a variety of regions and organizations who addressed a number of technical and practical questions including the regional relevance of the methodology as well as the challenges and benefits of its application. Considering the tool’s potential impact on the ground, participants also discussed how it can contribute to tackling the wider gender-related issues as well as what data it could generate to support policy decisions. The UNCCD Gender Action Plan (GAP) emphasises that gender equality and women’s empowerment are key to the implementation of the Convention. The joint  project on gender-responsive SLM technologies and approaches launched by UNCCD and WOCAT in 2020 focuses on one of the four priority areas for action outlined in the GAP – enhancing women’s access to leading SLM technologies that effectively support UNCCD implementation.

12 September is the UN Day for South-South cooperation. Collaboration among peoples and countries of the global South that contributes to their national well-being, their national and collective self-reliance and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals is a key aspect of UNCCD-enabled projects such as the Ningxia International Knowledge Management Center for Combating Desertification in China. The center is the result of cooperation between UNCCD and China under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with Ningxia Forestry Grassland Administration as one of the projects to implement the Ordos Declaration adopted at UNCCD COP13. Under the MoU, the center commits to offer from 2019 to 2023 training including in-person lectures, field exercises, study trips and online webinars to developing countries on policies and technologies related to land degradation, rehabilitation and mitigation of drought effects. In December 2019, the center co-organized together the UNCCD the first international seminar in Ningxia Yinchuan, China. 15 participants from Africa and Asia participated in lectures, community interviews, business visits and university workshops. Due to COVDI-19, since 2021 the center has been developing a series of online training courses to include virtual seminars and field trips that showcase policy measures, technologies and business models of dryland ecosystem restoration, water saving afforestation and ecological resources-based green economy development under south-south cooperation program of China to support capacity development for countries affected by desertification. Photo above: Visit to straw grid sand fixation site.  

The UNCCD CSO Panel has released the latest issue of its newsletter. This issue introduces the recent news from the CSO network from May to August 2021, summary report of the CSOs meeting with the LDN Fund and TAF, report on the 2021 World Desertification and Drought Day, GGW Accelerator and upcoming events. Read more...

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Ramsar Convention, the intergovernmental treaty which unites 171 countries to protect and use wisely the wetlands and the resources they provide. The Ramsar Convention is the oldest of the modern global intergovernmental environmental agreements. In the fifty years since it was founded, a lot more became known about the importance of wetlands for water security, disaster risk reduction, mitigating climate change, supporting biodiversity and providing livelihoods.  Across the world, wetlands are of great importance to humanity. All agricultural production depends on water which is transported and provided to humankind through wetlands. More than half of the world relies on wetland-grown produce for their staple diet, for example from rice paddies. Wetlands also provide more than a billion livelihoods across the world in an array of activities that also deliver food, water supplies, transport, and leisure. Wetlands loss contributes to poverty and food insecurity. During the months of August and September 2021, the anniversary website is featuring stories and messages on why wetlands are important and what can be done to ensure they are better protected and used. On October 7, the Ramsar secretariat will host an intergenerational dialogue between leaders past and future to create connections across generations to elevate the urgency to protect, conserve and restore wetlands. This anniversary-themed video presents the many benefits of wetlands and gives the overview of the convention's work.  

The Convention on Biological Diversity has issued the programme for its next Conference and Meetings of the Parties to be held in Kunming, China. It also opened the registration for media. The conferences (COP15/COP-MOP10/COP-MOP4) are organized in two parts. Part 1 will take place on 11-15 October2021 as a virtual event. It will include an online high-level segment.  The in-person meetings and Part 2 of the conference will resume on 25 April - 8 May 2022. The Parties will conclude negotiations and decide on the new Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. A high-level segment will also take place.  The Open-Ended Working Group on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will meet online starting next week, 23 August - 3 September 2021, to prepare the advance draft text. A high-level segment is also planned during this session. Decisive in-person meetings that were planned for October in China were paused for a few more months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Online accreditation of media for the events taking place now is available immediately. Accreditation for next years' meeting will open at a future date.  For more information, click here.