News & stories

The Peace Forest Initiative, scheduled for launch at the upcoming UNCCD COP14 in New Delhi, India is designed to provide a practical platform that will foster international collaboration by demonstrating the value of achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN, SGD target 15.3) in cross-border post-conflict situations.

Ibrahim Thiaw recently visited Azerbaijan on the invitation of the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mr. Mukhtar Bababev to discuss republic's experience in land restoration and rehabilitation. The mission was organized in close collaboration with the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Berlin.

Bonn, Germany – Our staff will travel carbon-neutral to the COP14 in New Delhi, India. Unavoidable travel-related greenhouse gas emissions will be compensated by contributing to the Adaptation Fund of UNFCCC, which finances projects and programmes in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. We encourage you to join us and make your travel carbon-neutral, too! Read more: Carbon-neutral resource center  

Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire – The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Global Mechanism (GM) of UNCCD, in partnership with UN Women, are joining forces to build the capacity of African stakeholders on the climate change/land degradation nexus through the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) targets. The workshop on 10-12 July 2019, hosted at the AfDB Headquarters in Abidjan, also facilitated the understanding of gender issues in the context of the UNFCCC and UNCCD processes. Partners, including the Sahel Commission on Climate Change, IFDD and IUCN/GEF along with the NGO and private sector representatives from World Vision Ethiopia, Global Shea Alliance, Global Evergreening Alliance, Great Green Wall Panafrican Agency, GIZ, WRI and UNDP – actively participated to the workshop.  "The LDN objectives and associated measures will contribute to the implementation of national climate action plans, and vice versa. These synergies should be taken into account when developing national plans for the LDN and updating the CDNs under the Paris Agreement, " said Al Hamdou Dorsouma, Manager of Climate Change and Green Growth at AfDB.  “The participants had a chance to explore various investment opportunities, including structuring bankable projects that encompass both NDC and LDN targets, with focus on achieving the SDGs and integrating gender perspectives,” explained Sandrine Jauffret of  UNCCD. Over 60 participants from 15 countries positively rated the quality and the comprehensiveness of the training that gave them an opportunity to better understand the concept of LDN and the importance of linking LDN targets to NDCs while taking into consideration the gender dimension. Participants also suggested sharing their experiences at national and local levels across sectors and ministries. For more info please contact: Ms. Sandrine Jauffret, Team Lead for LDN Transformative Projects and Programmes at the GM: sjauffret@unccd.int / tel. 00 49 228 815 2889. Read more: Info on the workshop in French  

On June 25, the UNCCD Capacity Building Marketplace (CBM) Team visited the high school students of the Bonn International School, Germany. The main purpose of this visit was to raise awareness about the importance of engaging the youth in the sustainable development process, and the roles they can play to help in achieving this goal. The multinational Team comprising Jorge Sanz (Spain), Raissa Tadia (Cameroon) ,Ines Belhous (France), Loretta Asare (Ghana) and Jairo Lozano (Colombia) engaged around 80 students between the ages of 15 and 17 on several issues including  how they can personally help in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);how land degradation and desertification is increasing, and how young people can play a very positive part in helping to address these challenges; the importance of the World Day Combat Desertification; and the opportunities that  the Marketplace offers, such as scholarships, university programs, vacancies, and much more. There was also a fun-filled charade between the presentations to further reinforce the importance of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Buenos Aires, Argentina – Partners of Initiative 20x20 representing governments, impact investors, companies and technical experts met to advance the alignment of policies and investments for landscape restoration across Latin America and the Caribbean. The Initiative brings together seventeen Latin American countries, which have committed to restore twenty million hectares of degraded land by 2020 as part of the goals set forth by the Bonn Challenge. For Initiative 20x20, restoration is about recovering and maintaining the functions of the land – ecological, economic, productive, social and cultural – through sustainable systems of agroforestry, silvopasture and other land uses. It also promotes natural or assisted reforestation as well as conservation of forests and other landscapes while avoiding deforestation, since all these elements are fundamental to an integrated restoration process. This fifth annual meeting became a platform for harnessing investment and public policy to help restore lands region-wide. During the meeting, the UNCCD invited Argentinian Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development Rabbi Sergio Bergman to attend the upcoming COP14 in New Delhi, India, and take part in the international dialogue on the role of spiritual communities in promoting value-based approach to land stewardship. Rabbi has stated that the importance of land goes beyond economic, physical and social importance, but also holds a spiritual value, known and respected by ancestral cultures and peoples.   Read more: 20x20 Initiative The Bonn Challenge