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Madame Minister, Marina da Silva,Ladies and gentlemen,Bom dia!I have indelible memories of my visit to Brazil last June, when Minister Marina Silva invited me to visit the Caatinga region with her. It was instructive for me to discover the extent of land degradation and drought in a country mostly known for its lush forests and vast rivers. It was news to me that the arid and semi-arid zones of Brazil cover 1.4 million km2 and that 59 per cent of the territory is affected by drought, 1/3 of which by extreme drought! How to feed these people? How to supply them with clean water and reliable energy? How, in these conditions, can we promote industrialization, create jobs and ensure human well-being? Brazil’s case is just an example of how land degradation and drought are having serious impacts in the world. Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen, We are living in a paradoxical bubble. While in theory the world has never accumulated so much wealth, there have never been such striking disparities and inequalities, so many displaced populations, so much forced migration. The number of people without jobs or secure livelihoods is rising inexorably in many parts of the world. While certain countries in the world are reservoirs of mineral resources and agricultural commodities, forest and fishery products, some of these same countries are experiencing the most appalling poverty. This calls for a rethinking of our economic models. For far too long, we have adopted policies of extraction, exportation of raw material, processing abroad, re-exporting, using and discarding. This type of linear extractive economy, whether agricultural or mining, often leads to inequality, resentment and dissension. Perpetuating this model in this 21st century is ruinous and counterproductive. It is obsolete and needs to be reviewed. Given the current level of degradation of our land (up to 40 per cent of fertile land is already degraded), and in view of the trends towards 2050, we have little choice but to review our policies and practices. And the G20 Environmental meetings is the place to start rethinking, perhaps with the South African Presidency. Challengingly, we must produce at least 50 per cent more food, while leaving a smaller footprint on the planet. Producing more nutritious food with less: less land, less water, less pollution. Not an easy equation, but not impossible to solve. One of the most accessible, sustainable and natural solutions is large-scale restoration of degraded land. In addition to the fertile land already in use, we have a reservoir of 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land which can be rehabilitated, cared for and put back into production. The investment required is relatively modest in view of the return on investment and economic income, estimated at between 7 to 30 times the original investment.Beyond economics, bringing degraded land back to health provides multiple other solutions: Restoring degraded land is often the best way of combating forced migration, recognizing that people have no choice but to flee when they cannot provide food and dignity to their families. The correlations between forced migration and arid lands has been established…Restoring degraded land therefore fights against poverty (think of those who have no other asset than their ancestral land); Investing in land restoration can also reduce conflicts and insecurity, particularly conflicts over access to fertile land and scarce water. Land and Water are often the (neglected) root causes or the (poorly understood) triggers of conflicts. Finally, land restoration meets climate change ambitions (both mitigation and adaptation), biodiversity (target 2 of the Global Biodiversity Framework) and, of course, the fight against land degradation (Land Degradation Neutrality), i.e. the ambitions of the so-called Rio Conventions. It is encouraging that the G20 established in 2020 a Global Land Restoration Initiative aiming at halving degraded lands in the world by 2040. The implementation of such a visionary initiative is however timid and needs to be boosted throughout the entire G20 block and beyond. Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen Now let me turn to drought. An issue which affects us all – rich and poor. Right here in Latin America, we are currently witnessing the lowest water levels on record in many of the rivers in the Amazon basin – and this follows the most severe drought faced in 45 years. Across the world, droughts are occurring more frequently and more severely – up by one third since 2000. An estimated 3 in 4 people worldwide will be affected by drought by 2050. And sadly, droughts never come alone: wildfires, food insecurity, economic downturn, disruption of energy generation, and even disruption of supply chains as we recently witnessed in the Panama Canal. It is incredible to witness the burning of the Amazon rainforest as well as the Pantanal, reported as the world’s largest wetland. Before I conclude, allow me to extend a special invitation to all of you to join us at UNCCD COP16, taking place from December 2nd to 13th, 2024, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. You laready heard from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, our wonderful host who spares no effort to make this COP a turning point in the life of the Convention. In Riyadh, Leaders, Ministers, Entrepreneurs, Indigenous People, Women and Youth will each have a chance to engage in shaping future policies and accelerating action on land restoration and drought resilience. Together with our hosts, we look forward to continuing these important conversations on a global stage.

The world’s population is on track to reaching 10 billion by 2050, just as the planetary systems that sustain life on Earth are being pushed to their limits — and with them, our ability to provide food and water and to prevent large-scale displacements, rippling economic shocks and conflict.

Land degradation in the Horn of Africa poses a significant threat to the livelihoods of millions, reducing agricultural productivity and exacerbating food insecurity. The region, where 70 per cent of the area is classified as arid or semi-arid, is experiencing its most severe drought in the past four decades, with dire consequences for local livelihoods and resilience. By December 2022, over 36.5 million people have been significantly impacted by the drought, with more than 20 million facing acute food insecurity as a direct consequence. Border communities face persistent poverty, as well as food insecurity, conflict, mass displacement, limited access to public services, environmental degradation, severe climate impacts and diminished agricultural outputs. In Ethiopia, for example, nearly 85 per cent of the land is affected by degradation, impacting approximately 30 million people, and costing the country an estimated USD 4.3 billion annually in lost agricultural productivity. The potential of sustainable land management and landscape restoration to address negative impacts of climate change and conflict became the focus of a UNCCD Peace Forest Initiative (PFI) workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on May 28–30, 2024. The goal of the Initiative is to foster peace and trust in conflict-affected and fragile settings by uniting communities across national borders to co-manage shared land resources and ecosystems. As climate change intensifies conflicts over natural resources, the PFI has the potential to assist countries in the Horn of Africa in integrating environmental and resource management into their conflict resolution practices, helping local communities secure livelihoods and address transboundary issues such as land degradation and water scarcity. The workshop in Addis Ababa focused on three main intervention areas: Sustainable, integrated landscapes management Development of agricultural commodities, value chains and trade\ Improvement of data management and sharing, and access Building on the groundwork laid at the inaugural PFI workshop in Nairobi in June 2023, this year’s event showcased a step-by-step approach to tackling environmental and socio-economic challenges in the Horn of Africa. Representatives of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda together with government officials, representatives of development agencies and regional organizations attended the workshop, organized by the Global Mechanism of UNCCD, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and CIFOR-ICRAF. As the Director General of the Ethiopian Forestry Development at the Ministry of Agriculture in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Mr. Kebede Yimam, noted, “Forest landscape restoration activities are of paramount importance to enhance our economic development, improve the livelihood of farm households, conserve biodiversity and enhance resilience to climate change impacts.” Workshop participants agreed on the need to align PFI activities with existing regional frameworks and initiatives, such as the Great Green Wall Initiative. IGAD representatives also presented existing projects that could be included in the PFI. Representatives of each participating country outlined national priorities and discussed challenges they face, such as data and resource availability. The workshop outlined actionable interventions to reverse land degradation, improve livelihoods and build climate resilience. The next workshop, planned for early 2025, will be validating project concepts and finalizing detailed project proposals in the participating countries. These outcomes will also contribute to the work of the upcoming UNCCD Conference of the Parties (COP16), ensuring that the PFI approaches are integrated into broader international dialogue on land degradation and sustainable land management.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) welcomes the G7 Climate, Energy and Environment Ministers Communiqué of 30 April 2024, which underlines the critical importance of addressing land degradation, desertification and soil health as fundamental elements of global sustainability efforts. UNCCD is particularly encouraged by the Italian G7 Presidency's launch of a voluntary Hub on Sustainable Land Use dedicated to promoting a collaborative and common approach to sustainable land use initiatives in Africa and in the Mediterranean Basin in support of achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN). The Hub will focus on sustainable livelihoods, enhancement of food security and promotion of land-based employment, with special regard to communities on the frontlines of land degradation, including Indigenous Peoples, youth and women. The UNCCD commends the G7 for its commitment to immediate and tangible action, such as proposals to increase funding for sustainable land management by 40 per cent over the next decade and to advance scientific research on soil health. These initiatives are critical to addressing these crises and underscore the need for global cooperation and leadership in this crucial decade. "Integrating land and soil health into broader economic and social systems provides a pathway to sustainable, inclusive growth that leaves no one behind. This approach is essential to building resilience to the impacts of climate change and ensuring the health and productivity of the land on which all life depends,” said UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw. “The G7's recognition of land degradation and desertification as both environmental and socio-economic challenges dovetails seamlessly with the goals of the UNCCD. Our collaborative approach is critical to scaling up efforts to significantly reduce land degradation, with the goal of a 50 per cent reduction by 2040, as outlined in the G20 Global Land Initiative,” he added. Furthermore, G7's strong emphasis on the interlinked crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, which have significant impacts on land and soil, is a decisive step forward ahead of the meetings of the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the three Rio Conventions later this year, notably UNCCD COP16 to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2-13 December. “Welcoming the G7's vision, the UNCCD calls on all nations to strengthen their commitment to land health as an integral part of their environment and development agendas. UNCCD looks forward to further collaboration with the G7 and other international partners. Together, we want to implement the ambitious agendas set out in this Communiqué and ensure that land remains a cornerstone of global efforts to combat environmental degradation and promote sustainable development,” Thiaw concluded.

The 25 members of the UNCCD’s Science-Policy Interface (SPI) have assembled at the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany for a critical scientific meeting in the run up to the 16th Session of the Conference of the Parties, which will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from the 2nd to the 13th of December 2024. The SPI is a unique combination of independent scientists from all corners of the globe, science delegates to the Convention representing the five regions of the world, and five practitioners from implementing agencies and civil society. Over the past year half of the SPI members have been assembling the evidence base for a much more systemic approach to land use, so that our impacts can be more strategic and, ideally, much greater than the sum of the parts. The other half have been conducting a comprehensive analysis of aridity trends, projections and anticipated impacts, which under the Convention translates into land and people affected by the combined effects of land degradation and water scarcity. Both assessments have led to draft technical reports which will undergo independent scientific review following the meeting so that they can be finalized and published in the autumn.  The SPI is dedicated to building a bridge between science and policy. They are a global community of experts, united by a passion for understanding and safeguarding all life on land.

The 19th meeting of the Science-Policy Interface (SPI) will take place on 19-21 March 2024 in Bonn, Germany.