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Women and climate is the focus of a new charitable non-fungible token (NFT) art drop, launched 21 January on the margins of the World Economic Forum’s digital edition of Davos. It will land on the pioneering marketplace SuperRare, featuring digital artwork inspired by the interlinked challenges of gender equality and climate justice.  This carbon-net negative event is a collaboration between the climate tech non-profit Code Green co-founded by  UNCCD Land Ambassador Inna Modja and the World of Women NFT collection that unites female artists to celebrate women’s diversity and power. Inna says she was inspired to create this auction by her experience traveling along the Great Green Wall — an African-led initiative growing an 8000-km green corridor across the continent to improve the lives of millions of women on the frontline of climate change.  "Being from Mali, I have seen with my own eyes that women and girls disproportionately bear the brunt of the global climate emergency. They are the main stewards of natural resources like land, making up 80 per cent of the agricultural workforce. Through absolutely no fault of their own, climate change is destroying their livelihoods and sparking widespread food insecurity, mass migration and conflict. The Great Green Wall is a powerful solution that can help empower women to take charge of their own destinies." — Inna Modja Inna contributed some of her own artwork to the Women and Climate charitable NFT drop that will channel 70 per cent of all proceeds to women-led land restoration solutions along the Great Green Wall. Image: Twin Mamas by Inna Modja Read more: Great Green Wall initiative Land and gender UNCCD Land Ambassadors NFT community supports climate action, sustainably

For centuries, we have used nature to live. As a result: Nearly one million species are at risk of extinction. Nearly three quarters of the Earth's ice-free land has been transformed to meet human demands for food, raw materials, and homes. If humans continue to emit greenhouse gases at current rates, global temperature will rise more than 1.5 degrees Celsius target within decades. Today, we need nature to survive. Protecting and restoring nature can help drive a green recovery and prevent future pandemics. Investing in nature-based solutions will allow us to build forward better, greener, healthier, stronger, and more sustainably. The three Rio Conventions on biodiversity, land and climate are joining forces to ensure that each and every one of us takes action in their own environment in order to change the course of the world to restore balance with nature. Learn more about the campaign at the Rio Conventions Pavillion website and follow it on social media: @UNCCD @UNBiodiversity @UNFCCC. Read more: Rio conventions Land and climate Land and biodiversity Solution brief: Restored Land, healthy people, green recovery

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 Earth is warming fast, and even faster on the land. This trend is “virtually certain” to continue and no region of the world will be spared, according to the Working Group 1 assessment report released Monday by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

I welcome the G20 Environment Communiqué adopted yesterday in Naples, Italy. The Communiqué shows the desire of many world leaders to build societies that are not merely climate change resilient but that live in harmony with nature. World leaders are listening.

Kick-off meeting of the study "Climate Change, Land Degradation and Migration Nexus in Central Asia" took place on 19 July online, with the UNCCD Secretariat representatives, UNCCD national focal points and experts from Central Asia and Russian Federation. The participants discussed the main objectives and the outline of the future research as well as the work plan and expected outcomes. The study aims to provide evidence on how the increasing land degradation and climate change on land-dependent economic sectors in five Central Asian countries affects availability of resources and jobs, driving out-migration and, in some cases, instability. Central Asia is becoming a new hotspot for environmental and social challenges. The combination of rapid population growth, increased urban pressures, poverty and dependence on the agricultural sector  for over 50 per cent of the population together with environmental and climate crises, lead to growing migration and social risks. COVID-19 outbreak has amplified existing socio-economic problems in the region, leading to disruptions in food supply and increasing vulnerability of rural communities, as well as massive return of labor migrants and loss of jobs. The meeting participants agreed on the importance and timeliness of the study, which results will be presented at the upcomingConference of the Parties in May 2022. The interlinkages between land degradation and migration are embedded in the main objectives of the Delhi Initiative of the Central Asian countries and the Russian Federation, which set up the Interregional Group "Central Asia – Russia" at theprevious UNCCD COP14. The research project is implemented by the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and financed by the voluntary contribution from Russian Federation.