News & stories

Statement by UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw: This year’s International Day of Forests theme of ‘Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being’ emphasizes the role forests must play in building a better, heathier and more equitable world as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.  We need forests to absorb our emitted carbon dioxide, to stabilize rainfall patterns, lower temperatures, and to hold back desertification. Yet, we continue to destroy them: an alarming fifty million hectares of forests have been lost between 2015 and 2020. Research suggests tree mortality in some forests has doubled in recent decades as a result of a drying climate and chronic anthropogenic disturbance. Ensuring that forests don’t just survive but thrive is a cornerstone of the UNCCD’s mandate to achieve land degradation neutrality. The seedlings and saplings we plant today will support our well-being for generations to come.  Africa’s Great Green Wall across the Sahel has the potential to transform the lives of millions of humanity’s most vulnerable people. By creating a mosaic of green and productive landscapes, it can provide stability, livelihoods and a path out of poverty. We’ll create green jobs, harnessing the Sahel’s abundant solar energy to power a future for those most at risk. We are not just planting trees –we are planting hope for the most vulnerable – women and youth.  We can restore forests and restore hope, in tandem. We can turn the economic catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic into a better, heathier and more equitable world. Forests are also threatened by human conflict. In politically unstable situations, the management of natural resources is challenging. Rapid reconstruction often neglects sustainable management of natural resources, undermining future peace. The Peace Forest Initiative, launched at UNCCD COP 14, aims to nurture collective efforts for cross-border cooperation on ecosystem restoration including forests, linking stability and peace to land degradation neutrality. This year, let us reaffirm our will to act. Seeing our forests renewed will help humanity recover better, become more resilient, and restore our planet’s health – for all our futures. Read more Forests at the heart of land degradation neutrality Great Green Wall of Africa Peace Forest Initiative

At least 90 countries have already set voluntary national targets to restore more than 450 million hectares of land under UNCCD – the largest global restoration initiative and a significant milestone for the Convention. But where is the land that is being restored? How many people will benefit from land restoration? What social, economic and environmental gains will communities in these areas receive from all this work?

This year UNCCD Science-Policy Interface member Dr. Rattan Lal has received the prestigious civilian Padma Shri Award from the Indian government for his revolutionary research in the field of soil science, which helped millions of smallholder farmers produce larger yields while taking better care of their land. The innovative soil-saving techniques developed by Dr. Lal have helped improve food and nutritional security of more than two billion people, saved hundreds of millions of hectares of natural tropical ecosystems, promoted restoration of degraded soils and aided in reducing global warming. Dr. Lal's achievements have been previously recognized by the World Food Prize. Read more: Padma Shri Awards 2021 Dr. Lal wins the 2020 World Food Prize Dr. Lal featured by Ohio State University PBS presents the 2020 World Food Prize UNCCD Science-Policy Interface Land and climate

To celebrate the World Wetlands Day and to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Ramsar Convention, UNCCD has joined other international organizations for a virtual panel discussion "Wetlands: Securing fresh water for all" on 2 February 2021.

2021 must be the year to reconcile humanity with nature

The ambitious Great Green Wall for the Sahel and Sahara Initiative has received at least 14.326 billion United States Dollars in new funding. The funding will fast track efforts to restore degrading land, save biological diversity as well as create green jobs and build resilience of the Sahelian people. Emmanuel Macron, President of France, made the announcement at the just concluded One Planet Summit for Biodiversity on 11 January 2021, co-organized by France, the United Nations and World Bank. Read more: Full press release Summit communique Great Green Wall Initiative Photo: (c) MakeWaves Media