UNCCD and WOCAT extend partnership to make sustainable land management a global priority

19 February 2020
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Bonn, Germany – On 17 February 2020, the UNCCD secretariat and the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) signed a partnership agreement, committing to implement the WOCAT 2020+ Initiative together with its Consortium partners. This strategy, which was first introduced at the UNCCD COP14 in India, aims to boost the uptake of sustainable land management (SLM) practices around the world through a strengthened global partnership.

WOCAT 2020+ strives to establish a leading platform of expertise and create a transformative momentum to enable countries and institutions to scale up SLM, achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN) and reach related sustainable development goals (SDGs) addressed by the three Rio conventions on land, climate and biodiversity. Building on the vast knowledge presented in the global SLM database and the new partnership actions, WOCAT 2020+ will synthesize local, national and regional experiences, provide tools for evidence-based decision making, facilitate targeted research and disseminate lessons learned. This will give a wide range of stakeholders – from agricultural extensionists to UNCCD national focal points – the access to new SLM insights and guidance.

Established in 1992, WOCAT is a global network of SLM specialists that unites more than 2000 members registered on the WOCAT platform, as well as over 60 participating institutions and around 30 national and regional initiatives. It connects stakeholders with SLM specialists and experts that share tools and methods for identifying fields of action and gives the members an opportunity to share knowledge of land-resource management. UNCCD and WOCAT have successfully cooperated in the past, and the new strategy will allow to scale up their joint efforts through strengthened regional cooperation.

WOCAT Consortium partners include University of Bern/Centre for Development and Environment, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, UN FAO, ISRIC World Soil Information, Alliance CIAT Bioversity, GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, ICARDA and ICIMOD.