Address to authorities in Caatinga, Brazil

Your Excellency Minister Marina Silva,

Your Excellency Minister Wellington Dias,

Dear governor Jerónimo Rodrigues,

I also would like to recognize here the authorities of the University of the São Francisco Valley - Univasf   that is hosting us today,

Ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) I thank you wholeheartedly for the warm welcome to Caatinga. Especially, for sharing your experience in securing resilient lands and livelihoods in the drylands.

On 17 June, the United Nations Convention on Land and Drought (UNCCD) will mark a significant milestone - 30 years of commitment to our planet. As the only legally binding global instrument focused on land and drought, the UNCCD stands proudly alongside the Biodiversity and Climate Conventions as one of the three Rio Conventions, born out of the world famous 1992 Summit.

We support our 197 Parties in designing policies, investments, and interventions to halt and reverse the loss of productive land; to create national plans for drought resilience; and to reduce the negative impact of land and soil loss in vulnerable communities.

Brazil ratified the Convention in 1997, integrating the treaty into its legal framework.

Caatinga is home to scores of species, many of them unique to this biome, and is said to be the most populous dryland area on the planet. Its very existence acts as living proof of the ability of plants, animals, and culturally diverse communities to adapt to semiarid environments.

However, life in the planet’s —life that required hundreds and even thousands of years to evolve— is now under pressure from the combined effects of land degradation and climate change.

Every year, the world loses 100 million hectares of fertile land, an area larger than the state of Mato Grosso. More than half of the world’s rangelands are degraded, compromising food security and the soil carbon stock, which comes only after the ocean’s.

 If current trends continue, we will need to restore 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030 to reach the Land Degradation Neutrality goal. Barren lands cannot adequately infiltrate and retain water, increasing runoff and accelerating erosion, instead.

As a result of global warming and the way we treat our lands, droughts are hitting faster and more often, posing an emergency on a planetary scale: last year, 1 in 4 people were affected by drought worldwide, and events have increased by 29% since the year 2000.

Drought is a hazard, but it needn’t be a disaster. With evidence-based policies, practices, and investments, it is possible to decouple the severity of drought from its most serious impacts on lives and livelihoods.

Earlier today, I joined a visit to the community of Malhada da Areia. There, I had the opportunity to see how nature-based solutions, sustainable land and water management practices, and simple technologies are building drought resilience.

The community is investing in rainwater harvesting; water reuse systems; and agricultural practices that replenish, rather than deplete, the soils.

Across Caatinga, this and dozens of other communities are also fencing selected areas to enable natural regeneration of the native vegetation; keeping the grazing stock within the carrying capacity of their land; and diversifying their sources of income.

Each and every one of them shows, with tangible results, that it is very much possible to reset our relationship with the land, and prepare for drought before it strikes.

With support from civil society organizations, governmental entities, research institutions, and international partners —with your support— the estimated 38 million Brazilians that live in semiarid lands shall also be able to lay the ground for a more resilient, and prosperous, future.

Consider the UNCCD Secretariat your trusted ally. Along with the International Drought Resilience Alliance, to which we are delighted to welcome Brazil.

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

from 2 to 13 December, Saudi Arabia will host UNCCD COP16 - the largest and most ambitious global summit on land and drought to date. Together, we will set targets for land degradation neutrality, set up frameworks for drought resilience, strengthen agri-food systems, and work to unlock a multi-billion-dollar land restoration industry. 

Where human-made drought says crop failure, we say proactive drought management;

where land degradation says migration, we say sustainable land management;

where unchecked land conversion says deforestation, we say land use planning;

where the lack of prioritization says reactive, we say proactive.

In the lead-up to COP16, I count on Brazil’s leadership to help steer our collective boat to a sustainable, and equitable, future for all.

Thank you.