Côte d’Ivoire announces UNCCD COP15 theme

‘Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity' is the theme of UNCCD COP15 to be held from 9-20 May 2022 in Abidjan 

Abidjan/Bonn, 9 February 2022 – Côte d’Ivoire has unveiled the logo and announced the theme of a major United Nations conference on the future of land management that the country is hosting from 9 to 20 May 2022 in Abidjan.

Releasing the brand for the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP15) 90 days to the start of the in-person event, Mr. Abou Bamba, head of the COP15 Organizing Committee said the theme, ‘Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity', is a call to action to ensure land, the lifeline on this planet, continues to benefit present and future generations.

The statements delivered by the speakers at the launch event in Abidjan reflect the host country’s commitment to host a COP with tangible impact, with interactions expected at a Heads of State level, concrete initiatives agreed for women and youth and, for the country, the Abidjan Legacy Programme that will drive job creation and the sustainable development of the economic, social and environment sectors.

Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD, welcomed the announcement, and said stakes for the global event in Abidjan couldn’t be higher.

"Caring for land is more than a conservation issue, it’s an existential one. Ensuring the land stays healthy, productive and available sustains life."

— UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw

“Caring for land is more than a conservation issue, it’s an existential one. Ensuring the land stays healthy, productive and available sustains life. Recent droughts signal a precarious future world. The food and water shortages, along with the wildfires caused by severe drought we have seen since 2015, have occurred in places or on a scale never witnessed before,” Thiaw said.

“COP15 is a pivotal moment to rally and unite the world around the vision of a land-degradation neutral world. In this vision, natural land is preserved, degrading land is recovered and put to sustainable use, and ecosystems and biodiversity are made resilient to the coming effects of climate change. The window for reversing climate-related and other human-induced threats is closing rapidly,” Thiaw cautioned.

About 70 percent of all ice-free land has been altered globally. Two billion hectares of land are degraded, according to World Resources Institute. The international community has pledged to restore one billion hectares of degraded land by 2030, according to the Global Potential for Land Restoration: Scenarios for the Global Land Outlook 2, with half of the global commitments made by Parties to the Convention. COP15 is expected to agree on actions to increase investment for land restoration and tackle the growing impacts of drought.

UNCCD conferences of the parties are held every two years. COP14 was held in New Delhi, India, in September 2019. COP15 was re-scheduled from late 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Convention is the global voice for land helping to rally commitments for sustainable land and water management worldwide for a resilient future, with healthy land as a solid foundation for all life. It is ratified by 197 countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, which did so in 1997.

Read more:

• UNCCD COP15
• Land Degradation Neutrality
• Role of land in COVID response