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How water harvesting and land restoration are bringing hope to the arid heart of the country. A little-known fact is that  northeastern Brazil is home to the most populated dryland on the planet, made up of two biomes: the Cerrado, a regional water tower at the frontlines of agroindustrial expansion, and Caatinga, which is exclusive to the country and is inhabited by one in seven Brazilians.  The Caatinga is naturally dry, but the combination of overgrazing, deforestation, and climate change are creating new challenges for traditional communities living off the land, increasing the risk of food insecurity, poverty, and migration.  And the risks span beyond the Caatinga: around 38 million Brazilians are vulnerable to the impacts of desertification and drought, while arid lands are emerging for the first time and semiarid lands are projected to expand across much of the country in the coming years. The good news is that, even in the arid heart of Brazil, rural communities like Malhada da Areia, Bahia, are showing it is possible to halt and reverse land degradation and to prepare for, and adapt to, drought. That is, provided the right approaches and investments are in place. At the heart of their resilience are low-tech and nature-based solutions. For example, water harvesting roofs, deep excavation water storage, and water tanks, as well as sustainable land management practices to produce food, while reviving soils and restoring native vegetation.  In Malhada da Areia, in the Brazilian region of Caatinga, community members show one of the water storage solutions at the center of their drought resilience. In June, a delegation led by the Minister of Environment of Brazil, Marina Silva, and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Ibrahim Thiaw, visited Malhada da Areia and the nearby cities of Juazeiro and Petrolina as the country is boosting its efforts to tackle drought.  For instance, by investing in 130.000 water tanks in 2023-2024; creating a network of more than 180 scientists specialized in land degradation and drought; and launching a national campaign to build awareness on these matters. Brazil, which now chairs the G20, is the latest country to join the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA), the global coalition built on the notion that drought is a risk, but it needn’t be a disaster. “Brazil’s accession to IDRA demonstrates the government’s determination to combat drought and desertification, promote food and water security, and tackle inequalities,” said Minister Silva. “Successes here [in the Caatinga] demonstrate that, with the right strategies and collaborations, we can fight land degradation and build resilience to climate change.” The Executive Secretary of UNCCD, Ibrahim Thiaw, and the Minister of Environment of Brazil, Marina Silva, during a visit to the Caatinga with focus on drought resilience. Exportable solutions In Malhada da Areia, community members proudly showed visitors around, noting how they have transformed a land historically associated with famine and migration into a land of hope. “I am inspired by the innovative spirit of the communities in Caatinga,” said Thiaw during the visit to the area, where he noted that water capture, storage and reuse is essential to building resilience in arid environments. “These efforts in land restoration and sustainable water management are not just local solutions, but models for the world.” So far, the water tanks initiative has already reached 230,000 families as part of broader social packages, significantly reducing child mortality, increasing school attendance, improving water security, and enabling more varied and nutritious diets, thanks to the proximity of well-watered kitchen gardens. For the National Secretary for Food and Nutritional Security Lilian dos Santos Rahal the program goes beyond access to water: “It is a comprehensive approach to social development that integrates water security with food production and economic inclusion.”  The traditional community of Malhada da Areia, who lives off the land, explain the role of land use planning in restoring their lands and building resilience to drought. From barren to bountiful Locals are also engaged in a long-term initiative to restore degraded lands and the ecosystems they support, known as ‘Recaatingamento.’ The initiative is supported by the Regional Institute for Appropriate Small-Scale Farming (IRPAA), a civil society organization that has been instrumental in helping dozens of communities coexist with drought across the state of Bahia in the past three decades. Malhada da Areia is a traditional ‘fundo de pasto’ (‘back pasture’) community, where a group of families share and collectively manage an area of native vegetation as pasture for goats and to gather wild fruits and leaves. To restore a once productive land, they have fenced off 50 of the 2,000 communal hectares so it can recover out of the reach of goats.  Inside the protected area, people grow fruits and produce honey as alternative sources income, and jaguars and some plant species are making a comeback. To feed the goats, farmers grow fodder with reused water, bringing sustainable land and water management practices full circle. In the dryest months, aroeira trees drop their leaves to preserve moisture, standing like pale, denuded sentinels; hence the name Caatinga, meaning ‘white forest’ in Tupi language. Like Malhada da Areia, the aroeira is a testament to the ability of people and nature to thrive —if only given a chance — in the world’s drylands. ‘Restoring the Caatinga is necessary! The Caatinga is worth more standing than deforested,’ reads a sign of a landscape restoration initiative based on sustainable land management.

Crossing borders silently and impacting millions globally, sand and dust storms are the 'underappreciated' extreme weather events, yet they profoundly affect the environment and the lives of hundreds of millions worldwide, across all continents. According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), every year, an estimated 2 billion tonnes of sand and dust, an amount equal in weight to 350 Great Pyramids of Giza, enter the atmosphere. In recognition of these challenges, the General Assembly proclaimed 2025-2034 as the United Nations Decade on Combating Sand and Dust Storms. Introduced by Uganda on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, the initiative underscores international concern over sand and dust storms and promotes proactive measures through awareness and action. In the resolution (A/78/L.88), UN Member States emphasized that sand and dust storms currently threaten the realization of 11 out of 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The announcement comes on the eve of the annual observance of the International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms (SDS), 12 July, which aims to raise global awareness of the growing health and environmental challenges posed by SDS. “Sand and dust storms need to be addressed in a holistic manner. The UNCCD is working to address the negative impacts of sand and dust storms through several initiatives. We help countries set up monitoring and early warning systems and promote international partnerships to tackle the root causes,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of UNCCD. Sand dust storms cost economies hundreds of millions of dollars each year through damage to communications, energy, and transport infrastructure, increased healthcare costs, damage to farmland, and disruption to schooling, employment, and transport. Sand and dust storms have historically played a critical role in Earth's biogeochemical cycles, but human activities now contribute significantly to their increase. According to the SDS Compendium produced by UNCCD, at least 25 per cent of global dust emissions originate from human activities like unsustainable land management and water use. On the occasion of SDS Day, UNCCD and FAO are launching the “Policy guideline on the integration of sand and dust storm management into key policy areas”, helping governments and policymakers better adapt to SDS. The guidelines, aimed at policy makers globally, emphasize the need to integrate SDS management into national and regional strategies, enhancing resilience and mitigating the socioeconomic impacts of these increasingly frequent and intense events. “The Policy Guideline will support countries to develop and implement sand and dust storms-related initiatives, improve land use and management, enhance food security, and build resilience to climate change,” said Lifeng Li, Director of the Land and Water Division at FAO. Sand and dust storms will be on the agenda of the upcoming UNCCD COP16 to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 2-13 December 2024. At UNCCD COP14, the United Nations Coalition on Combating Sand and Dust Storms was launched to promote and coordinate a collaborative UN-system response this phenomenon. Currently, 19 Members of the Coalition include UN agencies and non-UN agencies. Within the framework of this coalition the UNCCD leads the efforts on the SDS Toolbox, providing practical solutions to manage and mitigate SDS. The 2024 SDS Day will be celebrated with numerous events around the world. FAO and UNCCD will jointly organize a webinar, highlighting the launch of the Policy Guidelines.

Prior the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UNCCD, the Convention Secretariat is organizing a training session for French-speaking journalists who cover the African continent on desertification and the role of the media in promoting sustainable land management practices. This training will take place during 2-6 September 2024, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on the sideline of the 20th African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). Journalists will have the opportunity to exchange with experts in sustainable land management and desertification, and to participate in a field visit. The workshop will address major concerns related to land degradation, desertification and drought, as well as the role of the media in this context and strategies specific to better address these subjects. Eligibility and selection criteria The call is open to French-speaking journalists interested in environmental issues. Each applicant must submit: A letter of recommendation from the editor-in-chief of the applicant's organization. Freelancers must provide a copy of the press card. A cover letter of one page maximum explaining the journalist's interest in participating in the workshop. Links or copies of the last three reports or publications on the subject. Complete application files can be sent to press@unccd.int by 11:59 pm Central European Time (CET) on 21 July 2024, indicating as subject: “Candidature pour l'atelier d’Abidjan”. Successful candidates will be informed in writing. See complete details in the attached document.

The UNCCD Gender Action Plan (GAP) emphasizes the critical importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment in implementing the Convention. A key priority of the GAP is to increase women’s access to relevant knowledge and technologies. To fulfill these objectives, UNCCD and the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) joined forces in 2020 to advance gender-responsive Sustainable Land Management (SLM). This collaboration between UNCCD and WOCAT focuses on documenting, analyzing and scaling gender-responsive SLM practices by gathering gender-disaggregated data. A specialized tool, co-designed with gender and SLM experts, identifies gender-based parameters as well as the technical and socio-cultural factors that enhance the adoption of SLM by both women and men. In the initial phase of the project in 2021, WOCAT network partners in 15 countries tested the tool, showing promising results. As the Pambadeniya Women Group from Sri Lanka noted, “Women and men debated on how to guarantee equal opportunities in decision making, participation and fair distribution of benefits.” The data demonstrated that equal access to SLM technologies and approaches is both context- and technology-specific. Five technology group profiles on gender-responsive SLM were developed to show the need for further action. Building on this success and following Decision 24/COP.15, UNCCD and WOCAT are now launching a call for expressions of interest to apply the gender-responsive SLM tool. This initiative aims to gather more country-specific gender-disaggregated data on SLM practices, which will be presented at the upcoming UNCCD COP16 in Ryiadh, Saudi Arabia, this December. We are inviting up to 40 stakeholders to implement the gender-responsive SLM tool in local contexts from September to November 2024. Applications are welcome from UNCCD Parties, civil society organizations, WeCaN members and others involved in sustainable land management. The application deadline is 4 August 2024. Submissions are accepted in English, French and Spanish. For more details on the call, application requirements, and the online application form, please see the side menu. * Please note: the questionnaire is currently being reviewed and updated. The final version of the questionnaire will be available in September 2024

Gender equality is a key entry-point for Sustainable Land Management (SLM) and UNCCD together with WOCAT are working to improve gender-responsiveness of SLM practices. Direct and indirect gender-related barriers prevent women from adopting SLM practices. These barriers include land tenure insecurity; land availability; education or literacy levels; access to seeds, fertilizers, or extension services; and access to technologies and financing. As a result, women adopt SLM technologies at a rate that is typically lower and slower than that of men. In line with the UNCCD Gender Action Plan (GAP) and guided by the idea to build back better, the aim of this UNCCD-WOCAT project is to: Add a gender lens to SLM technologies and appraoches and  assess their gender-responsiveness Evaluate how gender-responsiveness of SLM Technologies and Approaches can be improved, stepping up adoption and dissemination, making SLM beneficial for women and men alike. This will support project planners, designers and implementers to identify, realize and scale gender-responsive SLM Technologies and Approaches within the framework of LD/SLM and LDN projects and programmes as well as promote the implementation of gender-responsive SLM practices in the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. Phase 1: Development of Gender-responsive SLM tool In the first phase, WOCAT and UNCCD designed a tool that helps to test the gender-responsiveness of SLM Technologies and Approaches and to identify areas of improvement to support project planners, designers, and implementers in their effort to scale up SLM Technologies and Approaches that are gender-responsive.  The gender-responsive SLM tool was reviewed during a UNCCD-WOCAT consultation  workshop with experts from different organizations and regions, resulting in the fine-tuning of the tool.  Currently, the tool is being tested with WOCAT network partners in more than 10 countries around the globe, supporting it further refinement and facilitating a first round of data collection. Data will be analysed and presented in the form of SLM Gender Profiles, showcasing women and men's involvement in different SLM Technologies and providing insights and recommendations on the improvement of SLM Technologies and related Approaches in view of gender equality and women empowerment. Phase 2: New gender tool added to WOCAT Database (May 2024 – June 2025) The Global WOCAT SLM Database will be enhanced with a gender-responsive SLM tool, enabling: Online assessment of the gender-responsiveness of SLM practices Search for gender-responsive SLM solutions Collection of gender-disaggregated data through a harmonized system Possibility to analyse and share gender-disaggregated data to support informed decision-making for gender equality in land management, particularly in relation to drought resilience Platform to discuss gender and land management related issues within communities Interested partners and institutions, including UNCCD Parties and CSOs, will be trained in its application to gain country-specific gender-disaggregated data on SLM practices.  Results will support the design and implementation of gender-responsive SLM projects and programmes and inform decision-makers. During the upcoming UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in December 2024, partners will present results and country insights.

Experts share key success factors in reducing vulnerability to drought Drought is a hazard, but it needn’t be a disaster. That is, provided all communities are adequately equipped before it strikes. At the 10th World Water Forum, held in Bali from 18 to 25 May, experts urged decision-makers to prioritize drought resilience in the face of climate change, drawing inspiration from success cases around the globe. Representatives from the scientific, non-profit, and technical sectors made the case for building resilience to the world’s costliest and deadliest hazard at an event featuring partners of the International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA.) The session took place at the Spanish Pavilion under the auspices of the General Directorate for Water of Spain and the UNCCD. The experts convened as the need to bridge science and policy for drought risk management is becoming more apparent: global warming is ushering in a new era of rapid-onset, or flash, droughts, just as the global freshwater demand is set to outstrip supply by 40% by 2030, putting societies, economies, and ecosystems on the line. These are the key takeaways from the conversation: California to East Africa “Drought and desertification are not just problems for the Sahel region of Africa and for developing countries,” said UNCCD policy officer Daniel Tsegai before an international audience. “We already see impacts in highly productive and populated parts of the developed world like California, Spain, and Australia.” In the past two decades, the Colorado river basin (US), which is home to 40 million people, has been experiencing the worst drought in 1,200 years; Australia, has recently grappled with the harshest drought in 800 years; in the Horn of Africa, the worst event in 40 years has left 23 million people severely food-insecure, and Spain has seen the water level of some dams drop to 1% of their capacity. “The good news is that investments in drought resilience have an up to tenfold return, and we know what it takes to decouple the severity of a drought from its most serious impacts on lives and livelihoods,” explained Tsegai. Unconventional water resources For thousands of years, mobile pastoralism has been a prime survival strategy in the Arabian Peninsula, one of the most arid regions in the world. However, urbanization, population growth, and lifestyle changes have brought new challenges —and are spawning new solutions. “We are looking to expand sewage water treatment and desalination, for example, to irrigate crops, and we are also keen on further building local capacity on sustainable land and water management,” said Omar Ouda, senior water management advisor at the Ministry of Water, Environment and Agriculture of Saudi Arabia. The country will host the largest-ever UN land and drought summit, or UNCCD COP16, from 2-13 December. Spain, in the Mediterranean basin, has more than 700 desalination plants, including the largest in Europe for drinking water, which is now catering to more than 4.,5 million people in the drought-struck Barcelona area. The amount of energy required to desalinate water, though, remains a key consideration when opting for this tool. “We make decisions based on indicators like dam water levels,” said water commissioner at the Júcar River Basin Authority in Spain Marc Garcia, who noted the importance of adopting a proactive approach to drought management. “On the basis of such information, authorities assess options like intensifying desalination, decommissioning wells and, if necessary, restricting water use in certain basins.” Nature-based solutions While technology and grey infrastructure can contribute to building resilience, nature-based solutions and sustainable land and water management remain central to mitigating, and adapting to, future droughts, according to several panellists. Land degradation, for example, disrupts regional rainfall patterns by disrupting the amount of water that regularly moves from the earth to the air. Conversely, healthy lands support consistent seasonal and annual rainfall; facilitate aquifer recharge; and mitigate the risk of droughts and floods. “Nature can be a big part of the solution,” said the Director of Water Scarcity and Markets at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Tom Iseman. “For instance, it is essential we protect source watersheds, keeping their storage capacity intact, slowing runoff, and protecting water quality,” said the expert of TNC, which is engaged in source water protection initiatives across Africa. Success factors for water governance The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is helping communities conserve and use water more efficiently, based on the latest scientific insights and innovations —from drought-tolerant seeds and improved irrigation methods to remote sensing technologies to explore new water resources. They also support policy-makers in creating drought policies across Africa and Asia. “To define drought policies, it ideally needs to be raining outside because it takes time to put them together,” said IWMI deputy director general Rachael McDonnell, and explained they involve the ministries of health, environment, agriculture, economy, infrastructure, and finance, as well as statistical and meteorological agencies. The process must engage all governance levels, from national institutions to local administrations and communities, she said, and make sure crucial data is available to all of them —a consideration they keep front and centre as they support the creation of early warning systems in countries like Zambia, Morocco, Jordan, and Lebanon. For director general of the US National Drought Mitigation Centre at the University of Nebraska, Mark Svoboda, another key is involving users in the co-design of information systems and tools to build ownership in the long run. From his experience in southern Africa, countries that successfully appropriate and put to use drought early warning systems create a ripple effect. “They generate positive peer pressure: neighboring countries want to understand how to do what they do, so building trust now takes one year, instead of eight,” said Svoboda. “It all starts with political will, and showing tangible results is the best way to get buy-in from decision-makers.” Drought communications In the lead up to major international events like UNCCD COP16 and Drought+10, participants called on the Alliance to get the word out on the urgency of building drought resilience. “Drought is a major threat multiplier, but it is too often lost to audiences, overshadowed by geopolitics and other conflicts,” said McDonnell from IWMI. Executive secretary and CEO of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) Alan AtKisson echoed the need to boost communications on drought at all levels, from the public and affected communities to political leaders and the finance sector: “We need to talk much more about drought resilience, and we need investors to understand how drought can impact their value chains going forward,” said AtKisson. “Tropical storms get the headlines, but the hazard that destroys most economic value on our planet is drought.”