UNCCD and FAO are co-organizing the first webinar on responsible governance of land tenure as a vehicle to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), combat drought and desertification. The event is part of the Resilient Food Systems Programme (RFS) that encompasses a series of four webinars and…

10 evenings, 3 locations, 70 musicians from 20 countries – Over the Border Festival is back in full swing for the fifth time! While the pandemic forced the festival organizers, the participants and their fans to face many challenges over the past year and a half, they are determined to bring the…

(French text follows) Alarmed by the dangerous effects of climate change especially on fragile and unstable communities, African governments meeting at the Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, agreed on practical measures to set the region on a path towards security, stability and…

(French text follows) Marrakesh, (15/11/16) - “The Kingdom of Morocco will host the Africa Regional coordination Unit of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). This will provide the secretariat with vital support services that the Parties to the Convention need to…

Of the Convention’s 197 Parties, 169 countries have declared that they are affected by desertification. More than 1.5 billion people directly depend on land that is slowly being degraded. Every year 75 billion tons of fertile soil is lost to land degradation. Similarly 12 million hectares of land…

Hi there! My first name is Land, my surname is Soil. Thank you for visiting with me today. I know you know a lot about me, but somehow, we’ve never really met or talked. So let me introduce myself very briefly. As I said my surname is soil. I am only about six inches tall, on average, from the tip…

When land degradation happens in the world's drylands, it often creates desert-like conditions. Drylands are home to more than 2.1 billion people (2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment); for every three people, one calls drylands home, and growth rates in these areas are faster than in any other…

With more lands around the world facing increasing deterioration and degradation, the United Nations General Assembly declared the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification, which runs from January 2010 to December 2020 to promote action that will protect the drylands…

I was born on 5th June, World Environment Day, and thus feel that it was pre-ordained that I should be an eco-warrior. I live in Dubai, the city of gold, which is also a desert oasis, surrounded by some of the fiercest deserts of the world called the ‘Rub Al Khali’ or ‘The Empty Quarter.’ This…

Most of the content of this website is created in English. To facilitate the users to access information on the website in other languages, we provide the Google Translate tool link. This automatic machine translation service is provided free of charge by Google and cannot guarantee accuracy of this…

This page presents the original submissions by outside authors and contributors on events and activities around the world that promote action against desertification, land degradation and mitigation of drought. Your contributions are welcome (see contribution guidelines on the right). Information…

Mandate The Global Mechanism (GM) was established under Article 21 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to assist countries in the mobilization of financial resources to implement the Convention and address desertification, land degradation and drought. What We Do As an…

16.11.2016 – Scientists from the Azerbaijan Institute of Botany and the National Academy of Sciences together with local experts in geographic information systems and remote sensing have undertaken a joint project in rare vegetation research. The project has been developed as a long-term integrated…

Mandate In line with Article 24 of the UNCCD, the Committee on Science and Technology (CST) is established as a subsidiary body of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to provide it with information and advice on scientific and technological matters relating to combating desertification and…

Losing productive land is driving people to make risky life choices. In rural areas where people depend on scarce productive land resources, land degradation is a driver of forced migration. Africa is particularly susceptible since more than 90% of our economy depends on a climate-sensitive natural…

The Global Land Outlook (GLO) is a strategic communications platform and associated publications of the UNCCD secretariat that demonstrates the central importance of land quality to human well-being. The GLO and its derivative products, such as regional reports and working papers, focus on current…

The role of regions under the UNCCD Five world regions – Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Northern Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe - have the important job of deciding how to implement the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The Convention Text…

Switchboard Tel: 00 49 228 815 2800 Email: secretariat [at] unccd.int Postal Address UNITED NATIONS Convention to Combat Desertification UNCCD Secretariat P.O. Box 260129 D-53153 Bonn, Germany Office Location UNCCD Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1 D-53113 Bonn, Germany CSO contact CSO [at] unccd.int 00 49 228…

5 December is World Soil Day (WSD). The Day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, noting that soils constitute the foundation for agricultural development, essential ecosystem functions and food security and hence are key to sustaining life on Earth. On this day, soil is celebrated…

To achieve the target of a land degradation-neutral world (SDG target 15.3) by 2030, large amounts of financial resources must be mobilized. Public and philanthropic resources alone will not suffice, as acknowledged in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. New financial instruments and intermediaries, as…

By the end of the 13th meeting of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Ordos, China, 113 countries had agreed to specify concrete targets with clear indicators, to rehabilitate more land and reverse degradation, which currently affects over a third of the world’s…

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) has been defined by the Parties to the Convention as: A state whereby the amount and quality of land resources, necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security, remains stable or increases within specified temporal and spatial scales…

On Friday 16 October, a COP side event took place on the conceptualization and further development of the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund - a collaborative undertaking, anchored on achieving the Land Degradation Neutrality target of the Sustainable Development Goals. Opening the event, the…

Land and soil degradation undermine the security and development of all countries. The geo-political and security challenges we face are complex. But by better implementing good land management practices, we can simultaneously help populations adapt to climate change and build resilience to drought…

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development puts a strong emphasis on the integrated approach to achieving SDGs that can harness synergies and minimize potential trade-offs. Land can play an important part in accelerating the achievement of many SDGs. Maintaining and restoring land resources can…