This Earth Day, we invite you to take your children outside, into nature, to strengthen their connection with the environment. It is the best way to motivate them to protect it. The effects of climate change are not always obvious to us. Yet, they are undeniable. It is easier to see the harmful…

Through the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Target Setting Programme, the Global Mechanism (GM) and the secretariat of the UNCCD, in collaboration with multiple international partners, are supporting interested countries with their national LDN target setting process, including setting national…

On the road to the Climate Action Summit, the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India and President of COP14, His Excellency Mr. Prakash Javedkar, and the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Her Excellency Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, hosted a high-level luncheon on land and…

Speech of UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw, Thank you to Ms. Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, for her opening remarks. Thank you for putting together this special report on drought. My take from the report is that we must act now to…

The 2017 Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) takes place on 19-20 December in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the essential role of sustainable landscapes in the future of our planet. The city that serves as the international sustainability hub and the driving force behind such global efforts as the Bonn…

Planning early is key to achieving drought resilience Mandate The Conference of the Parties (COP) at its thirteenth Meeting (COP13), requested the Secretariat and appropriate UNCCD institutions and bodies including the Science-Policy Interface to implement the Drought Initiative during the 2018-19…

9 May 2018 - Bonn, Germany – The global economy will lose a whopping USD23 trillion by 2050 through land degradation, a review by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) warns. To take urgent action now and halt these alarming trends would cost USD4.6 trillion – only a…

Video file Today, there are 1.8 billion people in the world between the ages of 15 and 35 — a quarter of the global population and the largest generation of youth the world has ever known. These young people are also the most educated generation ever. Young women and men are invaluable assets that…

The global economy will lose a whopping USD23 trillion by 2050 through land degradation, a review by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) warns. To take urgent action now and halt these alarming trends would cost USD4.6 trillion – only a fraction of the predicted losses…

Co-Chairs, Council members, Fellow colleagues Heads of the Conventions’ secretariats, Ladies and Gentlemen: First, allow me to express my gratitude to Dr Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, for his kind invitation. I wish him great success in his new role as CEO of the Global Environmental Facility. We are…

Power capacity from renewables increased by 9% from 2015 to 2016 3 billion people will be using unsustainably produced biomass energy by 2030 Recovering the more than 500 million hectares of degraded land to meet growing demand for renewables is urgently need and possible Bonn, 17/11/2017 - Newly…

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…

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…

Changwon City, Republic of Korea, 18 October 2011 – They are marginal and marginalized. There are one billion of them and they struggle to subsist in the world's drylands. They are the poor the world forgot. Initially unveiled for consultation last year, the UNCCD/UNDP report, "The Forgotten Billion…

Great Green Wall Accelerator: This dynamic team has started coordinating efforts among donors, implementing partners and strategic partners, through ongoing consultations, to implement a harmonized results management framework. The expected result is an online platform with various functionalities…

Bonn, Germany – Reviving damaged lands and the livelihoods of people affected by desertification, land degradation and drought can be possible by 2030, according to participants who attended the intergovernmental committee that reviews the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat…

Ibrahim Thiaw Under Secretary-General & Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification World Day of Combat Desertification Ankara, Turkey, 17 June 2019 Introduction Good morning, His Excellency Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey, His Excellency Mr. Bekir Pakdemirli…

By UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw The German Advisory Council on Global Change’s recent report, Rethinking Land in the Anthropocene: from Separation to Integration, makes it abundantly clear that we need a fundamental change in how we manage the land to limit climate change, reverse…

Following the guidance received by Parties during COP 14, UNCCD Convention institutions reviewed and updated modalities for UNCCD reporting. To increase transparency and share with Parties important milestones in preparing new reporting tools, draft documents related to some of the reporting…

Indian Government is hosting the Fourteenth Conference of the Parties (COP14) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification Diversity (UNCCD) on 2-13 September in New Delhi. People from over 196 countries and of myriad socio-cultural backgrounds, representatives of the rural and urban communities…

Remarks by the UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw Welcome to the nineteenth session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention. This is a unique session, for reasons that we would have preferred to avoid. This is the first session of the UNCCD to be held online. The…

New Delhi, India – “Today, we focus on sand and dust storms (SDS), a phenomena severely and increasingly affecting 151 countries in Africa, Asia, North America and Australia,” said UNCCD Executive Secretary in his opening remarks at the Sand and Dust Storms Day 6 September at UNCCD COP14. The day…

Ordos, 6 September 2017 Time for the Butterfly to Flap its Wings Friends, Focal Points, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Ordos. Allow me to extend my sincere thanks to the Govt. of the People’s Republic of China for their warm and efficient welcome. When in China and when you want to…

العربية | 中文 | Español | Français | Italiano | Русский Governments laid out their national pathways to address multiple aspects of food systems during the concluding day of the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit July 28, 2021, ROME – More than 100 countries came together over the course of three-days to…

2 billion hectares of productive land are degraded worldwide while a further 12 million hectares are degraded every year. This has severe consequences for the livelihoods of land users, both at social and environmental levels. Stopping land degradation is critical in mitigating climate change: soil…