Remarks by UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw Dear colleagues and friends I am honoured to participate in the launch of this year’s State of the World's Land and Water Resources, and I thank our friends and partners at FAO for their kind invitation and for our continued collaboration. The…

This World Soil Day, UNCCD invites you to enjoy the Kids4Land e-book. It is a collection of entries from our recent art competition, where we have invited children from all over the world to share with us their vision of the land they would like to live on in the future. Together with their artwork…

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE Riyadh, 30 November 2021 – The Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen AlFadley, and the UNCCD Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, this morning signed…

AR Riyadh, 30 November 2021 – The Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen AlFadley, and the UNCCD Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw, this morning signed a cooperation…

Communities all over the world have suffered some of the most brutal effects of drought and flooding this year. Flash floods in western Europe, eastern and central Asia and southern African. And catastrophic drought in Australia, southern Africa, southern Asia, much of Latin America, western North…

FR | SP | AR | CH | RU A statement by UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw With the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, the world has put nature and sustainable land use at the heart of the global battle against climate change and biodiversity loss. And not a moment too soon! At…

Time: 16:45 - 18:00 Lomond Auditorium UNFCCC COP 26 | Glasgow Catastrophic drought and flooding are linked to the changing climate and sub-optimal land use planning and management. This side event will highlight the pivotal role of land in regulating water (reducing scarcity and limiting surplus)…

The final conference on the results of a Joint initiative to develop regional strategies to combat drought, sand and dust storms (SDS) in Central Asia took place on 21 October. Representatives of the UNCCD Secretariat, national institutions and CAREC, government representatives, experts, as well as…

Statement by UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw Madame Chairperson, Bureau members, distinguished delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me first offer my warmest congratulations to you Madam Chair and Bureau members on your election at the helm of this Committee. You are carrying out your…

The UN Food Systems Summit will be held during the UN General Assembly in New York on 23 September 2021. It is expected to set the stage for global food systems transformation to accelerate action towards the Sustainable Development Goals. The Summit aims to raise global awareness and shape global…

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…

12 September is the UN Day for South-South cooperation. Collaboration among peoples and countries of the global South that contributes to their national well-being, their national and collective self-reliance and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals is a key aspect of UNCCD-enabled…

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Ramsar Convention, the intergovernmental treaty which unites 171 countries to protect and use wisely the wetlands and the resources they provide. The Ramsar Convention is the oldest of the modern global intergovernmental environmental agreements. In…

Mr. President Duque, Secretary General, Ministers, Friends and Colleagues Warmest greetings from the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. We are at a critical point in the discussions on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Hence the timeliness of this meeting. Biodiversity and climate…

Accelerating land restoration in the Sahel through media Media practitioners, broadcasters, representatives from print media and multimedia producers from the 11 Great Green Wall countries participated in a two-day virtual capacity building workshop with the theme – Media as agents of change to…

Bonn, 11/08/2021 - The Earth is warming fast, and even faster on the land. This trend is “virtually certain” to continue and no region of the world will be spared, according to the Working Group 1 assessment report released Monday by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)…

As part of the celebration for the 25th anniversary of the UN in Bonn, the City of Bonn and the Bonn International Non-Governmental Organizations (BINGO) organized a webinar “#UNBonn25: Global Action – Local Interaction” on 23 June, addressing the important linkages between landscapes, agriculture…

Arabic French Spanish Russian World leaders are rallying support for a coordinated and coherent approach to reverse the loss of healthy land in light of the role it can play in the global efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to deal with the crises of climate change and the loss of…

Arabic | Chinese | French | Russian | Spanish Bonn, 17/06/2020 - World leaders are rallying support for a coordinated and coherent approach to reverse the loss of healthy land in light of the role it can play in the global efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to deal with the crises of…

Speech by the UNCCD Executive Secretary Mr. Ibrahim Thiaw First, I wish to express my deep gratitude to you, President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, and to Costa Rica, for hosting the global manifestations of the 2021 Desertification and Drought Day. This year, COVID-19 has given our global celebrations…

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…

Remarks by UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw Co-Chairs, Council members, Colleagues, and friends First, allow me to wish you a Happy Anniversary. As our instrument turns 30, let us celebrate its great achievements. Celebrate above all thirty years of cooperation. Thirty years of working…

Arabic | Chinese | French | Russian | Spanish Humanity is totally dependent on the natural world and the land we live on. We have transformed nearly three quarters of the Earth’s ice-free land to meet our demands for food, raw materials, and homes. It is not sustainable. We are putting our land…

Climate change, overuse and conversion for agriculture, cities and infrastructure mean that one fifth of the planet’s land area is degraded. This damage, which also drives drought and desertification, harms the livelihoods of almost half the planet’s population. However, as much as one billion…

Land sustains life on the planet. Land provides us with food, clean water, and energy. Healthy land is the basis for our own health. Yet, one in five hectares of land is no longer usable. Land degradation is affecting 40% of the world’s population and costing more than 10% of the annual global GDP…