Chitre, Panama – Over 100 representatives of the ministries of environment, agriculture and health together with delegates from research institutions, associations of producers, CSOs and international organizations joined the celebration the World Soil Day (WSD) on 5 December 2018 in Chitre, about…

Bangkok, Thailand – The World Soil Day (WSD) celebration was held on 5 December 2018 under the theme “Be the Solution to Soil Pollution.” Over 800 participants gathered for the event jointly organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative Land Development Department, Soil and Fertilizer…

World Soil Day is commemorated every 5 December to remind us that soil is important for both the natural system and human well-being. Our laxity in taking care of the soil partly comes from the assumption that land is abundant. It is also because most of us are no longer directly reliant on the land…

Brasília, Brazil – Progress towards land degradation neutrality (LDN) became the focus of the recent national conference organized in partnership with UNCCD and UNDP on 26–27 November to discuss strategies, challenges and results of combating desertification, recovering degraded areas and reducing…

Ebène, Mauritius – Recognizing the urgent need to address pressing environmental challenges, the representatives of the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles gathered for a workshop on 21-22 November 2018 to develop a joint game plan to increase the resilience to natural disasters and…

Budapest, Hungary – The Hungarian Meteorological Service and the Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Center (DRMKC) of the European Commission organized an international training course on drought risk assessment on 6 – 8 November 2018 to discuss the increasing frequency, severity and intensity of…

Konya and Mersin, Turkey – The 16th International training on combating desertification took place on 22-27 October 2018, bringing together international experts from the country parties of the Pan African Agency for the Great Green Wall (PAGGW) and Arab Organization for Agricultural Development…

The new course that aims to provide better understanding of linkages between gender and environment is the result of a joint initiative led by the Global Environment Facility ( the GEF) and its Small Grants Programme (SGP) in collaboration with the GEF Gender Partnership and the United Nations…

Bolzano/Bozen, Italy – Researchers, practitioners, representatives of governmental structures, NGOs, UN agencies and the private sector institutions converged this week in the autonomous province of South Tyrol in the Alps of northern Italy for the Global Mountain Safeguard Research (GLOMOS)…

The Land Degradation Neutrality Fund (LDN Fund), a mechanism to mobilize impact investments to restore degraded land, will be featured at the One Planet Summit taking place on Wednesday, 26 September 2018, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, United States. The Summit is taking place in the margins…

Wuwei City, Republic of China – 180 representatives from over 20 countries have gathered on 12-13 September in the northwest China's Gansu Province to share their experiences and promote non-governmental cooperation in ecological restoration along the Belt and Road -- the economic region…

Caux, Switzerland – This year, the main focus of Caux Dialogue on Land and Security (CDLS) has been on using land restoration for conflict resolution, with the UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary Mr. Pradeep Monga moderating round table discussions on migration and financing for ecosystem restoration…

This July is the first time the United Nations will review the progress made towards meeting Sustainable Development Goal 15, which is about Life on Land. Healthy and productive land is important in the achievement of many of the SDG goals and targets – poverty reduction, food security, gender…

The global celebration of the World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD) took place on Thursday, 15 June 2017 at the Centre des Conférences de Ouaga 2000, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Over 400 international and local participants attended the ceremony with eminent personalities that included…

Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) Send us your World Day celebration to WDCD2017 [at] unccd.int and we will post it on this page! Shortcuts: Africa Asia/Pacific Europe LAC Other Africa Benin AMAF-BENIN plans to celebrate the day in connection with the reforestation of degraded areas…

The use of this web site constitutes agreement with the following terms and conditions: The United Nations secretariat to the Convention to Combat Desertification ("UNCCD secretariat") maintains thisweb site (the "Site") as a courtesy to those who may choose to access the Site ("Users"). The…

The first online course on gender and land degradation was launched last week at the 6th Global Environment Fund (GEF) Assembly in Da Nang, Vietnam. The land degradation module is part of a five-module course on gender and environment, with a focus on the multilateral environmental agreements GEF…

Bonn, Germany – How will the use and condition of land change worldwide over the next few decades? What drives those changes, and what will be the effects on agriculture, water, climate and biodiversity? How will they influence the challenge to achieve global sustainability ambitions? Which regions…

Sixty researchers from eight European countries – Spain, Italy, Holland, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary and Finland – will be working together with companies and farmers for the next four years to develop a viable agricultural model as a environmentally and economically beneficial and…

By UNCCD Executive Secretary Ms. Monique Barbut Are you overwhelmed by the depressing news coming at you daily? Conflict, forced migrants, famine, floods, hurricanes, extinction of species, climate change, threats of war… a seemingly endless list. It might surprise you, but you can really make a…

Espagnol 17 June 2018, Quito, Ecuador. More than 3.2 billion people, or 2 in every 5 people, are impacted by land degradation today and up to 143 million people could move within their countries by 2050 to escape water scarcity and falling crop productivity due to the slow onset impacts of climate…

This year on World Day to Combat Desertification, we think about the real value of land. Not just its economic value. Land is worth so much more than that. It defines our way of life and our culture – whether we live in the city or the villages. It purifies the water we drink. It feeds us. It…

New Delhi, India – A global outlook, released by UN Environment on the World Environment Day 2018, provides a comprehensive analysis of the world’s complex relationships with plastics. This year, the World Day is focused on beating plastic pollution under the theme: “If you can’t reuse it, refuse it…

Ankara, Turkey – The amount of soil carried by rivers in Turkey has been reduced to 154 million tons this year from about 500 million tons per year back in the 1970s, thanks to the afforestation activities, changes of irrigation techniques in agricultural areas, improvement of rangeland and erosion…

Join us to raise awareness on the impact our everyday choices can have on the ground. Mismanagement of land, unplanned urban development, food loss and waste contribute to the depletion of resources on a major scale, including water, land, energy, labour and capital. At the same time, the greenhouse…