Reviving dying land is doable by 2030, UN review concludes

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 Desertification (UNCCD).

Participants at the 17^th Committee to Review the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC17), in Georgetown, Guyana, stated that the speed at which countries are implementing the Sustainable Development Goal target of land degradation neutrality puts it within reach, and stated two other reasons.

The process of setting the target at the country level has drawn in other land-related sectors at the country-level, and triggering positive change. In addition, countries are spending more money on activities to contain land degradation and desertification and to manage drought effectively.

In the four years since countries reached the agreement to achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030, 120 of the 169 countries affected by desertification, land degradation or drought have started identifying where to reduce the risk of degradation and where to recover degrading land. The process of setting the 2030 country targets for LDN has broadened action to other land-related sectors.

As a result, the Committee was able to review the first-of-its-kind global assessment of land degradation by governments, which is based on quantitative earth observation data collected and analyzed in at least 127 countries. The assessment’s uniqueness lies in that countries are working to measure and monitor three essential indicators of land degradation in the same way over the same period, so that the status of LDN can be determined for the globe.

Based on the assessment, the Committee laid out a range of actions that address issues such as land rights, drought and gender equality, for governments to consider and agree on when they meet in October of this year in New Delhi, India, during the 14th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP14).

“We have seen a sea-change and huge progress” since the Convention was negotiated in 1994, said Monique Barbut, the UNCCD Executive Secretary, during the closing of the meeting.
“With a tiny budget we’re getting things done. We have the LDN fund up and running. We have LDN projects taking shape in more than hundred countries.  A project preparation facility with the other Rio conventions is in the pipeline. Drought plans are being developed in nearly 50 countries. Land degradation and drought are recognized in the Global Compact on migration as key areas of concern,” Barbut said.

Countries said “LDN is a visionary target” and expressed their satisfaction with this first collaborative analysis and assessment of land degradation. Many countries praised the achievements in data gathering and stressed the added value of the provided tools, which facilitated the use of national data to derive the indicators of land degradation using internationally standardized methodologies. However, many also called for the improvement of the tools, training in their application and support to generate more detailed national data.

Barbut, whose term as head of the Convention ends in February, admitted she “was very suspicious and very tough about UNCCD and what it could achieve” in the very early days when she was part of the team that negotiated the three Rio Conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification.

“But the potential of this convention has only just started to be realized,” she said, and urged countries to use their creativity and imagination to help amplify UNCCD and help it reach its full potential and stressed that “it is not an impossible ambition.”

The Committee thanked the outgoing Executive Secretary for her contribution to raising the visibility of the Convention at a global level.

In a statement released yesterday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres thanked Barbut for “her outstanding commitment and dedicated service to the Organization,” and announced the appointment of Ibrahim Thiaw of Mauritania as her successor.

The CRIC has met for its 17th session with 94 countries in attendance.

Consumers and Private Sector critical in fighting droughts and land degradation, says UN

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 change.

To avoid these threats, Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, has called on consumers and the private sector to join governments to save healthy land.

She added that lack of preparedness for future droughts in particular, could lead to massive social and political upheavals.

“Everything we produce and consume has a land footprint. A bicycle requires 3.4 square meters of land. Ten square meters of land are used to produce a laptop. Producing one kilogram of beef takes 22 square meters,“ but few people give thought to these daily processes “because the losses are not visible – or at least not accounted for - in the products we consume,” Barbut stated.

“We are all decision-makers because in our daily lives, our choices have consequences. Our small decisions transform the world,” she stressed, and called on consumers to make choices that reward land users whose practices protect the land from degradation.

Barbut, who heads the international agreement that deals with desertification, land degradation and drought effects, also warned that it is dangerous to reduce the true value of healthy land to its economic value alone.

She made the remarks in observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification on 17 June. The global observance event took place, in Quito, Ecuador.

Ecuador promotes a bio-economy among its agriculturalists in order to diffuse sustainable land management technologies, which maintain the land’s productivity.

The country is also pursuing the Sustainable Development Goal target of achieving land degradation neutrality, which means avoiding, reducing and reversing land degradation to ensure the amount of healthy land it had in 2015 is the same in 2030, and stays stable thereafter.

Barbut also underlined the need to “go beyond conscious consumerism” to engage the private sector and governments in better land uses because “the real value of the land is not just economic.”

“Land is worth so much more than the economic value we attach to it. 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 surrounds us with beauty. But, we cannot meet the needs and wants of a growing population if the amount of healthy and productive land continues to decline so dramatically,” Barbut said.

Tarsicio Granizo, Minister of Environment, Ecuador, said “desertification is a matter that not only has to do with the environment, but also with food sovereignty and with protection of the agricultural soil.”

The Global Land Outlook  (The GLO) of 2017 states that 45% of the food consumed globally comes from the world’s dryland areas, and that falling productivity, food shortages and water scarcity in these regions is creating insecurity. The GLO warns that about 20% more productive land was degraded from 1983-2013, and that Africa and Asia face the greatest threats, going forward.

“We must do far more to recognize the immense value of healthy and productive land in strengthening the resilience of the world’s poorest communities, which are facing more drought and other slow-onset climate disasters,” said António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, in marking the Day.

Five of the 8 slow onset events identified by the Climate Change Convention as potential future sources of huge losses and damage are manifestations of declining land productivity. These are desertification, salinization, land and forest degradation, biodiversity loss and rising temperatures. Globally, about 2 billion hectares of land are degraded. Most of it can be restored back to health.

“Science has given us the knowledge and tools we need for managing land to build resilience to drought and the impacts of climate change. Governments and the communities whose lives and livelihoods depend on the land can take steps now to prepare for future drought,” Guterres said.

The sustainable land management technologies needed to minimize and reverse many of these effects exist, but the policy instruments and investments to promote their spread are non-existent. As a result, some of the most land-dependent communities are exposed to the growing powerful and adverse weather effects, such as recurrent droughts, unpredictable rainfall and disappearing ground water sources.

Barbut highlighted three critical actions that consumers and the private sector can take to encourage land users and governments to save healthy land from further degradation and to recover nearly barren lands.

First, changing consumer behavior and unsustainable production patterns. Second, adopting more efficient land use planning. Third, creating mechanisms like the LDN Fund that will motivate the private sector to invest in land restoration.

“The public needs to be empowered.  If they know that the choices they make every day can make a difference in terms of how the land is used – whether it is abused or nurtured – I am sure they will choose and consume more wisely,” she said.

“Governments must create incentives that can encourage the private sector to see that sustainable management of the land and the restoration of degraded land is the socially responsible thing to do. The UNCCD is ready to help initiatives that can restore degraded land at scale,” she said.

She called on countries to formulate the targets to be achieved by 2030, which signals that “a country has a systematic plan to ensure sufficient high quality land is available in the long-term to meet the demand for essentials like food and water.”

Minister Granizo said “the Government of Ecuador is proud to host, for the first time in Latin America, the celebration of this international day, which was attended by prominent authorities of the Convention to Combat Desertification.”

World Day to Combat Desertification is observed every year on 17 June to raise awareness about the status of the land resources, especially at country level, and to mobilize required actions.

New fund initiative hailed as an innovative climate solution at One Planet Summit

The ‘Land Degradation Neutrality Fund’ initiative promoted by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Mirova (Natixis) to support sustainable land use practices globally is highlighted as a concrete and innovative climate action during the One Planet Summit.

Initial investors, including the European Investment Bank and the Agence Française de Développement, have announced financial commitments totalling more than USD 100 million out of a target of USD 300 million.

At the One Planet Summit, organized to celebrate the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement, the ‘Land Degradation Neutrality Fund’ initiative is hailed by Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, as an innovative solution that aligns sustainable land management with the ambition of the Paris Agreement.

“The public sector must be bold and inventive to unleash a revolution in development and entrepreneurship that can tackle the manifold and complex challenges before us – climate change, loss of productive land, lack of jobs, forced migration, droughts, floods, the list seems endless. The moment we see the land differently our horizons open wide. Then, the options and possibilities are endless,” says Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD.

Developed by the UNCCD and Mirova, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers who also provided initial seeding for the Fund, it is one of the responses to the call for public and private finance in support of global climate action.

Restoring degraded land is a huge, yet greatly underestimated and underutilized opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to climate change. By putting sustainable land use at the heart of its climate action, the ‘Land Degradation Neutrality Fund’ initiative addresses the three summit objectives:

1. Act concretely and collectively: This joint effort to put finance at the service of climate action is the outcome of a unique coalition of actors. It will invest in sustainable land management practices all over the world that have already been shown to be effective, but need suitable financing and technical assistance.
2. Innovate: This will be the first investment vehicle to focus on a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target, and using an innovative public private partnership structure. Success could motivate the development of new investment vehicles for the goals.
3. Support one another: Climate change is a global issue, but the effects are distributed unevenly, with especially negative impacts on land users. Acting on a global scale, this investment vehicle will therefore provide flexible financing solutions where traditional bank funding is not available.

As early supporter of the fund, all the way through the design and structuring phases, the European Investment Bank was joined by the Agence Française de Développement to become the anchor investors.

Other institutional investors include Fondaction, the first north-American private investor, foundation Fondation de France, insurance companies BNP Paribas Cardif and Garance.

The initiative is also backed by de-risking partners including the Government of Luxembourg, IDB Invest and the Global Environment Facility. In total, investors have announced commitments of over USD 100 million out of a target of USD 300 million.

UN launches campaign to invest in degraded lands to create jobs, boost incomes and food security

The rallying call for this year’s celebration of the World Day to Combat Desertification is “Our Land. Our Home. Our Future.”

The slogan draws global attention to the central role productive land can play in turning the growing tide of migrants abandoning unproductive land into communities and nations that are stable, secure and sustainable, into the future.

“Migration is high on the political agenda all over the world as some rural communities feel left behind and others flee their lands. The problem signals a growing sense of hopelessness due to the lack of choice or loss of livelihoods. And yet productive land is a timeless tool for creating wealth,” says Ms. Monique Barbut, the United Nations top advisor on combatting desertification and drought. “This year, let us engage in a campaign to re-invest in rural lands and unleash their massive job-creating potential, from Burkina Faso, Chile and China, to Italy, Mexico, Ukraine and St. Lucia”.

She added that “the possibility for success today is greater than ever before. More than 100 of the 169 countries affected by desertification or drought are setting national targets to curb a run-away land degradation by the year 2030. Investing in the land will create local jobs and give households and communities a fighting chance to live, which will, in turn, strengthen national security and our future prospects for sustainability”.

Burkina Faso will host the global observance of the World Day to showcase the political commitment and proactive steps the region is taking to tackle the migration and land degradation challenges.

The West African country hosted the 2005 Heads of State Summit for the Sahel-Saharan countries where 11 countries reached an agreement to restored degraded land on an 8000 kilometer stretch of land cutting across the Sahel. The initiative is now popularly known as the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel.

“Since the early 1980s, we have been rehabilitating degraded land by building on our traditional techniques such as the Zaï or adopting new techniques that work, such as farmer managed natural regeneration,” said Mr. Batio Bassiere, Minister of Environment, Green Economy and Climate Change of Burkina Faso. “We intend to be land degradation neutral by 2030. We are hosting the global observance on 17 June because we want to show the world, what we have achieved and is possible in order to inspire everyone into action”.

The United Nations designated 17 June as the World Day to Combat Desertification to raise public awareness about the challenges of desertification, land degradation and drought and to promote the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa.

Ghana should be concerned about issues of desertification – UNCCD

Ghana is a tropical country with vast green forests, but it is among countries on the margins of arid areas where the highest level of degradation is occurring.

“Most of the land degradation happening in the world is happening in the non-dryland areas”, observed Wagaki Mwangi, Public Information and Media Officer at United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

She wants Ghanaians to be concerned because of the envisaged challenges in satisfying the needs of future population growth in food, energy and water which all depend on the land.

A 2012 World Bank report has stated that by 2030 droughts and heat will leave 40 percent of the land in Sub-Saharan Africa now growing maize unable to support that crop, while rising temperatures could cause major loss of savanna grasslands threatening pastoral livelihoods.

In September this year, the Conference of Parties (COP 11) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will be convened in Namibia, to deliberate on issues of land degradation, desertification and drought.

Under the theme, “A stronger UNCCD for a Land-Degradation Neutral World”, the COP11 will assess progress under the 10-Year Strategy (2008-2018) to combat desertification.

“Majority of Ghanaians are still dependent on the land and the decisions that are being made in Namibia have to do with land management – how do you manage the land? What priorities is the Ghanaian government giving to issues of land degradation? – those are the kind of issues we’ll be talking about”, stated Wagaki.

According to her, it is important that populations affected are at the forefront of discussions if set targets are to be achieved.

Land, she observed, remains Africa’s major asset in poverty eradication, “but in terms of attention, we’re giving to it, in terms of mainstreaming in policy, we’re not doing as well. So if the public does not arise and say this has to be addressed, the government will never prioritize it”.

The UN estimates two-thirds of Africa’s arable land could be lost by 2025 if the trend of desertification continues.

One of the most unique large-scale international climate change projects is The Great Green Wall initiative (GGW) underway in Africa.

Ghana is among 11 nations that have agreed to participate in the project - a 4,000 mile “wall of trees” is being constructed across the east-west axis of the continent as a defense against rapid, expanding desertification of the Sahara.

The project, initiated by TerrAfrica, was approved by the African Union in 2007, under the umbrella of the Community of the Sahel-Saharan States.

Teko Nhlapo, TerrAfrica Communication and Advocacy Officer, says the African-driven global partnership will expand sustainable land and water management in targeted climate vulnerable regions in West African and Sahelian countries.

He is confident the project will also impact positively on farming in Africa.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh