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Reviving
dying land is doable by 2030, UN review
concludes
Bonn,
Germany 01/02/2019 – 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 17th Committee to
Review the Implementation of the Convention
(CRIC17), which ended yesterday 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. |
