UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION TO COMBAT DESERTIFICATION (UNCCD)

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Context

The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav has reached Abidjan, Cote D Ivoire to attend the Conference of Parties, 15^th meeting of the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD COP15) from 9^th May to 20^th May 2022.

Agenda for COP15

The fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 9 to 20 May 2022, will bring together leaders from governments, the private sector, civil society and other key stakeholders from around the world to drive progress in the future sustainable management of land and will explore links between land and other key sustainability issues.
For the first time, an Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG) on effective policy and implementation measures for addressing drought under the United Nations Convention for Combatting Desertification (UNCCD) was established by decision 23/COP.14. A draft report has been prepared and will be discussed during the current session of COP15.
Drought, land restoration, and related enablers such as land rights, gender equality and youth empowerment are among the top items on the Conference agenda. Through its decisions adopted by UNCCD’s 197 Parties, COP15 is expected to galvanize sustainable solutions for land restoration and drought resilience, with a strong focus on future-proofing land use.

India and UNCCD

India hosted COP 14 of UNCCD in 2019 in New Delhi and is also the current president (took over from China) of UNCCD.
- COP 14 was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he announced that India would raise its ambition of the total area that would be restored from its land degradation status, from twenty-one a million hectares to twenty-six million hectares between now and 2030.
  - The above vision will be achieved by restoring land productivity and the ecosystem of 26 million hectares of most degraded and vulnerable land, with major emphasis on the degraded agricultural, forest and other wastelands by adopting a landscape restoration approach.
- India during its presidency has made a significant contribution in bringing the nations together towards the global goal of halting and reversing land degradation.
- A High-level Dialogue of the United Nations General Assembly held on 14th June 2021 on desertification, land degradation and drought, was addressed by Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi wherein he highlighted the success stories and initiatives taken by India to combat land degradation.
- In another significant development during India’s presidency, G-20 leaders recognizing the importance of combating land degradation and creating new carbon sinks, put up an aspirational goal to collectively plant 1 trillion trees, urging other countries to join forces with G20 to reach this global goal by 2030.

About UNCCD

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was established in 1994 to protect and restore land and ensure a safer, just, and more sustainable future.
The UNCCD is the only legally binding framework set up to address desertification and the effects of drought.
There are 197 Parties to the Convention, including 196 country Parties and the European Union.
The Convention – based on the principles of participation, partnership and decentralization – is a multilateral commitment to mitigate the impact of land degradation, and protect land to provide food, water, shelter and economic opportunity to all people.
The Convention unites governments, scientists, policymakers, the private sector and communities around a shared vision to restore and manage the world’s land.
This work is crucial to ensure the sustainability of the planet and the prosperity of future generations.

About COP

The Conference of the Parties (COP) was established by the Convention as its main decision-making body.
COP is mandated to review reports submitted by the Parties detailing how they are carrying out their Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) commitments and make recommendations based on these reports.
The COP has been meeting biennially since 2001 and has held 14 sessions.