Hosts: UNCCD, CBD, UNFCCC

Held in the evening of 10 May, the high-level opening of the Pavilion will bring together the Presidencies and Executive Secretaries of the three Rio Conventions to explore synergies in global efforts to combat land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss, with specific focus on UNCCD COP15, CBD COP15 and UNFCCC COP27.

Hosts: UNCCD

The international community is developing policy measures and actions to help the people most vulnerable to drought to take early action to avoid loss of life, and the heavy and growing losses of livelihoods and damage to property and ecosystems following droughts. The Drought Day will be an occasion to discuss how to transform political commitments to action on drought resilience, including presentation of the relevant findings of the new report and recommendations of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Drought established at COP14. The Drought Day will also showcase effective drought response policies and projects on the ground from around the world and deliver a call to action to the COP.

Hosts: UNCCD, WWF, ICRAF-CIFOR, IICA

Many of the current global challenges are related to the food system, particularly the way that land is used and managed to produce food. Rapid decarbonization of all sectors is needed to achieve the 1.5 degrees Celsius target set in the Paris agreement, yet certain parts of the food system are still not included in climate negotiations and policy. Among the most pressing are the needs to mitigate and adapt to climate change, protect biodiversity, combat desertification and land degradation, and reduce yield gaps. Important to include the new focus on achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN) seeks to spark and grow transformative efforts to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation through gender-and socially equitable means.

Hosts: GEF, UNCCD

Land for Life Day will include two parts: a morning session hosted by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the afternoon session hosted by UNCCD with support from Elion Foundation. The GEF-led programme will include a discussion on LDN by listening to the experiences of various stakeholders, including farmer groups, CSOs, the private sector, financing institutions and others, a gender-focused session, and a presentation on LDN in the context of GEF8. The afternoon’s programme will showcase the Land for Life Programme including the Land for Life Award, Land Heroes and Land Ambassadors. The winners of the Land for Life Award will be invited to share their land restoration actions, and panel discussions will focus on ways to scale up restoration of degraded lands.

Hosts: UNCCD Science-Policy Interface

Organized by the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface, the Science Day brings together a diverse and highly engaged audience of participants, including scientists, policy-makers, practitioners, students, journalists and representatives of civil society organizations and development agencies. Under the theme of “Science for Action: Land Restoration and Drought”, the Science Day will focus on these two key issues on the COP agenda. The two main sessions will conclude with engagement for a pre-selected group of journalists.

Hosts: UNCCD, FAO

The Sand and Dust Storms (SDS) Day will serve as a platform to raise awareness about sand and dust storms, providing an opportunity for knowledge sharing and capacity development among stakeholders and partners involved in related issues. They include representatives from affected countries involved in policy and decision making, implementation, science, field practitioners and local communities, as well as members of the United Nations Coalition on Combating Sand and Dust Storms.

Led by FAO and UNCCD, the Coalition is organizing the SDS Day, which is designed to facilitate dialogue, cooperation, and collaboration in SDS management in support of the implementation of major global decisions and policies including the UNCCD COP decisions related to SDS and the provisions of UNGA resolutions on combating SDS adopted each year from 2015. The Day will comprise four sessions: a meeting of the UN Coalition; a technical session (presentations by countries & organizations working with UN Coalition members); a high-level session, and a training session. The outcomes of discussions at the high-level session will ultimately input to COP deliberations on SDS and other related fora.

Hosts: UNCCD

Desertification and land degradation affect around three billion people worldwide. Science tells us that land restoration is a cost-effective way to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. Healthy and productive land resources – soil, water, and biodiversity – are the foundation of societies and economies. Roughly USD 44 trillion of economic output (more than half of global GDP) is moderately or highly reliant on natural capital.  However, in recent decades, land resources have been subject to persistent degradation and loss due to global patterns of human domination. Most countries and communities now recognize the urgent need to transform land governance and restore land-based natural capital to create meaningful jobs, reduce emissions, and restore harmony with nature.  Whether in managed or natural ecosystems, these activities can only be sustained by targeted government policies and budget outlays, considerable shifts in consumer demand and corporate investment, and more inclusive and responsible governance – all of which must come together to support regenerative land and water management practices on the ground.

Hosts: UNCCD, Global Mechanism

In the drylands of Africa, land degradation threatens to the livelihoods of millions of people. Fortunately, there are promising initiatives emerging all over the continent that are turning the tide. The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement with an ambition to grow an 8,000 km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of the continent. By 2030, the Great Green Wall aims to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land, sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon and create 10 million jobs in rural areas. Vast tracts of land along the Great Green Wall have already been restored by local communities.

Long considered only as a tree-planting program, the Great Green Wall Initiative is now perceived as a comprehensive integrated ecosystem management and rural development programme to combat land degradation and desertification, climate change, biodiversity loss, and poverty and food insecurity. A “Great Green Wall accelerator” was launched during the One Planet Summit in January 2021, to boost the implementation of the initiative in the 11 countries by supporting the emergence of multi-stakeholders’ initiatives designed in countries, and to better valorize the local actions already carried out in the field in support of the objectives of the Great Green Wall.