UNCCD COP14 Has Started Today in New Delhi, India

Today COP14 commenced in New Delhi, India under the topic “Restore Land to Sustain Life”. The Conference will last until 13th September and will feature main special guest who all want to contribute to creating a sustainable future.

Over 3,000 participants from all over the world are expected to participate in COP14. The Parties to the Convention will agree on the actions each will take over the next two years and beyond to get us on a sustainable development path.

Hitherto unseen negative impacts of unpredictable and extreme climatic conditions are now recurrent, more frequent and intense in many parts of the world. Today, over a million species are on the verge of extinction, threatening global food security, largely due to habitat loss and land degradation. Three out of every 4 hectares of land have been altered from their natural states and the productivity of about 1 in every 4 hectares of land is declining. Poor land health is on the rise and is impacting 3.2 billion people all over the world. Land degradation working in tandem with climate change and biodiversity loss may force up to 700 million people to migrate by 2050.

UNCCD is reducing these impacts by promoting investment in the land to unlock opportunities for change, deliver hope and action, and help build a more sustainable path for the future.

UNCCD focuses on over 1.3 billion people who rely directly on the land to survive and suffer the most from the biophysical impacts of land degradation and drought. Communities that rely solely on the land should be supported to become resilient in the face of environmental, social and climatic pressures.

Reversing land degradation and its outcomes while accelerating positive achievements for people and for ecosystems with a view to deliver on Sustainable Development Goals is the core agenda of the fourteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (COP14). COP14 will take place on 2-13 September 2019 at the India Mart and Expo, in the Greater Noida area of New Delhi, India.

COP14 is aiming to help countries achieve Land Degradation Neutrality by delivering tools and resources that are fit for purpose. Tools that are built on accurate and reliable science and data, participatory processes and compromise, and benefit everyone.

The Conference is expected to agree on about 30 decisions to ramp up and elaborate further actions needed on the ground to ensure that the Convention’s goals for 2018-2030 are achieved. These are to improve the lives of the populations affected by desertification and land degradation and to improve the affected ecosystems, to mitigate the effects of drought and to mobilize sufficient resources to achieve these goals, and ensure the outcomes benefit all people, everywhere.

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Credits: Asis Kumar Sanyal

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