Geneva World Environment Day Celebration 2024 | International Geneva Accelerating Action on Land Restoration and Drought Resilience | Road to UNCCD COP 16

About this Event

Since its first celebration in 1973, World Environment Day has been an occasion to raise awareness on environmental problems and to call for collaborative action across actors around the world. The 2024 edition of World Environment Day will focus on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience, under the slogan “Our Land. Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration”, as the year marks the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

Today, the future of our land is on the line. According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, directly affecting half of the world’s population and threatening roughly half of global GDP (US$44 trillion). The number and duration of droughts has increased by 29 per cent since 2000 – without urgent action, droughts may affect over three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050. Land restoration is a key pillar of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, which is critical to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

This year, the sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the UNCCD will also take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2 to 13 December 2024. At UNCCD COP16, the world will come together to aim towards scaling up ambition and investment to restore 1.5 billion hectares of degraded lands by 2030, to have a collective agreement on how to tackle worsening droughts, to feed growing populations without converting more land or depleting our soils, and to deliver secure land rights for all in all parts of the world.

As a global hub for environmental governance, Geneva plays an important role in the global response to desertification, land degradation, and drought (DLDD). With leading organizations on environmental issues, nature conservation, water, health, human rights and many relevant areas of work, Geneva hosts a strong expertise to contribute to global processes tackling DLDD. From addressing the impacts and preventing the risks posed by this crisis on people and the planet to developing policies to halt DLDD, stakeholders from Geneva also play a role in making links to address other environmental crises.

Leading diplomats and international experts taking the floor at this event will highlight how international Geneva multilateral diplomacy system, with its numerous intergovernmental organizations, permanent governmental missions, NGOs, platforms, academic institutions, and other stakeholders, is engaged in the upcoming UNCCD COP16 and how it is actively tackling desertification, land degradation, and drought.

This event is preceded by a breakfast.

Speakers

By order of intervention.

Mohanad ALBASRAWI

Deputy Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva

H.E. Amb. Julien THÖNI

Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

Inger ANDERSEN

Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) | Video Message

Ibrahim THIAW

Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) | Video Message

Xenya SCANLON

Chief, Communications, External Relations and Partnerships, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

Jenty KIRSCH-WOOD

Senior Programme Management Officer, Risk Knowledge, Monitoring and Capacity Development Branch, UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

Nishanie JAYAMAHA

Co-coordinator, Secretariat for the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations

Nicholas BISHOP

Disaster Risk Reduction Lead, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Verónica RUIZ

Programme Manager, Climate and Disaster Resilience, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Sonja KOEPPEL

Secretary, UN Water Convention

Manal AZZI

Team Lead on Occupational Safety and Health, International Labour Organization (ILO)

Manoela PESSOA DE MIRANDA

Programme Management Officer, Minamata Convention on Mercury Secretariat

Therese ARNESEN

Human Rights Officer, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Tillem BURLACE

Regional Lead, 1t.org, Europe/Africa, World Economic Forum

Arnold KREILHUBER

Director, Europe Office, UN Environment Programme | Chair

Highlights

Video

Live on Facebook

Photo Gallery

Summary

Opening Remarks

Arnold KREILHUBER | Director, Europe Office, UN Environment Programme | Chair

I would like to ask you to extend your minds beyond this room and think about and picture the mountains, forests, rivers, seas, deserts, lakes, ice, and wildlife. That is what we are celebrating here today. We should not lose sight of this purpose that brings us together today, which is to celebrate nature.

World Environment Day is the UN’s biggest day of awareness-raising and action for the environment. Millions of people around the world join forces in action and raise their voices on 5 June every year. This year’s celebration spotlight is on land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience under the theme “Our Land, Our Future.” We are delighted that the host country for the 2024 edition of World Environment Day is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has stepped up its action around protecting our land and our future.

The country aims to plant 400 million trees by 2030 and has increased the number of national parks to more than 400 from 19. This year, the Kingdom will also host the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in December 2024 in Riyadh. At the COP, the world will aim towards scaling up global ambition and investment to restore 1.5 billion hectares of degraded lands by 2030.

How is this theme relevant for Geneva? Looking outside, we can see the mountains and springs. First, no corner of this planet is immune to environmental challenges. Furthermore, these threats are increasingly linked to human rights, and disasters arising from it. Many organizations here today play an important role when we talk about “Our Land, Our Future.” Leading diplomats in Geneva are engaged in the lead-up to COP16. This year, we have a unique situation with three COPs happening: desertification, climate change, and biodiversity.

Land degradation affects over 3 billion people, and the triple planetary crisis wreaks havoc on our lands. But nature is resilient, and by restoring it, we can fight back. Countries have made commitments leading up to these important conferences, but we need to keep ambition high as we approach these three COPs. There are many good examples that we will discuss today for inspiration, such as the Great Green Wall initiative in Africa, which aims to bring life back to degraded lands and improve livelihoods.

Mohanad ALBASRAWI | Deputy Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva

I am grateful to the United Nations Environment Program for selecting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a host country for this event. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 prioritizes environmental protection and development. To do this, the country has created a national environment plan, set up special environmental centers, updated environmental systems, expanded protected areas, and started the ambitious Saudi Green Initiative to plant 10 billion trees in the coming years. Furthermore, the Kingdom has introduced The Green Middle East Initiative to promote regional cooperation in stopping land degradation, protecting plants, hosting biodiversity, ensuring food and water security, adopting climate change measures, and improving the quality of life for all.

Next December, the Kingdom will host the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. This event presents an opportunity for the Kingdom to bring about a qualitative shift during this important international agreement and enhance international action to reduce land degradation and the effects of drought.

In conclusion, we emphasize the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s interest in protecting the environment and its endeavor to enhance international cooperation to confront environmental challenges.

Inger ANDERSEN | Executive Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) | Video Message

This World Environment Day, we are asking everyone to join the global movement to restore our lands, build drought resilience, and combat desertification. Land degradation and desertification affect over 3 billion people. Freshwater ecosystems are also degraded, making it harder to grow crops and raise livestock. This disproportionately affects smallholder farmers and the rural poor. But nature is resilient. By restoring ecosystems, we can slow the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. We can help to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 in line with the global biodiversity framework, get closer to keeping global temperatures in line with the Paris Agreement by increasing carbon storage, and reduce poverty and food insecurity in line with the SDGs.

Work has begun. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is backing commitments to restore 1 billion hectares of land, an area larger than China. Last year, six countries pledged to restore 300,000 km of rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands. At the sixth United Nations Environment Assembly in February, nations agreed to strengthen sustainable land management. Later this year, the three Rio Conventions on climate, biodiversity, and desertification are each holding a Conference of the Parties to push further the ambitions of these conventions. Land restoration can be a golden thread that ties together action and ambition across all these important gatherings. We must make this work count.

I thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for hosting World Environment Day 2024. On this important day, I ask everyone to join Generation Restoration. Our land is our future, and we must protect it.

Ibrahim THIAW | Executive Secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) | Video Message

This year’s World Environment Day focuses on land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience. These issues resonate deeply with our shared missions at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Land is the foundation of life, providing food, water, fiber, and the air we breathe. Yet today, land degradation, driven mostly by human activities, is advancing at an alarming rate. From 2015 to 2019, over 100 million hectares of healthy land were degraded each year, twice the size of Greenland. These statistics highlight the urgent need for action. Escalating land degradation destabilizes markets, communities, and ecosystems globally.

This is not just a professional challenge for me but also a deeply personal one. In 1972, my home region of the Sahel experienced a devastating drought that marked the beginning of a prolonged and severe crisis.

The impact on the population was profound. Families, including my own, villages, and entire nations suffered immensely. This wasn’t just about animals, vegetation, or food; it was about people. When you hear about millions affected by drought, desertification, famine, or disease, they can seem like distant statistics. But when these tragedies hit close to home, they become a different story. We lost more than just resources; we lost confidence, economies, and livelihoods. Many were forced to migrate, never to return. The devastation has never been fully recovered.

However, while land can be degraded, it can also be restored, especially when the degradation has not reached irreparable levels. We have seen many examples worldwide where degraded land has been successfully brought back to productive use. This gives us hope and a clear sense of direction.

At the UNCCD, we are championing the cause of land restoration through initiatives such as the Great Green Wall in Africa and the G20 Global Land Restoration Initiative. Through the International Drought Resilience Alliance, we promote resilience to drought. Restoring land and building drought resilience requires concerted efforts and innovative solutions. It demands the integration of traditional knowledge with innovative science and technology. It calls for robust policies that promote sustainable land management and the active participation of local communities. Above all, it needs a spirit of global solidarity and cooperation.

On this World Environment Day, let us pledge to act and secure a thriving legacy for future generations. Generation Restoration starts with us. Let us all commit to making a difference at the upcoming UNCCD Conference of the Parties, COP 16, in December in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

H.E. Amb. Julien THÖNI | Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva

Two weeks ago, we celebrated another very important day, the International Day for Biodiversity, under the theme “Be Part of the Plan.” On that occasion, we called for action to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity by supporting the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Today’s World Environment Day, under the theme of land restoration and drought resilience, is the perfect occasion to bring to the forefront another of the Rio Conventions, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the topic of land, which is crucial for the environment, our planet, and our future. This has been clearly emphasized by the two presenters in the videos we showed.

The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, through the Agency for Development and Cooperation, has been supporting the UNCCD with earmarked voluntary contributions since 1996, expressing its trust and support for a global governance framework addressing land degradation, land governance, and its recognized interlinkages. Soil is the foundation on which our biodiversity, food production, health, and livelihoods are based. Soil is impacted by key international challenges such as unsustainable resource management, climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation.

This is why we have with us today a wide panel of experts from water and natural conservation to migration and human rights, from the humanitarian to the economic sectors. The composition of this panel demonstrates the complexity of the discussion about land and its sustainable management.

Switzerland is committed to strengthening a systemic and holistic response to sustainability through various engagements. First, in land governance, with a specific focus on land rights, people-centered land governance, and responsible land investment. Second, in sustainable agricultural practices, promoting agroecology as a transformative approach that reinforces food systems’ resilience through adapted and diversified farming systems. Third, in research and innovation, which should be context-specific, participatory, accessible, and inform policies and decision-making. Finally, we strive for improved access, outreach, and inclusion, notably of youth, women, and marginalized populations.

Switzerland also calls for recognizing this complexity, joining efforts, and increasing synergies among all actors. We support the Nexus approach and encourage effective coordination and collaboration between the three Rio Conventions, similar global frameworks, the three Rome-based agencies, development partners, civil society, and the private sector.

Road to Riyadh

Xenya SCANLON | Chief, Communications, External Relations and Partnerships, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

First of all, allow me to congratulate Geneva Environment Network for organizing this event, which appears to be the first such convening in 20 years dedicated to land & drought issues in International Geneva!

And special thanks to the Permanent Missions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Switzerland for co-hosting this event, and to our UNEP colleagues for their support.

This event comes at a critical moment, as this year’s World Environment Day takes the theme of “Our Land. Our Future.” – ahead of UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh this December.

This year marks another important milestone—the 30^th anniversary since the adoption of UNCCD—that we will be celebrating later this month on June 17^th.

Since then, the Convention has been ratified by 197 Parties – 196 countries and the European Union. It is the voice of land in the United Nations system and the custodian of SDG 15.3, which calls for reaching a land degradation neutral world by 2030.

As we look ahead to the Road to Riyadh, the magnitude of the challenge before us is captured by this quote of the United Nations Secretary-General:

“We depend on land for our survival. Yet, we treat it like dirt.”

Indeed, degradation already affects up to 40% of the world’s land, with dire consequences for our climate, biodiversity and livelihoods. For football fans out there, it translates to four football pitches of healthy land becoming degraded every single second.

If current trends persist, we will need to restore 1.5 billion hectares of land between now and 2030. Currently, voluntary commitments made by more than 100 countries add up to around 1 billion hectares—an area the size of US or China.

Moreover, droughts are also hitting harder than ever before. In the past two decades:

• the Colorado river basin in the United States, which is home to 40 million people, has been experiencing the worst drought in 1,200 years;
• Australia, has recently grappled with the harshest drought in 800 years;
• in the Horn of Africa, the worst drought event in 40 years has left 23 million people severely food-insecure, and
• Spain has seen the water level of some dams drop to 1% of their capacity.

To address these urgent challenges, we need the Riyadh COP to be not just a milestone, but a moonshot moment for land.

As the highest decision-making body of UNCCD, COP16 will raise global ambition and accelerate action on land and drought resilience through a people-centered approach.

It will be a COP of many firsts:

• the largest multilateral convening hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to date.
• the first UNCCD COP to be held in the Middle East and North Africa region, which knows first-hand the impacts of desertification, land degradation and drought.
• the largest and most inclusive UNCCD COP, where we hope to welcome many more non-Party stakeholders representing youth, civil society, the private sector, local and regional authorities, and many more.

For the first time in the UNCCD process, COP16 will feature an Action Agenda to mobilize stakeholders around three key pillars of People – Land – Resilience and seven thematic days on Land, Resilience, People, Agri-Food Systems, Governance, Finance and Science, Technology and Innovation.

In terms of expected outcomes, COP16 will contain both formal negotiated decisions, as well as political declarations and new commitments under the Action Agenda, including on:

• Scaling up initiatives to restore 1.5 billion hectares by 2030,
• Identifying a long-term target on land to take us beyond 2030,
• Agreeing on a collective global response to drought resilience,
• Promoting international cooperation to tackle sand and dust storms,
• Advancing secure land tenure and land-based opportunities for youth, women and indigenous peoples and local communities, and
• Launching new initiatives to engage business and local authorities in land restoration.

Furthermore, on the invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a Leaders’ Summit is expected to be held on 2-3 December with participation of Heads of State and Government, CEOs, and other global leaders to address the global challenges by identifying solutions to combat desertification, land degradation and drought.

In addition to the Summit, high-level and ministerial dialogues will take place during the first and second week of the COP.

The UNCCD secretariat is working closely with our host country, as well as partners across the UN system and beyond on shaping thematic days and special events such as the Gender Caucus, the Youth Forum and the Business for Land Forum.

Last but not least, COP16 participants will also have an opportunity to showcase their work and impact across the Blue and Green Zones, through on-site presence such as Pavilions and side events.

The Riyadh COP promises to be a critical moment to reset our current trajectory of land degradation and shape a world where land sustains present and future generations.

The good news is that it can be done. From the Sahel in Africa to Central Asia to Central America, countries and communities are showing that land restoration is both achievable and worthwhile, bringing multiple benefits to both people and nature.

We hope you will join us in Riyadh in just six months to accelerate action to realise our shared vision of healthy land and resilient communities as a cornerstone of stability and prosperity for all.

Mobilize and Bolster the Means of Implementation

Reducing Risks and Building Resilience | Jenty KIRSCH-WOOD | Senior Programme Management Officer, Risk Knowledge, Monitoring and Capacity Development Branch, UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

Talking about the critical links around the issues of desertification, land degradation, restoration, and disaster risk reduction, the first point is about the costs of these events on our collective people, planet, and prosperity. It is critical that we get a handle on land restoration, on desertification, and on the impacts of these events on people, planet, and prosperity if we are to achieve the SDGs and create a sustainable future fit for future generations. These costs cut across all sectors of the SDGs, but they also have solutions.

When we look at the priority areas of the Sendai Framework around disaster risk reduction, we see actions around understanding risk better, improving governance, and enabling improved methods for sharing the costs collectively across the public, private, and wider communities. The opportunities for building forward better and creating a collective future are all there. We see very strong links between priority areas of the Sendai Framework, which focus on risk reduction and preventing future disasters, and the outcomes of these conventions. We’ve seen great synergies because drought and drought responses are systemic. The problems are integrated, and we face challenges not only in managing the hazards but also in their cascading and compounding impacts.

We are locked in a cycle where it is not only about the water; it is about the vulnerability and the exposure. We need to see the vulnerability of systems, communities, and populations, and to understand where those vulnerabilities are, and how exposure is changing. If we can look across hazard, exposure, and vulnerability and address it, we have the solutions in hand to reverse these trends and create a foundation for a more sustainable development that can underpin our collective future.

In last year’s work, we see the connection between drought risk and food insecurity. Many parts of the world currently show a strong connection between the food system and where drought risk is most prevalent. This is a great concern, and we need to reverse trends to limit the apparition of new at-risk areas. Under a two-degrees scenario, there is a large difference in the potential countries and the potential risk to food insecurity. Our challenge today is working together to put solutions in place to ensure that, as we move forward collectively, risk is reduced.

We have seen this work in places across the Sahel, in South America, and in urban environments. The tools are there for reducing risk. When you reduce the risk of land degradation, you also reduce the risk of cascading impacts such as landslides, mudflows, and disaster risks, creating more sustainable livelihoods for communities. These options are critical for us to explore.

It is also clear that we need to harness innovative solutions. It is essential that we look at how we can work across our silos. Developments happening now in the energy transition, urban planning, and academia show that we have different ways to create solutions to land degradation. This requires moving beyond just a Ministry of Agriculture approach to a shared, all-of-society approach, similar to how we are beginning to work more in the disaster risk reduction community.

We need to engage people at all levels. Effective engagement comes from participation and involving communities. Different communities, once considered vulnerable, can become leaders in creating sustainable solutions. Effective governance and alignment of financing, with a realistic approach to sharing costs across the public and private sectors, are also crucial.

In 2021, we worked on a joint drought report featuring 21 case studies from around the world on good solutions to managing drought risk in a more integrated way. I invite you to look at some of those examples and some of the more recent work through our Global Assessment Reports that have explored how land restoration can be so critical to achieving the SDGs. As we move forward, I hope that we can really begin to look at some of the global mechanisms and resources that can help us secure that collective future.

The Role of Climate and Environment Charter in Land Restoration and Drought Resilience | Nishanie JAYAMAHA |  Co-coordinator, Secretariat for the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations

We are all working in silos. It is important at this crucial moment that we get together and collaborate to collectively work towards a goal. This is exactly why we started the Climate and Environment Charter for Humanitarian Organizations. Humanitarian actors work in most countries, and according to the ND-GAIN Index, over half of the countries that are climate vulnerable are also in conflict, fragile contexts, or complex emergencies. Most of countries in conflict are also extremely food insecure. These are the contexts humanitarian actors work in. We are no strangers to climate change, but we don’t always look at some of the impacts we are seeing as climate impacts, but rather as natural disasters or a cyclical events like monsoons, etc. We are responding to floods, cyclones, and droughts, we are seeing different issues like land degradation, desertification, and people moving. So why are we looking at conflict contexts, at the environment and at the way we work?

We decided to develop the Charter as the ICRC, IFRC, together with the humanitarian committee, realized there is a need to raise awareness among humanitarian actors to look at our own environmental footprint, our own sustainability, but also how to build better resilience among communities and our own organizations to respond to ever-escalating, complex emergencies, including climate contexts. It is an ambitious commitment, and we are very happy to say we have over 400 signatories, including supporters of the Charter, and 30 member states, including the EU. These actors are diverse: we have UN agencies who are also signatories to the Charter, local and national NGOs, civil society, and the Red Cross Red Crescent movement, national societies. We see drought and land degradation as emerging issues that we really have to deal with in conflict and high-risk environments.

If you look at what we are trying to work on and the convergence of drought and land degradation, the first and second commitments are the backbone of this Charter. We are supporting and looking at how, in humanitarian contexts and complex emergency contexts, we take land into consideration. Are we helping our communities with small-scale programs and projects while responding to displacement and refugee crises in conflict contexts? How are they improving their work of providing livelihoods in areas of high vulnerabilities? We are also looking at how to provide better expertise across these contexts, where humanitarians do not have expertise, by creating links with those who have expertise.

One way to minimize land degradation is to look at flood mitigation technologies to stop flooding where topsoil is eroded. This is something we are not very used to, but we are now trying to do it in contexts where there are no development actors or other actors looking at risk reduction. In terms of commitment two, how is waste management handled in refugee and IDP camp settings, and in conflict contexts where there are no country systems or waste management systems at the central government level? We have been setting some of these up in these contexts to ensure water and land are not polluted.

Wars and conflicts impact our land, in Ukraine or any other conflict context. I’m Sri Lankan and we went through 30 years of conflict. Some areas are still recovering after the war ended in 2009. It takes time, especially because of contamination. We are also looking at how to support local action. As humanitarian actors, we are not great at looking at indigenous knowledge. We are trying to improve this by looking at drought-resistant seeds that were used in the past but lost due to monoculture or mass production. We need to reconnect with older farming practices that can be reintroduced in conflict contexts.

We are talking to communities about reusing traditional methods, like drought-resistant seeds, or seeds adapted to areas with high salinity, such as Bangladesh. Ensuring that we are looking at climate risk analysis and conflict sensitivity in our work, looking at early warning systems, early action mechanisms is key. We raised awareness about upcoming droughts and famine in the East Horn of Africa, but it took until the famine hit for the world to realize it was too late. We need to raise the bar of how we raise awareness among development, humanitarian, and climate actors to act early and be prepared. This is something we are trying to do better within the humanitarian community and through collaborative action (5^th commitment).

At the country level, action happens, and we need to make connections across humanitarian, development, and climate sectors. The ground reality for communities doesn’t align with our siloed, systemic approaches. Their needs include water, food, shelter, and education. Our programming and responses need to be people-centered, considering their ecosystems.

Addressing Drought Displacement | Nicholas BISHOP | Disaster Risk Reduction Lead, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

From my perspective, the world is witnessing an unprecedented surge in drought, land degradation, and desertification exacerbated by climate change. These factors are reshaping migration and driving millions of people from their homes. In the last two years, as UNCCD member states report, nearly 2 billion people—a quarter of humanity—were living under drought conditions, the vast majority of these people live in low and middle-income countries.

The impacts of climate change are driving higher than ever levels of intense and frequent droughts, reversing the coping and adaptive capacities of vulnerable communities. We obviously recognize migration as an adaptation strategy. In 2023, 26.4 million new internal displacements in the context of disasters were recorded, with more than 500,000 people displaced by drought. While floods and storms continue to grab major headlines, the insidious effects of drought combined with extreme heat and water scarcity are increasingly becoming lethal. Moreover, the long-term consequences of desertification and land degradation driven by climate change are steadily eroding livelihoods and forcing communities to seek new homes. By 2050, nearly all regions of the world will be at elevated risk of severe drought, with 25% of all countries at extreme risk.

If you allow me, I’d like to run through three examples. In three years, from 2021 to 2023, drought triggered more than 1.5 million displacements in Somalia. This year in Afghanistan, 25 of 34 provinces are suffering from severe or catastrophic drought conditions, affecting more than half the population of 40 million people. Recurrent droughts in already fragile contexts are undermining community resilience and forcing many to abandon their livelihoods and move to informal settlements near major cities, displacing internally or migrating to neighboring countries.

My third example comes from Central America. The dry corridor is home to more than 10 million people. At least 500,000 people living there suffer from severe food insecurity, and 65% of families don’t have food reserves. To survive, they frequently migrate to urban areas, reduce the portions and frequency of the food they consume, buy cheaper and less varied food, sell livestock, and resort to taking out loans. This permanent situation and the resulting impacts on health, livelihoods, and economic productivity have forced hundreds of thousands to migrate.

Droughts often intersect with existing fragilities, exacerbating food and water insecurity, economic hardship, and social instability. This combination of factors makes communities more susceptible to displacement and other forms of harm. As IOM, we know that migration can be a crucial, even lifesaving, strategy for adapting to climate change. At the same time, the right to move in the face of environmental threats is intrinsically linked to human dignity, security, and the right to a healthy environment. Therefore, understanding the characteristics and development of drought events and their societal impacts is crucial to anticipating and reducing risk while improving emergency response and preparedness.

In late March, a new Regional Anticipatory Action Framework for the dry corridor was launched by the Central Emergency Response Fund. Once a severe drought is forecast, the aim is to reach vulnerable people before the humanitarian impacts of a shock. IOM believe the best approach to enhancing resilience and adaptation comes from partnership and broad-based partnerships working with academia, our sister agencies in the UN, the Red Cross, the Red Crescent Movement, civil society, and directly with communities to leverage their skills, expertise, and resources. Improving disaster preparedness and early warning systems is essential for global drought resilience. IOM is already using its extensive data collection resources to lead on the development of real-time alert systems for trans-human movements now in 13 countries across the Sahel and the Horn of Africa to minimize conflict over increasingly scarce water resources.

Timely and accurate information on drought conditions enables proactive mobility decision-making and effective responses to displacement. That is also why IOM is an active partner in the national-level rollout of the Early Warnings for All initiative. I would also like to highlight that IOM is actively supporting member states and partners in drought, land degradation, and desertification efforts around the world. Notably, I would highlight the development of the Kampala Declaration on Migration, Environment, and Climate Change, which represents the first-ever regional policy framework to address human mobility in the context of climate change. In September of last year, the declaration was expanded to become a continental initiative, where one of the key commitments underscores the role of state parties to address desertification, land degradation, and drought as primary drivers of poverty and forced mobility.

In countries impacted by drought across the Sahel and increasingly southern Africa, where drought continues to hit already vulnerable communities that have not had time to recover from previous shocks, IOM is contributing to rebuilding livelihoods via rapid cash transfers, business development programming, and community development projects, including the provision of access to clean water.

In closing, drought, land degradation, and desertification amplified by climate change pose an immense challenge to global stability and human well-being. Safe, orderly, and dignified migration and robust land restoration efforts must be vital components of any effective response. Addressing the root causes of this crisis demands considered action from all sectors of society. By prioritizing the needs of displaced communities and investing in long-term resilience, we can work towards a future where migration is a choice, not a necessity.

Nature-based Solutions | Verónica RUIZ | Programme Manager, Climate and Disaster Resilience, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

As an Andalusian from the south of Spain, I remember facing water cuts every summer as a child. Now, having lived in Switzerland for 14 years and having two babies, I think it will be time for them to face water cuts and drought here in Switzerland as well. This is not only a southern problem but one that is expanding worldwide and is now more recognized because it is reaching other lands.

Just to recall, back in 2022, one of the most well-known UNESCO World Heritage sites in Spain, the Doñana wetlands, disappeared because of drought. This is a real problem that we should not underestimate. I don’t want to focus on all the negative data that we can find in every single report, but this is the situation we are facing today. The population will be increasing to more than 8 billion by 2050, which will require an increase in the demand for resources, resources that we depend upon and that will be affected by climate change and biodiversity loss, but also land degradation (especially regarding soil biodiversity). Soil biodiversity is crucial as it forms the base of our life.

When we talk about biodiversity, we often think of large species, like big mammals, but biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history. The abundance of native species has decreased by 20% since the 1900s, and natural ecosystems have decreased by 47%. This is massive. Between 1900 and 2013, we faced 620,000 drought events worldwide. These numbers are incredible.

Let’s not dwell on the data but also think about the positive actions we can take together. We need ambition and innovation, we need to break the silos, and we need inclusiveness. We can do this through nexus approaches, which bring all different components together—climate, nature, and people. We must first consider the complexity of systems, integrating nature, economic, cultural, and societal components. We also need to consider complex interactions. To this aim, we need comprehensive planning that involves all actors: local communities, indigenous peoples, academia, government, and the private sector. This only will allow us to put in place comprehensive and holistic solutions at the landscape level.

Currently, there is no strong link between drought and ecosystem degradation. This connection needs reinforcement. Soil health is critical. Improving soil health increases drought resilience as well as resilience for both nature and people. Terrestrial ecosystems play a role in the hydrological cycle, providing more access to water through transpiration and other processes.

It is also crucial to think in terms of co-benefits. Nature-based solutions are vital for tackling droughts. These solutions align with the innovative, inclusive, and silo-breaking approaches my colleagues from IFRC and UNDRR mentioned. We need to implement ecosystem-based drought responses to link droughts to land and ecosystem health, strengthen institutional capacities, and create complementary plans that facilitate cross-sector discussions. It is also essential to increase access to drought finance for local stakeholders. Local solutions can drive transformative change globally and influence global policies.

In terms of policies, fostering coherence across sectors, interventions and conventions is crucial. We are working towards connecting the three Rio Conventions, and by 2024, as we approach COP 30, we need to continue these discussions. Nexus approaches and land as a connector can help unify our discussions.

To conclude, IUCN will be releasing a report on nature-based solutions and droughts, which will be published on 30 June, with a soft launch on 8 July. I invite you all to review it as it will include numerous case studies and insights into the policy context.

Transboundary Adaptation Strategies | Sonja KOEPPEL | Secretary, UN Water Convention

Many have already stressed that land and water are closely related. Land droughts and water do not know borders. Globally, more than 60% of water resources are shared between two or more countries, and more than 40% of the world population lives in such shared basins. That’s why cooperation across borders is so important in climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction drought management. It can help to not only prevent negative impacts of unilateral measures but also to make adaptation more effective and efficient by sharing data across borders, by early warning from one country to another, and by locating measures where they have an optimum effect (in some cases, water storage infrastructure can be more efficiently located in another place in the basin). It can also support adaptation planning at the country level and help to share costs and benefits.

However, globally, cooperation is not advanced enough. If we look at the latest results from 2024 on the SDG indicator 6.5.2 on transboundary water cooperation, for which UNESCO and UNECE are the co-lead agencies, we can see that only 26 countries have operational arrangements for cooperation on all their shared basins. Sixty-three percent of transboundary basins worldwide do not have coordinated alarm systems for droughts, for example, or 60% do not have joint disaster risk reduction strategies. This shows there is a lot to do. That’s why, just three months ago, under the leadership of Switzerland and the Netherlands, together with UNCCD, UNDRR, World Bank, and INBO, we organized a global workshop on droughts in transboundary basins here in Geneva.

This workshop has clearly shown the importance of including these issues into, for example, transboundary agreements, of developing such transboundary water cooperation agreements in a flexible way with specific provisions, for example, on land, drought, and water allocation. It has also shown the importance of monitoring, data exchange, allocating sufficient resources, and the importance of transboundary basin organizations addressing those topics. For example, the drought in the 1970s was also the occasion for the countries in the Senegal Basin to come together and create the Senegal Basin Development Organization, which then developed shared infrastructure, joint hydropower plants between Senegal, Mauritania, Niger, Guinea, and Mali.

The Water Convention is now a global legal and intergovernmental framework and platform to promote transboundary water cooperation, asking or requiring countries to cooperate across borders, with 130 countries taking part in our meetings and activities. Already back in 2006, a task force on water and climate was created, helping countries build capacity through activities at regional and global levels. This recent global workshop, a global network of basins working on climate change which includes 18 basins from around the world, and engagement in global processes are examples of these efforts. We also have pilot projects on the ground where we help countries cooperate across borders in flood and drought risk management, climate change adaptation, and more.

For example, in Eastern Europe, UNECE, together with  OECE, UNDP, UNEP and other actors, helped the countries in the Dniester River Basin, shared between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, to establish cooperation on technical issues, which later led to more political cooperation and the Dniester Agreement and Commission established a few years ago. The Dniester Transboundary Agreement includes issues related to water allocation, water flow, prevention of effects of emergencies, and the Dniester Commission set up a working group on emergencies, including flood and drought management. This basin faces both challenges—floods and droughts. Over the last 10 years, we have helped develop a transboundary adaptation strategy, a strategic framework for climate change adaptation in the Dniester River Basin, which includes measures regarding water scarcity and droughts. This led to funding from the Global Environment Facility and the development of a strategic action program. That was accompanied by specific measures on better operation of hydropower stations, wetland reservation, and awareness-raising activities.

To conclude, I would like to invite you all to another important meeting this year, the 10th Meeting of the Parties of the Water Convention, to be held on October 23-25 in Slovenia, with a high-level segment focused on climate adaptation and transboundary cooperation. We look forward to welcoming many countries and ministers at this occasion and further strengthening cooperation with UNCCD and other actors.

Ensuring Safety and Health at Work in a Changing Climate | Manal AZZI | Team Lead on Occupational Safety and Health, International Labour Organization (ILO)

Restoring land, stopping desertification, and building drought resilience are essential to a sustainable future of work. An estimated 1.2 billion jobs depend on healthy and well-functioning ecosystems. Agriculture, one of the biggest employers, is highly affected by desertification and land degradation, which negatively impact jobs and lead to unwanted migration, exacerbating crisis situations.

A positive narrative is possible. We have an enormous opportunity to create decent work through programs on land restoration using employment-intensive approaches, public work programs, and enterprise development. The ILO, along with the United Nations Environment Program and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, produced the first assessment of decent work in nature-based solutions. We found that over 75 million people worldwide work in nature-based solutions, including restoring and rehabilitating degraded ecosystems. Tripling investments in these solutions could create an additional 20 million jobs.

The actors in the world of work, including governments, Ministers of Labor, employers, and workers, are essential in the fight against desertification and land restoration. They have an important role in giving effect to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. The UNCCD and the ILO concluded an agreement to deepen collaboration. We encourage practical ways to further collaborate to reflect employment and social dimensions.

We look forward to working with the parties and the UNCCD towards Riyadh, which is leading in many aspects of the environment and health globally. We recently had the sixth Global Conference on Occupational Safety and Health hosted there.

I want to divert to one of our latest reports on climate change, which we launched last month. The report highlights the impact on workers, especially concerning excessive heat, but also extreme weather events like wildfires, flooding, and droughts. It shows the rising number of people living with diseases due to excessive heat exposure, UV radiation, and vector-borne diseases affecting agricultural workers globally. Changes in pests and pesticides due to changing rainfall patterns and seasonality of crops are also interconnected with today’s discussion.

The report, available online, details solutions including legal frameworks, policy solutions, and workplace interventions across all economic sectors globally. Existing international conventions of the ILO provide protections for workers and outline the roles of these actors in finding solutions for the environmental crisis.

The main message we want to leave today is that humans are an important factor in the solution, and protecting human health is central to workers globally. We have four billion workers affected by these changes, impacting their livelihoods, social protection, and well-being.

Manoela PESSOA DE MIRANDA | Programme Management Officer, Minamata Convention on Mercury Secretariat

I’m going to talk about something relatively uncommon when we discuss land degradation: mercury pollution. Mercury is a naturally occurring chemical that is extremely toxic. We all have mercury in our bodies, hopefully at levels that are not detrimental to our health. But those with higher levels can have their lives severely impacted, sometimes permanently.

The connections to land degradation happen in many ways, but the primary source of mercury pollution that we are interested in is human-based activities, which have raised mercury freely available levels to over 500 times the natural levels. Deforestation, one of the major causes of land degradation, contributes to about 10% of the mercury circulating in the atmosphere. This mercury then deposits in the soil and contaminates our food, impacting both humans and wildlife, and causing significant biodiversity loss. There is a feedback loop of land degradation, deforestation, and mercury pollution, all feeding into each other and exacerbating the problem.

The main source of man-made pollution, in addition to deforestation, is artisanal gold mining, which accounts for nearly 50% of mercury pollution. Mercury is purposefully added to extract gold, often from rivers, leading to severe environmental destruction. For example, a river in the Amazon in Peru, which was once 40 meters wide, is now a 2 km wide and 80 km long desert wetland. This devastation is happening in many rivers in the Amazon, as well as in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Artisanal gold mining is a lifeline for over 100 million people who depend on it for their livelihoods. However, it also leads to land grabbing, where outsiders invade local communities and Indigenous lands (especially in the Amazon but also in South-East Asia and Africa) to mine gold, causing mercury pollution. This results in environmental destruction without any benefits to the local communities. Women and children are particularly vulnerable. This issue is also linked to organized crime, as the gold is funding conflicts in any areas. It also leads to human trafficking, slavery, and forced prostitution. The situation of people suffering from mercury pollution is urgent and dramatic.

The government of Brazil, in its Minamata Initial Assessment, writes that artisanal goldmining is a “complex issue where no simplification is possible”. It encapsulates the need to work across actors and sectors.

The Minamata Convention works to phase out the use of mercury to prevent new land and environmental degradation and human health problems. We build capacity of countries, raise awareness, and promote the notion of whole-of-society and whole-of-government approaches. We work with the Office of Human Rights, ILO, UNECE, and hopefully with other partners.

I would like to see more focus on land restoration. Our programs related to mercury reduction should aim at restoring land to its original state before it was mined. We also need to work towards a global traceability system for gold to ensure that gold entering international trade does not come from conflict areas, preventing further impact on Indigenous peoples, local communities, women, and youth.

Tillem BURLACE | Regional Lead, 1t.org, Europe/Africa, World Economic Forum

1t.org is the World Economic Forum’s Trillion Trees Initiative, launched four years ago, and supporting the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. We’ve heard a lot today about why we should act on land, and a question arises: why should business be working on land? Zen pointed out a gap in terms of action and the private sector’s impact. Why should companies act?

Businesses face impacts from migration, conflict. There are also impacts within their supply chains, in terms of productivity, etc. However, a lot of them are embedded rather than completely current. Businesses act based on risks and opportunities, so it is important to consider what’s important to them. On the example of the Sahel and Great Green Wall, we brought out a report on restoration-based value chains, where we looked at various value chains’ potential markets like natural care and superfoods (for moringa, baobab). However, challenges exist, especially in areas where support is the most needed, which are often areas facing the greatest risks.

$3.6 trillion in business revenue and 191 million jobs can be gained from business action in nature. So, there are potential benefits to business, but it must be seen from their perspective. Assuming that they should act, and many businesses do see that need, what should they be doing? There’s a lot that they should be doing, but we try and take the perspective of responsibility and a compliance perspective. They should be considering how to take what we call an acted framework, which is assessing their work, where they can act, then committing to action, and finally transforming their approach with a disclosure at the end. That’s kind of looking at their processes. We have several sector transition pathway reports that help different sectors, such as mining and cement, to consider where the key areas for them to act are. They have a useful land component. Some sectors like agriculture and forestry have very direct impacts, but many others are upstream in terms of resources.

In terms of corporate social responsibility, what we see is businesses want to act on things that are relevant to them. When it is restoration, if you’re trying to engage with companies, the question is where are they based, where are their employees, where are their clients, where are they sourcing from? We are in the process of launching a new Europe chapter for 1t.org, and we see a lot of interest from tech companies around investing in restoration for watersheds (where data centers are based) because they see the risks around water. When engaging business, we must think about how it directly links to them rather than seeing them as having a responsibility and having money and therefore needing to act. We need to think of it from their perspective before we engage with them.

Finally, in terms of how they are responding, we see that some companies are unaware of a problem, some are in denial and hope they might not have to deal with it, and that’s where a lot of attention tends to go—trying to communicate to them to get them to act. But there are many companies that want to act, know they should act, but have capacity challenges. They don’t know how to act or are looking to others in terms of acting. Then there are the leaders that are acting, but they are hitting the roadblocks and must find solutions, because they are first. When we think about companies that are acting, focusing on them, and helping them achieve their objectives can be more impactful. This requires innovation and showcasing that innovation. It is about shifting the perspective to getting private sector action that talks to the private sector.

To conclude, there is a strong role for the private sector. They have impacts and actions to take, but in engaging with them, it is important to take their perspective as well. We need to look to innovation because a lot of this action is new, complex, and costly, and the data isn’t always there. There’s a lot to be done, but it is great to talk to the first movers, not just those that aren’t yet aware.

Therese ARNESEN | Human Rights Officer, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Why human rights? Human rights are impacted by and part of the solutions to the issues we are discussing today. It is important to spell out these impacts, make interlinkages with state’s obligations triggered by these impacts, and to identify the rights holders. This is why we advocate so fiercely for human rights to be integrated into the decisions and outcomes of the Rio Conventions and beyond.

Desertification, land degradation, and drought both directly and indirectly affect the enjoyment of a wide range of human rights, such as the right to food, water, sanitation, and health. The consequences include food supply disruption and forced migrations. It is crucial to highlight that the most affected are those already in vulnerable situations. Vulnerability is a construction: it impacts particularly women and girls, Indigenous peoples, peasants, and other people working in rural areas. Human rights defenders working on land-related issues are also at high risk.

For example, land grabbing is a major issue related to today’s topics. Women’s access to land, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, is limited to only 4% according to a 2022 report by the UNCCD. Women and girls are more likely to be impacted by desertification than men, especially where agriculture is a primary livelihood, tying back to the right to food and other essentials of life.

Because of their effects on human rights, desertification, land degradation, and drought trigger state obligations and bring business responsibilities. Businesses must respect human rights, avoid infringing on them, and address adverse impacts, including those related to land degradation and drought. Businesses are key in solutions, such as decarbonizing the economy, halting biodiversity loss, and transforming food systems. A human rights-based approach is people-centered, emphasizing meaningful and informed participation in decision-making, and drawing on Indigenous knowledge to create resilience, moving forward by moving backwards, using what we already have.

We are encouraged by COP decisions 26 from COP 14 and 27 from COP 15, which make explicit references to non-discrimination, participation, and access to land for vulnerable groups. This is the essence of a human rights-based approach. The second Global Land Outlook highlighted human rights-based approaches as crucial.

The right to a healthy environment and healthy ecosystems requires that states and businesses take measures to combat desertification, land degradation, and drought. The UN Human Rights system, including treaty bodies, special procedures, and Universal Periodic Review, needs support from all of you. Some mechanisms have linked desertification and land degradation to human rights and provided guidance and recommendations to states. The Special Rapporteur on the right to food and the Special Rapporteur on the environment, along with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, have been active. They’ve issued general recommendations and general comments that offer interpretation on the legal framework and how states should apply it to promote and protect and fulfill human rights. On the side of land, UNCCD has highlighted how states should address threats to rural women, specifically mentioning climate change, natural disasters, land and soil degradation, drought, and desertification. They stressed the link between land and the rights of Indigenous women and girls.

The Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights issued a general comment on land and economic, social, and cultural rights, looking at land through the realization of other rights. However, we only have a handful of recommendations to states on land degradation, drought, and desertification. Civil society and member states can help by making recommendations and submitting shadow reports to these mechanisms, strengthening these interlinkages.

Documents

Presentations made during the event

Links

• World Environment Day
• Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought, and the Role of Geneva