UNCCD adopts report to combat Desertification

Jan 31, 2019 News

The parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), yesterday, adopted the comprehensive report produced by the 17th session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 17).
The last day of the convention included meetings by a group of African States, a group of Asian States and a group of Latin American and Caribbean States, as well as a meeting of the Regional Implementation Annex for Central and Eastern Europe.

Executive Secretary of the UNCCD, Monique Barbut

The parties, throughout the conference, had interactive sessions, where they discussed progress made in setting voluntary land degradation neutrality (LDN) targets and advancing towards LDN implementation, identifying emerging innovative financing opportunities to combat land degradation, and the Gender Action Plan as a mechanism for improving the living conditions of affected populations.
Executive Secretary of the UNCCD, Monique Barbut, said, “LDN is now seen as an accelerator and an integrator of all business development goals. We’ve achieved all this in five years. The potential of this convention has only just started to be realized.”
The achievement of LDN involves first making a commitment to stop the excessive loss of productive land by 2030, and to ensure that the amount of land degraded per year in each country is offset by restoring an equal amount of degraded land.
Barbut said that it is paramount for parties to the convention to have the political will to achieve LDN. Pursuant to this, 120 countries, party to the convention, have announced their commitment to LDN, 82 countries have set LDN targets, 36 countries are in the planning stages of target setting, and 68 countries have set other similar targets at the national scale.
Barbut said that the recommendations in CRIC 17 constitute a powerful input for the deliberations that will occur in New Delhi, India, when the next meeting occurs.

Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, said, “Our pristine rainforest is crucial to the carbon cleanup of the earth’s atmosphere,” he told the conference. He said evidence of the importance of Guyana’s role as a partner in the global environmental movement, can be seen in the many agreements entered into with countries such as the Kingdom of Norway, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan as well as international organizations such as conservation international for the conservation of the forests.
There was a ‘Green Guyana Expo’, where numerous Guyanese exhibitors displayed their services.
Barbut thanked the people and government of Guyana “for the warm welcome shown and for [Guyana’s] faultless organization of this meeting.”
She implored all parties to help the UNCCD to reach its full potential.
The completion of this conference marks the first time since Guyana has successfully hosted a major international conference since the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1972.