1. Negotiations

UN Convention to Combat Desertification – UNCCD

The 1994 United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the only legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management. The Convention addresses the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found. Parties work together to improve the living conditions for people in drylands, to maintain and restore land and soil productivity, and to mitigate the effects of drought.

The UNCCD is particularly committed to a bottom-up approach, encouraging the participation of local people in combating desertification and land degradation. The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions—along with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)—and was called for in Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or Earth Summit).

Events

Showing 11 - 20 of 49 results

13th Session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 13) to the UNCCD

The reporting process that informed the CRIC’s discussions revealed that gaps remain in implementation, and many suggested returning to the grassroots level to point the way forward to achieve the Convention’s purpose—to provide a platform on which to upscale sustainable land management— with an emphasis on the many grassroots pillars supporting the platform.
Event 25 March 2015 - 27 March 2015

4th Special Session of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST S-4) and UNCCD 3rd Scientific Conference

The UNCCD has proven itself to be a “learning convention” with parties exhibiting willingness to take stock and adjust structures and institutions over the years. The Scientific Conference concept perhaps best exemplifies this reflexivity, and as participants gathered for its third iteration, they were asked to engage with a new format and approach.
Event 9 March 2015 - 12 March 2015

11th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD (COP 11)

While the COP did not take the “brave and bold steps” that some delegations would have preferred, one noted that delegates did assign themselves and the Secretariat a number of tasks that could realistically be achieved by COP 12.
Conference of the Parties (COP) 16 September 2013 - 27 September 2013

11th Session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 11) of the UNCCD

As CRIC 11 delegates gathered in Bonn at the halfway mark of the UNCCD’s 10-year strategic plan, expectations were high that the recommendations of the 2nd Scientific Conference the previous week would inject new life into parties’ efforts to implement the Convention. But it quickly became apparent that reaching agreement on the diagnosis, let alone a prescription to restore degraded lands, was proving elusive.
Event 15 April 2013 - 19 April 2013

UNCCD COP 10

COP 10 participants worked to reconcile high ambitions for their outcomes in a time of financial constraints, and found their decisions represented progress even though many aspirations remained unfulfilled.
Conference of the Parties (COP) 10 October 2011 - 21 October 2011

UNCCD COP 9

Decisions asking the Executive Secretary and Managing Director of the Global Mechanism to support regional coordination mechanisms and to establish the CRIC as a standing subsidiary body brought some resolution to long-standing debates within the Convention. Agenda items that have been a source of contention among delegates at many meetings—the Global Mechanism and the budget—dominated the conference, however.
Conference of the Parties (COP) 21 September 2009 - 2 October 2009