By: Dwight Links
COP17 ended last week in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, with pledges to build resilience and combat desertification as well as develop global preparedness for the impacts of drought and declining rainfall taking place.
Governments, development banks, funds and companies announced a US$1.3 billion portfolio of finance across 23 countries on five continents, at different stages of development.
This includes US$644.5 million identified as new finance, of which US$216.4 million is already confirmed and moving towards implementation.
This is according to the COP17 outcome noted after the meetings ended on 28 August.
Ulaanbaatar brought together key elements of implementation: political direction, science, finance, investment-ready projects, partnerships and stronger participation by the people who manage the world’s land.
Rangelands were the main dimension that formed much of the negotiations at the event in Mongolia.
“The biannual meeting of the UNCCD’s 197 parties put the world’s rangelands, which cover 54% of the Earth’s land surface and supports around two billion people, is stewarded by some 500 million pastoralists at the centre of the global land agenda,” the COP outlined.
Launched in Ulaanbaatar during the ‘International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists’, the Rangelands Flagship Initiative collected US$1.2 billion across 45 confirmed projects.
This became the largest single mobilisation for rangelands in the convention’s history.
NAMIBIA’S PLEA
At the High-Level Segment of the UNCCD COP17, minister Indileni Daniel indicated that Namibia is a country that knows the dangers that desertification causes during the second week of the conference in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
“For Namibia, drought is not a distant threat. It is a recurring national reality,” Daniel indicated on 25 August in Ulaanbaatar.
The minister’s message at the UN-level event was that participating nations have to advance negotiations in order to view the impact that deserts and droughts have on national economic plans.
“Drought should no longer be managed as an emergency. It must be managed as a development, economic and resilience priority,” the minister stated to the participating government representatives.
MEFT’s contribution points towards commitments of implementation to move away from reacting and to preparing for it.
“We have to move from managing losses, to building resilience, and from vulnerability, to a future where our communities, ecosystems and economies can withstand the shocks ahead,” the ministry outlined.
OTHER COMMITMENTS
At the meetings, COP17 saw bodies of new evidence presented that highlighted both the costs of inaction and the benefits of investing in healthy land.
“These new reports examined the economics of restoring the world’s rangelands, the growing human and economic impacts of drought, the particular challenges facing Small Island and Developing States (SIDS), and Central Asia, and the value of investing in soil health,” the UNCCD described.
According to the UNCCD, these findings showed that 18.8 million hectares of land are degraded across SIDS, while in Central Asia more than 80 million hectares – over a quarter of the region – are already degraded, affecting 24 million people.
“At the same time, all five Central Asian countries have adopted voluntary Land Degradation Neutrality targets, half of which have already been met,” the UNCCD mentioned.
In Namibia’s context, minister Daniel confirmed that we are already conducting land restoration and resilience measures.
“We are advancing land restoration through the Great Green Wall initiative and strengthening resilience across our vast rangelands. With 85% of land as rangelands, Namibia’s pastoral communities are highly vulnerable, and this project aims to empower them with financial protection,” the minister stated.
The UNCCD noted that the collection of reports showed how land degradation and drought are affecting food and water security, livelihoods and economies across diverse regions, while making the economic case for prevention, sustainable land management and restoration.
Alongside this new evidence, another member nation, Brazil, presented a major national commitment through its voluntary Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) target for 2030, which consists of 17 sub-targets linked to national policies, plans and programmes.
However, the dust has not yet settled after the Mongolia chapter on combating desertification and drought. The next COP18 will be two years from now, as it will solely focus on drought.
“Following sustained negotiations, Parties decided to continue discussions at COP18 – building on progress made at COP16 and COP17 with a view to adopting a decision on the proactive management of drought at all levels,” the COP17 indicated.
This is because the parties decided that drought will remain a stand-alone agenda item at COP18 and at each ordinary session thereafter.
