Source: UNCCD
Context
The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UNCCD concluded in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, under the theme “Restoring Land, Restoring Hope” — focused on rangeland conservation, drought financing and community-led restoration, amid deadlock over a binding global drought treaty.
About the UNCCD
- Established following the 1992 Rio Earth Summit
- The sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management
- COP17 coincided with the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, placing pastoral communities and fragile open ecosystems at the centre of the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) agenda
Important Facts for Exams
- UNCCD COP17 — Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; theme “Restoring Land, Restoring Hope”
- UNCCD — adopted Paris, 17 June 1994; one of the three Rio Conventions with the UNFCCC and CBD; the only legally binding agreement on land management; 197 Parties
- LDN corresponds to SDG target 15.3
- UNCCD’s finance arm: the Global Mechanism; India hosted COP14 at New Delhi in 2019
- 40 per cent of global land degraded; Mongolia 77 per cent
- Drought becomes a standalone agenda item from COP18
- DRI — Drought Resilience Index; DRIF — Drought Resilience Investment Facility, co-launched with Luxembourg
- About 30 per cent of India’s land is degraded (SAC-ISRO Atlas)
- Orans — sacred groves of Rajasthan, community-conserved
- 2026 is the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
