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.
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About the UNCCD
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- 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
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Important Facts for Examsmost asked
- 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
