Key Takeaways
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change addresses the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Conference of Parties at its fifteenth session in Cote d’Ivoire.
About United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Session
- Theme – ‘Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity.’
- On the 9th and 10th of May, a high-level segment with Heads of State, Environment Ministers, commercial sector and civil society representatives will address ways to accelerate the global land restoration agenda, future-proof land usage, and combat the escalating effects of drought.
- Côte d’Ivoire will also introduce the Abidjan Legacy Programme as the COP host.
History of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
- A Plan of Action to Combat Desertification (PACD) was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) in 1977.
- Despite these and other initiatives, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) concluded in 1991 that land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas had worsened.
- As a result, during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the issue of how to combat desertification was still a prominent concern.
- The Conference endorsed a new, integrated approach to the problem, with a focus on community-level action to promote sustainable development.
- The Rio Conference requested that the United Nations General Assembly form an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INCD) to drought a Convention to Combat Desertification, focusing on Africa, by June 1994.
- The Convention was adopted on June 17, 1994, in Paris, and went into effect on December 26, 1996, 90 days following the 50th ratification.
- The Conference of the Parties (COP), the Convention’s top governing body, met for the first time in Rome, Italy, in October 1997.
About United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
What is the UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework?
- To help damaged ecosystems recover, prevent desertification and land degradation, promote sustainable land management, and contribute to land degradation neutrality.
- To enhance the living situations of those who are affected.
- Drought mitigation, adaptation, and management to improve the resilience of vulnerable populations and ecosystems.
- To achieve worldwide environmental advantages by implementing the UNCCD effectively.
- Building effective global and national partnerships to mobilise large and extra financial and non-financial resources to assist the implementation of the Convention.
UNCCD and India
- In December 1996, India ratified the UNCCD Convention.
- India hosted the 14th Conference of the Parties in 2019, taking over the COP chair from China for the next two years, until 2021.
- The conference’s theme was ‘Restore land, Sustain future.’
- India is one of the few countries that have hosted the Conference of the Parties (COP) of all three Rio conventions on climate change, biodiversity, and land.
Content Source : PIB