UNCCD COP17: Nations pledge $1.3bn to tackle drought, land degradation

Nations have announced a $1.3bn financing portfolio for land restoration and drought resilience as the 17th session of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, UNCCD COP17, ended in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Friday.

The financing, covering 23 countries across five continents, includes $644.5m identified as new funding, with $216.4m already confirmed and moving towards implementation.

The conference, which brought together representatives of the UNCCD’s 197 parties, focused on accelerating action against land degradation, desertification and drought, with African countries identified among those requiring stronger financial and technical support.

The UNCCD Executive Secretary, Yasmine Fouad, said the conference had produced the political decisions, scientific evidence, financing mechanisms and partnerships needed to move from commitments to implementation.

“We came to Ulaanbaatar saying that COP17 must be a COP of implementation. We leave with more of the architecture needed to make that possible,” Fouad said.

She, however, warned that the success of the conference would ultimately depend on what countries did after returning home, particularly whether degraded land was restored, drought preparedness improved and financing reached viable projects and affected communities.

The conference took place against a backdrop of worsening land degradation globally, with up to 40 per cent of the world’s land already degraded.

Countries have committed to restoring more than one billion hectares by 2030, while more than 70 countries now have national drought plans, compared with only three in 2013.

Despite the progress, the UNCCD said financing and implementation remained far behind the scale of the challenge.

An estimated $355bn is required annually through 2030 to meet global land restoration commitments, compared with about $77bn currently invested, leaving an annual financing gap of $278bn.

Private finance accounts for only about six per cent of global investment in land restoration.

Against this backdrop, parties at COP17 called for increased mobilisation of financial resources, capacity building and technical cooperation to strengthen proactive drought management, particularly in Africa and other developing regions.

New drought financing facility

A major outcome of the conference was the launch of the Drought Resilience Investment Facility, a global catalytic financing platform dedicated to drought resilience.

Co-created by the UNCCD and Luxembourg, with support from the International Drought Resilience Alliance, the facility aims to mobilise up to $400m in public and private capital for investments in water security, sustainable agriculture, nature-based solutions and land restoration.

The first strategic partnership with the Global Environment Facility will explore opportunities to unlock private and philanthropic finance for drought resilience.

The Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership, established at COP16, also moved towards implementation, with its first Assembly of Partners advancing plans for a pooled fund to support about 70 low- and lower-middle-income countries through capacity building, investment-ready programmes and financing.

Parties also agreed to continue negotiations on proactive drought management at COP18, with drought retained as a stand-alone agenda item at future sessions.

Phase II of the International Drought Resilience Observatory introduced the Drought Resilience Index, described as a new tool to help countries assess their capacity to anticipate, prepare for and adapt to drought and better target policies and investments.

The conference also placed rangelands and pastoralists at the centre of the global land agenda, coinciding with the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.

Rangelands cover about 54 per cent of the Earth’s land surface, support around two billion people and are managed by an estimated 500 million pastoralists.

The Rangelands Flagship Initiative, launched at COP17, brings together $1.2bn across 45 projects, described as the largest single mobilisation for rangelands in the history of the UNCCD.

New economic analysis presented at the conference estimated that rangelands generate between $21tn and $47tn in ecosystem services annually through food production, water, carbon storage and biodiversity.

The analysis also showed that restoring rangelands could generate returns of between $4 and $6 for every dollar invested, rising to as much as $36 when wider public benefits, including water supply, are considered.

UNCCD parties recognised pastoralists as essential stewards of rangeland ecosystems and highlighted the importance of their knowledge, experience and transboundary mobility.

The Global Environment Facility is supporting coordination of the Rangelands Flagship Initiative through a $3.3m investment in the UNCCD COP17 Legacy Project.

Over the past four years, the fund has also approved more than 50 projects worth over $300m benefiting rangelands and pastoralist communities.

Brazil also presented a major national commitment through its voluntary Land Degradation Neutrality target for 2030.

The target contains 17 sub-targets linked to national policies and programmes and provides for the recovery or restoration of more than 163,000 square kilometres through measures including native vegetation recovery and agroforestry.

A further 3.51 million square kilometres are covered by measures aimed at preventing degradation through conservation and sustainable land management.

The initiatives are expected to support Brazil’s efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 15.3 on land degradation neutrality while strengthening food and water security, biodiversity and climate resilience.

COP17 also marked the first formal meetings of the UNCCD Indigenous Peoples Caucus and Local Communities Caucus, following the decision at COP16 to establish dedicated spaces for their participation.

The conference recorded the largest representation of Indigenous Peoples at a UNCCD Conference of the Parties.

Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists and local communities called for stronger land and mobility rights, greater direct access to climate and development finance, meaningful participation in decision-making and recognition of traditional knowledge in land restoration and drought resilience.

Women and young people also featured prominently, with calls for greater investment in youth as land restoration leaders and stronger participation in decisions affecting land and drought.

For host Mongolia, the conference produced the “Steppe Plan”, under which the government launched three international initiatives: the Rangelands Flagship Initiative, the Water-Land Nexus Initiative and the Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable Infrastructure Initiative.

The Mongolian Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Chair of the COP17 National Committee, Sandag-Ochir Tsend, said the initiatives had created opportunities to develop projects, strengthen international cooperation and mobilise investment.

He said the focus would now shift from commitments made at the conference to measurable action.

“As COP17 concludes, our work does not end here. Our next priority is to translate the decisions adopted, partnerships established and investment commitments secured at the conference into tangible action,” Tsend said.

Mongolia also launched its first national Business 4 Land hub, alongside sustainable finance principles, a national green taxonomy and a target for 10 per cent green lending by 2030.

Russia subsequently announced its own national hub, while Luxembourg moved to establish a Business 4 Land Foundation and Germany supported a Business 4 Land Finance Expert Group.

The next UNCCD Conference of the Parties, COP18, is expected to hold in Egypt in 2028.

The meeting will provide the next major opportunity for countries to assess progress on land restoration, drought resilience and the implementation of the commitments reached in Ulaanbaatar.