The thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP13) will be held at Ordos International Convention and Exhibition Center, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China from 6-16 September 2017. The UNCCD focuses on combating desertification or land degradation in dryland areas.
World Agroforestry (ICRAF) will be at the conference to discuss the vital contribution of agroforestry to land degradation neutrality (LDN). ICRAF will be represented by Ermias Betemariam, Dennis Garrity, Patrick Worms and Andrew Stevenson, and will be hosting and co-hosting three side events.
- IUCN/ICRAF - Integrated approaches for multifunctional landscapes: connecting LDN, biodiversity and climate change
- Saturday 09 September 13:00-15:00, MET-16
- Holistic, cross-sectoral actions are needed to promote multifunctional land use and to ensure that the competing needs of society are effectively addressed with the finite land resources available. This presents a unique challenge for both land policies and land information: two critical factors for sustainable land use planning and management according to the LDN Conceptual Framework published by the UNCCD Science Policy Interface. This event will generate recommendations for improved monitoring across multiple-goals and commitments, including UNCCD, UNFCCC and UNCBD.
- EC/GIZ/ICRAF - Scaling-Up investment into Land Restoration: Getting the Biggest Bang for the Buck
- Wednesday 13 September, 13:00-15:00, MET-20
- This event is being organized in the context of a new five-year European Union-funded project involving eight African countries, which will aim to uncover pathways for large-scale restorations across the world. Participants will explore the key ingredients needed to achieve restoration at a truly massive scale, looking at successful initiatives from Ethiopia, Niger, Rwanda and China. Speakers from a range of organisations and governments with restoration expertise will discuss how to ensure that restoration efforts balance multiple goals while being inclusive, farmer-led and affordable.
- ICRAF session as part of IUCN’s Landscape Restoration Day - Land Restoration for peace and profit
- Thursday 14 September, 13:30-15:00 at the Rio Pavilion
- Land degradation releases soil carbon, worsening global climate change; it reduces yields, creating food insecurity; and it erodes livelihoods, driving migration. Under these adverse conditions, instability takes hold and non-state armed groups (NSAGs) can become established, leading to everything from rising poaching, enhanced deforestation and large-scale violence. Land restoration and trust building initiatives can offer opportunities to develop new markets, mitigate climate change impacts and improve agricultural land productivity, yet often struggle to attract significant investments. This event will explore the state of knowledge on the connections between land degradation/restoration, conflict/peace and sustainable provision of ecosystem services. Participants will explore under what conditions land restoration can achieve positive economic, social and ecosystemic outcomes, and chart pathways to catalysing policies and mobilize large-scale investment capital.
Agroforestry, Land Degradation and Restoration
Integrating the use of trees on farmland has huge potential for land restoration. First, by carefully selecting a mix of native tree species, we can boost farm productivity and at the same time prevent land degradation through, for example, flooding or soil erosion. Second, agroforestry can help in some of the areas which are most vulnerable to degradation, such as steep mountain farmland. Third, agroforestry can provide multiple benefits to both people and the natural environment: for example, valuable tree crops such as rubber, mango or coffee can be intercropped with other plants and farmed along with livestock in integrated systems which maintain soil fertility, diversify farmers’ livelihoods and boost biodiversity.
Many of the restoration techniques and approaches developed by ICRAF can be used to prevent and reverse desertification: for example, using drought-resistant trees to stabilize soils, and intercropping with nitrogen-fixing plants to improve fertility. Climate change and desertification can also drive each other, and using agroforestry to sequester carbon and restore tree cover could help in tackling both challenges at once.
China has invested massive resources into reforestation and preventing desertification, and holding the meeting in Ordos underscores how important the issue is for the world’s most populous country. According to the UN, land degradation could reduce global food productivity by as much as 12 percent over the next 25 years, leading to a 30 percent increase in world food prices. This would be disastrous for people in Asia and across the world, but it is avoidable. If we act now, we can reverse much of the damage already done, and lay the foundation for a brighter, more sustainable future.
About the Conference of the Parties
The COP was established by the Convention as the supreme decision-making body; it comprises ratifying governments and regional economic integration organizations, such as the European Union. Up to today, the COP had held twelve sessions; it has been meeting biennially since 2001.This year, COP13 will be held in Ordos, China. One of the main functions of the COP is to review reports submitted by the Parties detailing how they are carrying out their commitments; the COP makes recommendations on the basis of these reports. It also has the power to make amendments to the Convention or to adopt new annexes, such as additional regional implementation annexes. In this way, the COP can guide the Convention as global circumstances and national needs change. To assist the COP, the Convention provides for subsidiary bodies and allows the COP to establish additional ones if necessary.