At the end of the 13th meeting of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, 113 countries agreed to set specific goals with specific indicators to rehabilitate more land and reverse degradation, which now accounts for more than a third of land resources. It affects the world. The countries also agreed on a new global roadmap to address land degradation. The new UNCCD Strategic Framework 2018-2030 is the most comprehensive global commitment to achieving Disaster Impact Neutrality (LDN) to restore productivity to large areas of degradation, improve the livelihoods of more than 1.3 billion people and reduce the effects of drought on vulnerable populations. .
The conference also saw the birth of the first global private sector fund to implement the SDG. Known as the Land Demolition Neutrality Fund, it will be a source of transformative capital that provides public and private investors with funding for projects to restore degraded land, which has environmental, economic and social benefits. Slowly
The LDN Fund, with an initial target size of $ 300 million, is jointly promoted by Mirova, a subsidiary of Natixis Global Asset Management dedicated to socially responsible investment, and the UNCCD Global Mechanism. A separately managed Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) guides the Fund in developing promising sustainable land use activities to build a strong set of projects.
Global Landscape, a leading new publication unveiled at the conference, highlighted the need for swift action. In the last two decades alone, 20 percent of the world’s land has been destroyed, the report said. To reaffirm the progress made at the summit, more than 80 ministers from around the world issued an Ordos statement urging nations to step up their efforts on all fronts to combat desertification – one of the planet’s most global challenges.
The conference also addressed three new and emerging issues related to increasing land degradation – drought, sand and dust storms and migration. Dust storms threaten the health of millions of people around the world, and a major concern in China is the conference venue.
