Restore land to sustain life: highlighting Mediterranean initiative to support countries in achieving the targets of land degradation neutrality

The Union for the Mediterranean joins forces with FAO and CIHEAM to highlight regional initiative to counter land degradation in the Mediterranean, Near East and Eastern Europe at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

2-13 September New Delhi, India. The Mediterranean region is characterized by an acute scarcity of land resources suitable for production, due to aridity, inherently poor soils in many areas, and poor land management. To tackle desertification, the 14th session of Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will take place from 2-13 September 2019 in New Delhi, welcoming over 3,000 participants, under the theme “Restore land to sustain life”. The Union for the Mediterranean is collaborating to the side event “Regional initiative to counter land degradation in the Mediterranean, Near East and Eastern Europe, LANDMEDNET” with FAO and CIHEAM, which will take place on September 5th.

The side event draws attention to the need to identify the main challenges to sustainable land resources use and management and to map out regional actions to counter land degradation, enhance resilience and promote sustainable production landscapes in the Mediterranean, Near East and Eastern Europe. A short leaflet highlighting key aspects of the UFM-UNCCD partnership will be disseminated during the side event.

The UfM also collaborated to the COP14 released report of UNCCD, IOM, the Directorate-General for the Environment of the European Commission and the Government of the Republic of Turkey in integrating relevant Mediterranean cases “Addressing the desertification, land degradation and drought drivers of migration: the role of the United Nations Convention to combat desertification“.

The UfM also partnered with the UNCCD to foster cooperation on drought, desertification and land rehabilitation in the Mediterranean region, within a wider circular economy approach. In particular, UfM contributed to developing National Drought Plans to enhance societal resilience within UfM non-EU Mediterranean countries. UfM country-parties from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, Jordan and Algeria have already joined the Drought Initiative and have developed a National Drought Plan.