Asia Pacific Regional Workshop of UNCCD held in New Delhi

The Asia Pacific Regional Workshop of United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), jointly hosted by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and UNCCD was held in New Delhi. The four day workshop aimed at building capacity of Asia-Pacific Region to monitor and report on land degradation. It was attended by delegates from about 40 Asia Pacific countries, as well as representatives from 12 Indian states affected by land degradation, researchers and scientists from scientific institutions of national importance.

Key Facts

The workshop provided UNCCD member countries platform to submit their national report in time and in particular for Target 15.3 on Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). It provided diverse and multi-disciplinary knowledge sharing platform addressing desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) issues.
It also provided opportunity to bring all key stakeholders from Asia to India and discuss key aspects of Reporting, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).
The participants were trained in use of state-of-the-art tool called ‘Trends.Earth’ developed by Conservation International, an NGO for combating land degradation. The tool will collect data that inturn will help policy-makers to prioritize areas for interventions for combating land degradation.

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

UNCCD was adopted in 1994 and entered into force 1996. It is only legally binding international agreement to address problem of desertification and other land issues. It promotes good land stewardship and its end goal is to protect land from over-use and drought, so it can continue to provide food, water and energy. The Convention addresses desertification and land issues specifically arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as drylands.
India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is the nodal Ministry for this Convention, as well as other two Rio Conventions -United Nations Framework Convention to Combat Climate Change  (UNFCC) and Convention on Biological  Diversity, having their genesis in Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio De Janerio, Brazil.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2018