By the Witness Radio team.

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia: At the 17th session of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17), civil society organizations urged governments to turn promises into real action, tackling land degradation, drought, and the mounting dangers confronting land-dependent communities.

At a press conference in Ulaanbaatar on Monday, August 17, civil society representatives from every corner of the globe—Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe, and Central and Eastern Europe—shared their priorities and plans for the two-week Summit.

Throughout COP17, these organizations plan to actively engage with government negotiators, national focal points, and other stakeholders, bringing forward evidence and community voices to ensure their priorities shape the conference’s outcomes.

They will also champion meaningful participation for civil society, Indigenous peoples, pastoralists, women, youth, and local communities in every stage of negotiations, implementation, monitoring, and follow-up.

The Civil Society Organization (CSO) Panel, which leads civil society engagement in the UNCCD process, shared that its members have spent nearly a year collecting perspectives from all five regions and crafting 19 key messages and recommendations for COP17.

Andy Morris, the Western European representative on the CSO Panel, said their main expectation is for COP17 to become an “action COP” that moves commitments into implementation.

“Our main expectation is that COP17 moves commitments to implementation,” Morris said, adding that this action COP requires accessible and adequate finance reaching communities and local actors who can implement solutions on the ground.

The CSOs are also determined to strengthen knowledge-sharing between governments, scientists, practitioners, Indigenous peoples, local communities, and pastoralists.

Morris emphasized that Indigenous, traditional, and local knowledge deserves equal recognition with scientific knowledge. He also called for greater support for civil society and local actors to generate evidence and monitor land degradation and restoration.

“We have a wealth of knowledge at our fingertips, and we need to bridge the gap between indigenous people’s knowledge and science,” he said.

Civil society organizations have made secure and fair access to land and land tenure a top priority, especially for women, Indigenous peoples, and local communities.

They are urging robust multi-stakeholder land governance, integrated land-use planning, and sustainable water management to help territories withstand drought.

They are pressing governments to shift from reactive drought responses to proactive, locally led strategies that boost land restoration and soil health.

The CSO Panel also prioritizes bolder action on land degradation neutrality and tighter coordination across land, climate, biodiversity, water, and food security agendas.

Sopiko Babalashvili, representing Central and Eastern Europe on the CSO Panel, said civil society wants COP17 commitments to translate into action at the community level.

“It’s important to increase accessible and secure finance for locally led and community-led solutions and translate commitments into action on the ground,” Babalashvili said.

African civil society representative Ellen Otaru-Okoedion highlighted that civil society organizations have been tackling desertification, land degradation, and drought at the grassroots long before these issues reach international negotiations.

“CSOs play an integral role in addressing desertification, land degradation, and drought within communities long before these challenges reach international negotiations.” She added that civil society organizations are more than observers at COP17; they are knowledge holders, partners in sharing and implementing solutions, and key contributors to locally rooted progress. The organizations urge governments to keep COP17 inclusive and ensure civil society has a real voice in negotiations, implementation, monitoring, and follow-up.

“We are also implementation partners and contributors to locally grounded solutions,” Ellen further revealed, adding that they will continue to engage with negotiators, party officials, national focal points and different caucuses while working with civil society networks and partners across regions and other environmental conventions.

Civil society representatives also voiced concerns about the shrinking financial space for organizations working on the frontlines in communities.

They warned that relying too heavily on external project funding can undermine civil society’s independence and called for new approaches to help organizations build more sustainable funding streams.

The panel pointed to capacity building, networking, and organizational development as key ways to empower CSOs to mobilize resources and keep supporting communities.

The organizations are also pushing for closer coordination among the three major Rio Conventions on desertification, climate change, and biodiversity.

They argue that land degradation, drought, water insecurity, climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security are deeply interconnected challenges that demand coordinated solutions, not isolated efforts.

As negotiations unfold over the next two weeks, civil society groups are determined to make sure the voices of communities affected by land degradation and drought shape the decisions made at COP17.

They believe the true measure of the conference’s success will not be what is agreed on paper, but whether those commitments reach communities through funding, action, monitoring, and greater participation by those who rely on the land for their livelihoods.

In a landmark judgment on Aug. 14, South Africa’s Constitutional Court set aside exploration rights held by oil giant Shell and Impact Africa, a South African oil and gas company. The ruling prevents the companies from exploring for fossil fuels off South Africa’s Wild Coast.

The case was brought by Wild Coast communities and environmental organizations after Shell announced plans in 2021 to conduct a 3D seismic survey off the country’s Eastern Cape province coastline. They argued that authorities had failed to meaningfully consult affected communities or consider harms to their spiritual and cultural rights and livelihoods. Authorities also failed to consider the potential harm to marine life and climate change, the plaintiffs argued.

In the judgement, Justice Jody Kollapen wrote the majority opinion and said consulting communities isn’t just a procedural requirement, but “a process which affirms human dignity by affording a seat at the table to those whose lives are impacted by decisions.”

Acknowledging the “cornerstone role that dispossession played in the apartheid regime,” the court noted that South Africa’s natural resources are highly contested and that the case is embedded in “well-documented struggles by coastal communities to protect their land, marine resources and ways of life in the face of extractive activities.”

The judges also considered last year’s International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on countries’ obligations in the context of climate change: “Decisions must be taken within a framework of heightened diligence, informed by scientific knowledge, international commitments and the foreseeable impacts of emissions on present and future generations,” Kollapen wrote.

The question of oil exploration rights in the area began in 2014, when the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy granted Impact Africa Limited the right to undertake a seismic survey to look for oil and gas reserves on the Wild Coast. Impact Africa Limited is a subsidiary of Impact Oil & Gas Limited, which in 2021 transferred a 50% stake of its exploration rights in the area to Shell.

The case has appeared before several South African courts over the past decade before reaching the Constitutional Court, the highest in the country.

Carmen Mannarino from the South African nonprofit Masifundise Development Trust, which works with communities in the area, told Mongabay that the court’s decision is a victory for fishing communities. “The court recognized that exploring for resources in light of potential future financial benefits does not compare to the constitutionally recognized rights of fishing communities,” Mannarino said.

“This is the apex court and the first time that it has dealt with issues relating to the community and environmental rights in relation to oil and gas exploitation,” Melissa Groenink, an attorney with one of the applicants, civil society organization Natural Justice, told Mongabay, adding that the ruling might influence similar cases currently in process.

Shell did not respond to Mongabay’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Banner image: Fisherpeople in Port St. Johns, Eastern Cape. Image courtesy of Aletta Harrison CC BY 4.0.

Source: news.mongabay.com

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