United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
Land degradation is not just an environmental problem. It increases risks to human health and the spread of new diseases. It is a driver of forced migration and conflicts over scarce resources. It is a leading contributor to climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty, and food insecurity. In other words, it is at the core of sustainable development.
Up to 40% of the world’s land is degraded. Between 2015 and 2019, at least 100 million hectares of healthy and productive land were degraded every year—a cumulative area twice the size of Greenland. Droughts are hitting more often and harder all over the world, driven or amplified by both climate change and poor land management.
People from Ukamo village in Ethiopia take part in a tree planting project as part of the government’s “Safety Net” programme which gives vulnerable farmers work. (Photo by Mike Goldwater)
Restoring degraded land and soil, and investing in drought resilience, are some of the most cost-effective actions countries can take to reduce the high human, social and economic impacts of drought—simultaneously increasing food, water and energy security while reducing displacement and conflict drivers. Thirty years ago, with the adoption of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), countries agreed to walk together down this path.
What Drives Land Degradation and Desertification?
Land degradation is the long-term decline in the quality of land that leads to the reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity of land. In the drylands, land degradation is known as desertification. According to the Global Land Outlook, drylands cover more than 45% of the Earth’s land surface, provide 44% of the world’s agriculture, support 50% of the world’s livestock, and are home to one in three people worldwide. Experts estimate that, if not reversed, land degradation will drive 700 million people out of their homes by 2050 because they will no longer be able to feed themselves or have access to sufficient water.
The dominant drivers of land degradation include agriculture and related land-use changes, unsustainable management or over-exploitation of resources, natural vegetation clearance, nutrient depletion, overgrazing, inappropriate irrigation, excessive use of agrochemicals, urban sprawl, pollution, mining and quarrying, among others.
Deforestation is one of the most significant causes of land degradation. Tree roots help bind soil particles, thus maintaining their quality. When trees are cut down, the soil particles tend to disperse, negatively impacting the quality of the soil.
Another driver of land degradation is a lack of land tenure security. When people own their land, they are more likely to make the long-term investments needed to sustainably manage land, such as practicing crop diversity and agroforestry. Even though land constitutes the main asset from which the rural poor derive their livelihoods, millions of farmers, especially women, do not own their land. In many countries, the laws or customs hinder women’s ownership of land. In more than 100 countries, women are dispossessed from their land when they lose their husbands. This is a key issue to global land restoration since women are more likely to invest in diverse food systems, which boost soil health, while men focus primarily on cash crops and monoculture.
What is the UN Convention to Combat Desertification?
In 1991, African environment ministers decided to prioritize their proposal for the negotiation of a new convention to combat desertification as one of the concrete recommendations to be adopted at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED or Earth Summit) to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992. They hoped a convention would help them gain access to additional funding to combat desertification, land degradation, and drought.
Leading into the final days In Rio, delegates had reached agreement on much of the desertification chapter of Agenda 21, the UNCED outcome, including the definition of desertification: “Land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climate variations and human activities.” However, there was still opposition to a convention. Many developing countries resisted the idea of a special convention for Africa, since they also faced land degradation. Industrialized countries maintained that desertification was a local problem and did not warrant a treaty. It wasn’t until the final hours of the Earth Summit that a deal was finally struck and the call for a convention was included in Chapter 12 of Agenda 21.
Negotiations on the Convention began in May 1993 and were completed in five meetings over fifteen months. At the first session in Nairobi, Kenya, the International Negotiating Committee held a one-week seminar to inform negotiators of the substantive issues related to desertification and drought, demonstrating that land degradation affected people around the world. This led to a serious discussion on how to create a global convention that still gave priority to Africa. When Committee Chair Bo Kjellén suggested including a special annex for Africa under the Convention, other regions insisted on annexes for their regions.
At the second meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, in September 1993, governments agreed to negotiate four annexes simultaneously, while giving special attention to Africa. In the end, the Convention includes regional implementation annexes for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and the Northern Mediterranean. A fifth annex, for Central and Eastern Europe, was adopted in 2000.
Differences over financial resources nearly caused the negotiations to collapse. Developing countries called for a special fund as the centerpiece of the new convention. Industrialized countries rejected binding obligations to increase financial assistance to affected countries, insisting that existing resources could be used more effectively. The deadlock was broken only after the United States proposed establishing a “Global Mechanism” to improve monitoring and assessment of existing aid flows and increase donor coordination. Many developing countries were not happy, but believed they had to accept the Global Mechanism on the final night because if there was no agreement on finance, there would be no convention. On 17 June 1994, delegates adopted the UNCCD, four regional implementation annexes, and a resolution calling for urgent action for Africa.
The Convention recognizes the physical, biological, and socio-economic aspects of desertification and the importance of redirecting technology transfer so that it is demand-driven. The core of the convention is the development of national, subregional and regional action programmes by national governments in cooperation with donors, local populations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In fact, the Convention was the first to call for the effective participation of local populations and organizations in the preparation of national action programmes. This innovation led the first “sustainable development” convention to also be referred to as a “bottom-up” convention.
The UNCCD was opened for signature in October 1994 and entered into force on 26 December 1996. Today, there are 197 parties, representing universal ratification.
Released in 2024, Unite for Land provides an overview of the first 30 years of the UNCCD.
Promoting Land Degradation Neutrality
In 2008, a group of scientists was asked by the UNCCD Executive Secretary to examine if the Convention could use the offsetting principle already practiced by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and applied to deforestation at one site by planting trees elsewhere. The idea was to use this offsetting principle to lead to zero-net land degradation and expand the reach of the Convention to address land degradation globally, not just in the drylands.
The Secretariat and like-minded countries then advocated for endorsement of this concept of land degradation neutrality (LDN) by the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012 and its inclusion as one of the targets under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This would enable LDN to gain traction and effectively link land degradation as a driver of poverty, climate change and biodiversity loss, and demonstrate the relevance of productive land to global sustainability. The Rio+20 outcome, The Future We Want, highlights the need for urgent action to reverse land degradation and achieve a land-degradation neutral world.
After Rio+20, the UNCCD pushed forward with LDN on a variety of fronts. First, in 2013, the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) established a working group to develop a science-based definition of LDN (Decision 8/COP.11). In late 2014, the Secretariat set up the LDN pilot project, through which 14 affected countries worked to translate LDN into national targets.
Meanwhile, in New York, the UNCCD and its supporters successfully lobbied for including a target on LDN in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). When the 17 SDGs and 169 targets were adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, they included target 15.3: “By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.” For the first time, the UNCCD had successfully placed an item at the forefront of the international agenda.
Afrormosia growing scheme at the Compagnie Forestiere et de Transformation (CFT) in Kisangani, DRC. (Photo by Axel Fassio/CIFOR (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0))
The following month, UNCCD COP12 convened in Ankara, Turkey, and endorsed the science-based definition of LDN submitted by the working group:
“Land degradation neutrality is a state whereby the amount and quality of land resources necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security remain stable or increase within specified temporary and spatial scales and ecosystems” (decision 3/COP.12).
And, in what some viewed as a ‘game changing’ accomplishment, COP12 agreed that striving to achieve SDG target 15.3 is a “strong vehicle for driving implementation of the UNCCD,” and invited countries to set voluntary targets to achieve LDN. The Global Mechanism and the UNCCD Secretariat established the LDN Target Setting Programme to assist countries in setting national baselines and creating voluntary national LDN targets and associated measures. Since then, 131 countries committed to setting LDN targets and more than 100 have already set their targets.
In 2017, the Convention’s Science-Policy Interface (SPI) published the Scientific Conceptual Framework for Land Degradation Neutrality, which provides a scientific foundation for understanding, implementing and monitoring LDN. It was designed as a bridge between the vision and the practical implementation of LDN by defining LDN in operational terms. The SPI developed three indicators, which created a clear pathway for monitoring LDN—both for the Convention and SDG 15.3:
trends in land cover;
trends in land productivity or functioning of the land; and
trends in carbon stocks above and below ground.
But there were concerns. Some countries and members of civil society at COP12 were worried about the focus on LDN as a central UNCCD target. Some likened it to opening a door to land grabs and greenwashing. So while the UNCCD COP called for the restoration of 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030 to achieve a land-degradation neutral world, it was also essential to acknowledge land rights and inclusive land governance arrangements at the national and sub-national levels. The land tenure decision at COP14 did just that.
Already countries have pledged to restore 1 billion hectares of land, but there is still more work to be done to make these pledges a reality.
2018-2030 Strategic Framework
In 2017, COP13 in Ordos, China, adopted the UNCCD 2018−2030 Strategic Framework, which has three main components: a vision, strategic objectives and an implementation framework.
The vision commits parties to “A future that avoids, minimizes, and reverses desertification/land degradation and mitigates the effects of drought in affected areas at all levels and strive to achieve a land degradation neutral world consistent with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, within the scope of the Convention.”
The Framework’s five strategic objectives are designed to guide the actions of all UNCCD stakeholders and parties until 2030:
To improve the condition of affected ecosystems, combat desertification/land degradation, promote sustainable land management and contribute to land degradation neutrality
To improve the living conditions of affected populations
To mitigate, adapt to, and manage the effects of drought in order to enhance resilience of vulnerable populations and ecosystems
To generate global environmental benefits through effective implementation of the UNCCD
To mobilize substantial and additional financial and nonfinancial resources to support the implementation of the Convention by building effective partnerships at global and national level
The implementation framework defines the roles and responsibilities of parties, UNCCD institutions, partners and stakeholders in meeting the strategic objectives.
In Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in 2022, COP15 launched a midterm evaluation of the Strategic Plan. The results of this evaluation, overseen by an intergovernmental working group, will be discussed at COP16, which is expected to adopt a decision on enhancing the implementation of the Strategic Framework for its final five years and restoring the necessary hectares of land to achieve a land degradation neutral world.
What’s Next?
UNCCD COP16 convenes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2-13 December 2024, under the theme “Our Land. Our Future.” The COP will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the UNCCD and a special segment will bring together leaders and high-level officials to commit to accelerate action to combat land degradation and desertification and improve drought resilience.
A social media image for UNCCD COP 16 underlines how land degradation is a youth issue.
In addition to the midterm evaluation of the Strategic Plan and adopting the UNCCD’s biennial budget, COP16 is expected to negotiate and adopt decisions aimed at:
accelerating restoration of degraded land between now and 2030;
boosting drought preparedness, response and resilience;
ensuring land continues to provide climate and biodiversity solutions;
boosting resilience to sand and dust storms;
scaling up nature-positive food production by protecting and restoring grasslands and rangelands;
enhancing ongoing efforts to address desertification/land degradation and drought as one of the drivers that causes migration;
strengthening women’s right to land tenure to advance land restoration; and
promoting youth engagement, including decent land-based jobs for youth.
COP16 is also expected to catalyze new initiatives on land restoration and drought resilience that build on the G20 Global Land Initiative.
For the first time, the COP will include an Action Agenda, which will highlight voluntary commitments and actions and include thematic days:
Land Day on 4 December will focus on the importance of healthy land for combating climate change, creating jobs and alleviating poverty, with an emphasis on nature-based solutions, land restoration, and private sector engagement.
Agri-food System Day on 5 December will highlight sustainable farming practices for resilient crops and healthy soils while protecting ecosystems.
Governance Day on 6 December will address inclusive land governance.
People’s Day on 7 December will focus on the role of youth, women and civil society in decision-making.
Resilience Day on 10 December will focus on policies and technologies to build societal and planetary resilience in the face of climate change.
Finance Day on 11 December will engage financial stakeholders to showcase innovative funding mechanisms and partnerships for land and drought resilience initiatives.
COP16 will also build upon the COPs of the CBD in October 2024 and the UNFCCC in November 2024, improving synergies between the three “Rio Conventions” and promoting the implementation of the SDGs.
As UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said in his foreword to the second edition of the Global Land Outlook report, “Governments and stakeholders cannot stop the climate crisis today, biodiversity loss tomorrow, and land degradation the day after.” The international community needs to tackle all these issues together. Achieving climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals is impossible without healthy land.
In 1994 the adoption of the UNCCD started the world down the path to reversing land degradation, desertification and drought. COP16 is expected to reaffirm this global commitment for present and future generations.
Pamela Chasek, Ph.D., is the Co-founder and Executive Editor of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin.
Archbishop Paul Ssemogerere of Uganda’s Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala has decried the rising cases of land grabbing in the East African nation, describing the situation as “a matter of growing concern” that even threatens Church property.
Speaking during celebrations marking the Centenary of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Rubaga, on Sunday, October 26, Archbishop Ssemogerere appealed to President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who graced the occasion, to take concrete action to curb the increasing cases of illegal land acquisition.
“Your Excellency, we wish to humbly draw your attention to a matter of growing concern in our country, the problem of land grabbing,” he said.
Archbishop Ssemogerere lamented that land grabbers have targeted land legally allocated to the Church for pastoral and social development purposes.
“There are those landgrabbers who don’t fear the wealth of God,” he said referring to Church land given “by generous people, or allowed by the government for the Church to use, land given to us by the Kingdom of Buganda.”
He warned that such actions have far-reaching consequences, noting that some of the affected properties have long served communities through schools, health facilities, and development projects.
“This challenge affects not only Church land but also property belonging to other institutions and private citizens,” he said, and added, “In some cases, land that has served communities for generations is being encroached on or taken illegally.”
The Local Ordinary of Kampala Archdiocese since his installation in January 2022 appealed to President Museveni-led government to take decisive action against land grabbers, stressing that protecting land rights safeguards not only property but also vital services that institutions provide to Ugandans.
“We therefore appeal to your continued leadership and intervention so that this issue can be addressed firmly and justly,” he told President Museveni.
Referring to Galatians 6:9, the Ugandan-born Catholic Church leader encouraged the country’s national leaders to persevere in promoting justice and the common good.
“As Scripture reminds us, let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season, we shall reap if we do not give up,” he said.
In his October 26 remarks, Archbishop Ssemogerere, who began his Episcopal Ministry in August 2008 as Bishop of Uganda’s Kasana-Luweero Catholic Diocese emphasized the need to safeguard peace as the country approaches its next general election in January 2026.
He emphasized that politics should be a platform for service and that “elections should never divide us but rather strengthen our commitment to justice, respect, and unity.”
Archbishop Ssemogerere added, “Peace is not merely the absence of conflict. It is the fruit of justice, truth, and mutual respect.”
Citing Pope Francis’ November 2013 Apostolic Exhortation on on the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world, Evangelii Gaudium, he reminded politicians and religious leaders in the East African nation that leadership is a vocation of service.
“Politics, though often degraded, remains a lofty vocation and one of the highest forms of charity, inasmuch as it seeks the common good,” he said
Reflecting on the St. Mary’s Rubaga Cathedral’s 100-year history, the Ugandan Catholic Archbishop described it as a “symbol of faith, endurance, and God’s abiding presence among His people.”
He noted that the Cathedral has stood “through colonial times, independence, and social change” as a beacon of evangelization and unity.
“This sacred place has stood as a witness to Uganda’s journey of faith, from the first seeds planted by the early missionaries to the flourishing Catholic community, we see today,” he said, and continued, “Through it all, God has been faithful.”
Archbishop Ssemogerere further noted that the Cathedral “has been a refuge for prayer, a cradle of vocations, and a beacon of evangelization.”
“May it continue to inspire holiness, unity, and love for God and country,” said Archbishop Ssemogerere in his remarks during the October 26 centenary celebration.
The week of 20th September 2025, Uganda hosted the Renewable Energy Conference 2025 to discuss and advance the clean energy agenda. Its purpose this time was to foster collaboration among the government, the private sector, and development partners to transform energy systems. Still, the development partners are calling on the government of Uganda to balance conservation and livelihoods.
The Renewable Energy Conference (REC) 2025, which focused on clean cooking to meet the national target of 50% access by 2030, provided an opportunity for representatives of the German and European Union embassies to underscore the importance of balancing environmental conservation and livelihoods.
The German Ambassador to Uganda, H.E. Matthias Schauer, stated that “transforming systems for livelihoods and conservation” are essential elements in the renewable energy sector.
“The theme, Transforming Energy Systems for Livelihoods and Conservation, I consider these two elements to be essential: livelihoods and conservation. Without energy, it is tough to establish livelihoods, but without conservation, you will be destroying them again sooner or later. They need to be well-balanced.” Matthias Schauer stated
He says, “At the same time, they strengthened local capacity, promoted innovative financing mechanisms to expand access to clean energy. Our partnership reflects a shared vision, unlocking Uganda’s potential, and that potential is huge. Fostering inclusive growth and ensuring that the benefits of energy transformation reach all communities, including remote and refugee hosting areas.” Matthias Schauer said.
He said that Germany’s goal is to advance access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and clean energy for all, in line with Sustainable Development Goal No. 7, while fostering local ownership.
The European Ambassador to Uganda, H.E. Jan Sadek, on the other hand, emphasized that “the moment has come to move from dialogue to action. We are confident that Uganda will continue to lead by example, and Team Europe is ready to contribute to turning the insights from this conference into tangible impacts.” This urgent call to action should resonate with all stakeholders, highlighting the pressing need for change.
Jan also stated that, “The time for coordinated and accelerated investment in solutions to phase out the unsustainable use of firewood and charcoal is now. Together, we have a real opportunity to make a significant difference, and the EU is committed to contributing its part.” This commitment from the EU should reassure all stakeholders about the support they can expect.
While the Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Ruth Nankabirwa Sentamu, stated that this year’s energy conference discussion has deepened their collaboration and collective understanding of what it truly means to transform energy systems from a livelihoods and conservation perspective.
As the Transition journey continues, Nankabirwa expressed confidence that through the performance reviews of the Ministry’s sustainable energy and extractive development programs, they have collectively assessed progress made under Development Plan 3 and have identified clear pathways for accelerated implementation of National Development Plan 4.
The StopEACOP Coalition has issued a warning to shareholders and bondholders of TotalEnergies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), urging them to reconsider their funding of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) due to the companies’ growing self-financing of the project that exposes shareholders and bondholders to gross financial and reputational risks.
In a public statement released alongside its Finance Risk Briefing Update No. 6, the coalition revealed that the two energy giants have quietly decided to increase their financial commitments to the $5.6 billion pipeline, stepping in as lenders to their own project. This move reflects the collapse of external financing for EACOP amid widespread rejection by international banks and insurers due to the project’s environmental, human rights, and climate risks. These risks include environmental, human rights concerns, and climate-related issues.
According to EACOP Limited’s 2024 annual report, TotalEnergies and CNOOC have provided additional facilities through shareholder loans to fund what remains of the construction budget.
Initially projected to cost up to $3.5 billion and intended to be financed with 40% equity and 60% debt, the project’s cost has since increased to a whopping $5.6 billion. The two companies have already injected roughly $2.8 billion in equity and secured around $755 million in external loans, leaving a debt gap of approximately $2 billion. Currently, TotalEnergies and CNOOC are moving to cover that shortfall themselves, bringing their total funding to about $4.8 billion, or 86% of the project’s total cost, more than triple what they had initially planned to use.
“This is a shocking example of developers financing their own controversial project after being rejected by global financial institutions. It shows that the EACOP is no longer financially viable without corporate self-funding and that investors in these companies are now directly financing one of the most destructive fossil fuel projects in the world,” Reads part of the statement.
The coalition argues that by turning inward for financing, TotalEnergies and CNOOC have transferred financial, legal, and reputational risks to their own shareholders and bondholders.
“Now, to keep the project alive, TotalEnergies and CNOOC are turning inward, relying on their own balance sheets and, by extension, your capital. The situation increases your financial risk, deepens your exposure to the project’s growing controversy, and links your investment portfolios even more directly to the environmental destruction, human rights abuses, and climate chaos that EACOP represents,” the statement says.
“This means that institutional investors holding TotalEnergies or CNOOC securities are now directly linked to the project’s growing controversies, from land grabs and community displacement to the threat it poses to climate goals.”
EACOP is a 1,443-kilometer pipeline stretching from Uganda’s Lake Albert oilfields to the Tanzanian coast, which has faced heavy opposition since its inception. This opposition is due to threats to biodiversity and the environment, as well as to people’s displacement among others.
It is from this that the STOPEACOP coalition is calling for active engagement with TotalEnergies and CNOOC to jointly address human rights and environmental risks and identify a time-bound escalation strategy, where investors publicly set deadlines for the companies to act, backed by credible consequences such as voting against board members or divesting from the companies altogether.
“We are therefore calling upon the shareholders and bondholders of TotalEnergies and CNOOC to act with integrity and foresight, in line with their responsibilities under the UNGPs and the OECD Guidelines, to avoid contributing to severe human rights and environmental impacts associated with the operations of your portfolio companies,” reads the statement.
In the last three years, over 20 major banks and 23 insurers have publicly ruled out support for the EACOP project, citing misalignment with global climate targets and reputational concerns.
The Finance Risk Briefing shows that 43 banks have ruled out financing for the 1,443 km pipeline since the project began.
Governments and international organizations have also faced mounting pressure to intervene, as civil society movements in Uganda, Tanzania, and abroad intensify opposition to its implementation due to its adverse effects.
