NEWS : Conference of Parties – 15th session of United Nation’s Conference to Combat Desertification was held in  Cote d’Ivoire

WHAT DID INDIA SAY

• India is COP president
• India has made significant progress in its commitment to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030
• Over 229 million Soil Health Cards have been issued to farmers between 2015 and 2019 and this program has led to a decline of 8-10% in the use of chemical fertilizers and also raised productivity by 5 to 6%
• Following the global call for the submission of nominations for World Restoration Flagships, the Government of India endorsed six restoration flagships that target the restoration of 12.5 million hectares of degraded lands
• India’s rural livelihood programmes have an underlying ethos of natural resource conservation and restoration
• Emphasizing that landscape restoration is more than planting trees, it becomes essential that we recognize the power of local and indigenous knowledge with the close assistance of science
• Parties will discuss drought, land restoration, and related enablers such as land rights, gender equality and youth empowerment

UNCCD

• Established in 1994.
• It is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management.
• It is the only convention stemming from a direct recommendation of the Rio Conference’s Agenda 21.
• To help publicise the Convention, 2006 was declared “International Year of Deserts and Desertification”.
• Focus areas: The Convention addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.
• Aim: Its 197 Parties aim, through partnerships, to implement the Convention and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The end goal is to protect land from over-use and drought, so it can continue to provide food, water and energy.
• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the nodal Ministry for this Convention