The 17th session of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) concluded in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, recently, with 34 decisions adopted, while several key issues were deferred to COP18, including gender, civil society participation and synergies with other multilateral environmental agreements.
Despite geopolitical tensions and disagreements, delegates reaffirmed the need for greater international cooperation. Ministerial dialogues during the second week highlighted calls to strengthen coordination among the three Rio Conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification.
Agreement was also reached on several substantive issues, including rangelands and pastoralists, a major priority of the Mongolian presidency. The COP encouraged countries to develop policies for the sustainable management, conservation and restoration of rangelands, which cover about 54% of the world’s land surface and support nearly 500 million pastoralists.
COP17 also launched the Rangelands Flagship Initiative to increase investment in achieving land degradation neutrality. Other decisions covered sand and dust storms, land tenure, capacity building, resource mobilisation and strengthening the Science-Policy Interface.
However, negotiations on drought, migration, aridity and knowledge sharing remained unresolved and were carried forward to COP18.
