BERLIN, May 16 (IPS) – The 15th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention against Desertification (UNCCD), is taking place in Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire, from May 9 to 20, 2022. Theme: “Earth, Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity. ” Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed told the participants: “We are faced with an important choice: “We can reap the benefits of restoring the land now or continue to catastrophic path that has led us to a three-planet crisis in terms of climate, biodiversity and pollution.”
The landmark land tenure decision by the parties to the United Nations Convention against Desertification (UNCCD) in 2019 provides a blueprint for the upcoming climate talks in Sharm El Sheikh in November.
The ongoing UNCCD COP15 in Abidjan (May 9-20) is taking the necessary next steps to guide countries on how to incorporate land rights into national implementation processes.
As the first of three Rio Conventions (which deal with climate, biodiversity and desertification) to explicitly mention land tenure as an important enactment measure for the transition to roads More sustainable, this meeting could advance landmark land ownership decisions by recommending guidelines to legally defend the argument for land rights, said Berlin-based TMG Research.
According to UNCCD’s recently released Global Land Report, about $44 trillion in economic output (more than half of global GDP) is moderately or heavily dependent on natural capital.
However, this natural resource base is under great pressure from changing land use patterns and the increasing impacts of climate change. This has had enormous consequences for the poorest and most vulnerable communities, who depend on natural resources for survival, and even more people who will be affected when natural capital is lost. increasingly exhausted.
Current land restoration efforts, such as the global goal of restoring 1 billion hectares of degraded land or achieving ‘non-degraded land’ by 2030, are seen as offering new opportunities to tackle address the impacts of climate change while addressing food security needs, creating livelihood opportunities, especially in rural areas, and combating conflicts and land-based migrations that are increase.
But such initiatives need to take into account all legal property rights available to Indigenous peoples, smallholder farmers and ranchers, women and young people, and other vulnerable groups. .
Otherwise, restoration efforts and especially large-scale investments will lead to new conflicts, violate people’s rights, and jeopardize the success of the planned measure.
UNCCD is the first of three ‘Rio Conventions’ to explicitly recognize the importance of protecting all forms of legal land tenure – especially for women, youth, indigenous communities , smallholder farmers and herders – as a prerequisite for sustainable management of land and other natural resources.
But with land governance enacted at the national and local levels, how can this progressive decision at the global level translate into a governance environment that promotes good land governance by strengthening the land rights of vulnerable groups at the local level?
As noted by the Global Land Outlook, “land is the powerful link between biodiversity loss and climate change”, but to meet global aspirations, restoration must be done “in the right place”. where and at the right scale.”
We therefore welcomed the decision to convene a ministerial roundtable at COP15 with the theme “Rights, Rewards and Responsibility – the future of land management” and invited TMG to deliver the keynote speech.
The relationship between deciding on good governance principles at the global level and acting on it must recognize that “all land management is local”. This means that “localizing” global land tenure decisions requires analyzing specific situations on the ground, respecting the rights of people, and strengthening the ability of local communities to protect their rights. their own and take an active part in the restoration process.
This approach is particularly important for the implementation of global efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and afforestation for carbon offsetting purposes.
Our work with country partners in four African countries shows how the link between legal title rights and restoration can be accomplished. Governments must incorporate land rights as a starting point in developing restoration programs, including in their UNCCD goals, to achieve land degradation neutrality.
We welcomed the strong statements made by many countries at the session and the commitment of multilateral bodies to assist countries to better integrate land management and policies to reverse depression. land degradation, desertification and drought. Essentially, this calls for a “change in thinking about land ownership,” as FAO’s Maria Helena Semedo has noted.
The Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Management of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) are designed to do exactly this. Approved by the World Commission on Food Security (CFS) exactly 10 years ago, the VGGT is the “real connector” in the work of the three Rio Conventions, in the words of CFS Vice President Gabriel Ferrero de Loma-Osorio .
The UNCCD/FAO Technical Guide to Implementing Land Use Decisions in the Context of VGGT, which TMG helped develop, explains how to underpin actions at the local and sub-national levels by building on efforts of the community and civil society organizations.
Our ongoing partnership with four African governments shows how responsible land management can be meaningfully done right from the start.
Exploring Human Rights & Navigating the Land, presented at UNCCD’s COP15, on 12 May in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The tool was developed by TMG Research, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Malawi Human Rights Commission, with support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Alexander Muller is the Founder & CEO, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability, based in Berlin, with regional offices in Nairobi; Jes Weigelt as Head of Programs, TMG Think Tank for Sustainability
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