(3rd Meeting) 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification - UNCCD COP17

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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Now it's time to start our to set? Good morning again.
I call to order the third meeting of the conference of the parties to the United Nations Convention to combat the certification at its 17th session.
It is the first open dialogue with civil society representatives on this session.
Before proceeding further, I first invite the conference to resume its consideration of agenda item one C, entitled Election of Vice Presidents.
You may recall that the position of two vice presidents of the Conference of the Parties at its 17th session from the Central and Eastern Europe, European States remained open for our first meeting held on 17 August.
I'm pleased to infirm that there is general agreement among the parties to elect the following candidates from Central and Eastern European States as vice presidents of the Conference of the Parties at its 17th session.
First, Mr.
Olfat Macharov from Azerbijan and miss Bilama Gilbara from Montenegro.
May I take it that the conference wishes to elect these candidates to the position of vice presidents of the conference at its 17th session.
I hear no objection.
It is so decided.
On behalf of the conference, I wish to congratulate the vice presidents on the election, and I look forward to working closely with them and the entire Cop 17 Bureau to ensure the successful conclusion of the 17th session of the conference.
Further, pursuant to Rule 22 of the rules of the procedure of the conference, one of the vice presidents shall act as rapporteur.
It is my understanding that there is a general agreement on the designation of Vice President Karma Brown from St.
Vincent and the Grenadines as rapporteur.
May I take it that the conference wishes to designate Mr.
Karma Brown as the rapporteur of the conference at its 17th session.
I hear no objection.
It is so decided.
I invite the rapporteur to take his seat at the podium.
Before proceeding to the open dialogue, I would like to remind delegations to submit their credentials as soon as possible since the Conference of Parties will consider agenda item one D, entitled Credentials of delegations at its meeting on Friday 21 first, August 21, August.
Further information is available at the journal of the conference.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to warmly welcome all participants to the first open dialogue.
This dialogue serves to share perspectives from the ground about arrangements, pastoral and finance for healthy land.
First, I would like to make some introductory remarks.
I now invite the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to combat desertification.
Her Excellency sminvoid to deliver introductory remarks.
Thank you very much, CP 17 President.
Good morning, everyone.
It's a pleasure to be participating and providing the opening remarks of the open dialogue session for the civil society.
And thank you for all of you for being here today.
At the outset, I'd like to illustrate that the civil society is not an add on to implementation.
It's part of the implementation model if you would like that COP to be the COP for implementation.
More than 3,300 civil society representative at Cp 17 demonstrate the relevance of civil society to advancing this convention, not only through their presence, but through their lived experience, local and traditional knowledge, technical expertise, and their capacities that can move this process forward.
Even the diversity of this group that includes the indigenous peoples, local community, youth, women, pastoralists, and farmers show every day that regardless of our diversity, we still have land that connects us around one purpose and one cause.
As this COP would be the COP of implementation, we need to move from the discussions that would happen in this room today to actions under the ground.
Success will not be only through the governing of the decision, which is important for a multilateral process, but how much difference are we putting in countries, in communities, and landscape, how much we are investing in the people who are really restoring the land.
I'd like here to commend the initiative that has been taken by Mongolia last week on the global pastoralist Gathering conference.
It showed that regardless that we could be different from different regions, different ecosystem, still, our worries, our concern, our needs, our aspiration should go for land and the sustainable livelihood.
How can we guarantee that if each day a hectare or an inch of land is degraded? If we continue disconnecting between water and land and the food that we eat.
And from that perspective, investing in people would be a necessity within the scope.
We would like also within this discussion to reflect on range land and pastures, to be at the heart of land restoration and drought resilience and recognize that by building in them, investing in them, and restoring in their land, we're simply building livelihood and ensuring security and stability within regions.
Also, part of the discussion should highlight on the equitable land rights and tenure for all.
How can we push that? How can we include women, youth, indigenous people, local community, and pastoralists as fundamental in this process for the land use, land access, and benefiting from land.
We would like also within this discussion to make the participation meaningful.
We would want to move from the consultation from different point of view to influence and implementation.
What are the exact steps that we need to think of? How can we create more robust enabling environment that would fit for different purposes because we're still really very different in the nature and in the culture in the countries and in the socioeconomic issues that we're facing.
But one fact that is here.
We can disagree on different topics or different ideas, but the only thing that will be up and living from Cp 17 is our discussion, our way and enthias to move forward, and I see a lot of people in this room and much more.
How can we build partnership out of this conference that can move from the global ambition To the very grassroot for local action.
That would last within that COP and beyond, and the Secretariat will continue to push and work for that, connecting the global ambition and the text of this convention with the issues of land restoration, drought desertification, and the very local action that needs to be there because we will continue to be a human centered convention working for the grassroots and for the most vulnerable.
Thank you all very much.
I thank the Executive Secretary of the UN CCD.
Now, I would like to make some introductory remarks myself.
Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, dear representatives of civil society, indigenous people, pastoralists, and researchers.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the first opening dialogue session of Cop 17.
As the CP 17 president, our ambition is for this conference to be an implementation of CP, which is the one that moves beyond negotiations and delivers practical solutions, stronger partnerships and greater investment for people and the planet.
Today's dialogue is particularly important as it brings perspectives from the ground to the center of our discussions.
Effective land restoration must draw on the knowledge and experience of local communities and indigenous peoples.
While being supported by science, innovation and sustainable financing.
Today's session is particularly timely and significant as it is being held in the framework of the International Year of arrangements and pastoralists 2026.
It provides an important opportunity to share local and indigenous knowledge and science on land restoration, explore innovative solutions and financing for sustainable food systems, and advance our collective efforts to address land degradation, achieve land degradation neutrality, and promote sustainable development, ensuring that no one is left behind.
We also hope this dialogue will strengthen cooperation among governments, international organizations, the private sector, academia, civil society, local communities, and youth, and help translate the global commitment to practical action.
As Cop 17 president, Mongolia is committed to ensuring that the voices and solutions emerging from this dialogue contribute to a meaningful and lasting legacy of Cop 17.
I encourage all of you to share your experiences openly, identify opportunities for partnership and investment, and most importantly, help us turn knowledge and ambition into action on the ground.
I wish you a productive and inspiring dialogue, and I thank you.
Thank you.
It is my pleasure to welcome the moderator for the dialogue, miss Ellen Otaro Okoye Young.
I will now hand over the conduct the meeting to the moderator and I wish you most productive deliberations.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Thank you, Madam President.
Good morning, Madam Secretary-General, and good morning, the Secretary, and good morning, all the delegates and distinguished guests, colleagues, representatives of the civil society, indigenous people, local communities, and pastoralist organizations present here today.
Welcome to this first open dialogue session on pastoralism, range lands, and Finance for healthy and.
This is a very interesting session that we will navigate today up to the time that we will close the session.
However, before we begin, I would like to invite for the blessings of this session this morning, the elders of the World Union of Indigenous spiritual practitioners, and namely Tatiana Kobzkova, Hakas people of Russian Federation, and Byabandrak Erdnesg of Mongolia.
Prak Thank you.
And I call upon the representative band rd Mang We would ask you now to conduct a prayer.
Good morning.
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Polson, Sazz Polson, Alarmsen Omar Azaz, gargle, Sch Hiroshi, S ach Bugs, I would like to bless you today.
I would like to say a couple of words.
I'm very pleased to see you all here to see you.
Who are dealing with extremely important issues which are vital.
It's important to see all of these people who are discharging their duties.
And I would like to bless you today.
I'd like to bless our work.
I would like to bless everything that you are doing, your families, your teams, your counselors, all of us who are helping us.
And I'd like to ask Heaven and Earth to bless us all.
The Earth will now speak through me.
Oh, Pabla Duke of Chrisman.
That was a message from the spirits through me because I am the daughter of the mother Earth of heaven.
And it is the breathing and whispering of the Earth, which is channeled through me to you and through me, love has gone through me, love of the Father of the Earth and Mother Earth, who loves us, who has given us life.
And we see the blue eyes, the rivers in her arteries, in her veins.
The plants are mother Earth's hair, hair of Mother Earth.
Are we going to harm Mother Earth? By accumulating waste around her.
I think we really need to think about this issue because we only have one Mother Earth.
We must be very reasonable children with our Mother Earth.
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I also on this auspicious day of half moon.
I wish all the best to all of you.
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So this is the very rare occasion to bless you with my storytelling.
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Thank you.
Thank you for the opening prayer.
And now that we have received the blessings, we are proceeding with our activity for this morning.
The world has about 50 million pastoralists and rangelands support the livelihood, cultures and traditions of more than 2 billion people, covering approximately 54% of the Earth's terretrial surface.
These are very essential to food security livestock production, biodiversity, and climate resilience.
Yet nearly half of the world's rangelands are degraded.
We see that Africa accounts for approximately 39% of the global rangeland degradation, while Asia, including Central Asia, account for about 20% and South America holds the numbers at 19%.
This threatens pastoral communities, food system, rural economies, and progress towards land degradation neutrality.
Restoring degraded pastures is therefore both an environmental necessity and economic opportunity.
Healthy rangelands can strengthen food security, increase livestock and commodity productivity, create sustainable livelihoods, and unlock investment in resilient local economies.
Solutions must combine science with the traditional knowledge and practices of pastoral, indigenous peoples, and local communities.
Those who live on and manage range lands must be meaningfully involved in decision making and have secure access to land resources and appropriate financing.
Today's dialogue provides an important opportunity to identify practical, inclusive, and adequately financed pathways towards healthy rangelands, resilient pastoral communities, and sustainable food systems.
Our speakers today, the panelists are the CSO representatives from various regions of the UN CCD.
Now, before I invite our panelists, I would like to invite our keynote speaker, Marty Goldberg.
From Woodwell Climate Research Center, Marty, the floor is yours.
Thank you.
I believe this is on.
Thank you, moderator.
Madam President, Madam Executive Secretary, colleagues, civil society, local communities, pastoralist organizations.
I believe after the excellent introductions by the president and the executive secretary, after this beautiful blessing ceremony and after the dancing that we witnessed here before the beginning of the plenary, I am not sure this open dialogue needs a keynote speech, but I will do my best to say something interesting and keep things moving.
My name is Matty Goldberg from the Woodwelllimate Research Center.
We are a nonprofit climate research center based in the Boston area and Massachusetts.
I thank you for the opportunity to provide some food for thought for this first open dialogue here in Lampatar.
I worked for the past 20 years on international environmental agreements.
Previously, I was part of the UNF AAC teams who helped negotiate the Paris Agreement, and now I'm here to support Woodward UNCCDgagement.
I always saw my work as an effort to build bridges and while working on the Paris Agreement, our work was about building bridges between the diverse positions of parties on issues like adaptation and many others.
In my current work, I try to build bridges between our science and global environmental policy.
The opening remarks are my modest contribution to another bridge building effort, the effort that we are collectively engaged here in Umbatar, which is connecting the discussions at this forum, the United Nations, the main global forum with the dynamic pastoralist livelihoods across the world that have unique and deeply rooted relationships with their environments.
I see this open dialogue and this conference as an opportunity to build these bridges between this forum and asteroid realities.
I believe this can happen in particular across three areas.
I'm going to highlight knowledge, financing, and frameworks for action.
There are many more, but I believe these three provide an excellent basis.
When it comes to knowledge, we can see that international organizations, agencies, and the scientific community, they operate a vast machinery of data collection, modeling, assessments, and indicators to generate a global view of the state of the planet.
Then when we look at the local level, we see pastoralist communities around the world maintain close connections with their environment.
We see them possess tested knowledge and practices for sustainable land management, and we see them maintaining key ecosystem services on the basis of that knowledge and expertise.
When it comes to financing, the international community has built a network of funds, donors, investors, and market mechanisms that design and implement financial solutions to address the challenges of soil health.
While pastoralists maintain diverse local economies and livelihoods, they create value from local products, and they operate small and medium agricultural enterprises.
Then third, when we look at the frameworks for action, we can see at the international level how parties are preparing land degradation neutrality targets, national adaptation plans, nationally determined contributions, and biodiversity plans to pursue the goals of the Rio Conventions.
And then at the local level, pastoralists design community led initiatives connected with the lands.
They provide climate and biodiversity benefits by maintaining healthy soils, and they operate sustainable livestock production systems.
So while these global frameworks and then the contributions at the local level might sometimes seem a bit apart, they share the same goals, enhancing livelihoods, sustainable development, soil health, and climate resilience.
The evidence for this shared vision is right here before our eyes.
We are all here, diplomats, pastoralists, civil society, technical experts.
We're all here in Labatar to figure things out in this very challenging space.
So it's not surprising that there's a great deal of complementarity across each of these areas.
Many of us are already building these bridges.
For example, when it comes to knowledge, science and pastoralist expertise have many ways to complement each other.
For example, Woodwell uses remote sensing data and geographic information systems to collaborate with reindeer herders in Mongolia and other places to co produce maps that inform climate resilient land use strategies.
Our experts also work with cattle ranchers and land managers in the western United States to study and promote sustainable, economically robust and regenerative grazing practices.
When we look at the area of finance, international funds have started supporting community based natural resource management across regions to restore degraded lands and to improve management practices.
The range lands flagship Initiative is an opportunity to enhance public and private investment for rangelands and pastoralist communities.
And then, third, when it comes to the frameworks for action, the UCCDM partners have convened discussions of how range land industrial solutions can be integrated into regional climate, biodiversity, and land restoration frameworks.
Parties have been invited to improve tenure security in range lands, and in the climate context, parties have designed global adaptation targets, indicators, and planning guidelines that aim to capture local perspectives.
So these are just a few examples of how bridges are being built.
And this dialogue and this conference are opportunities to identify further complementarities along with specific actions to strengthen our collective response across these connections.
And by bringing further pastoralist experience from all regions to this global space, and by exploring how the global and the national can support the local, this open dialogue can build further bridges towards a global pact that connects international frameworks with the realities of pastoralist communities.
Now, building these bridges is not easy.
We don't come to these international forums to do easy things.
We come here to do the most difficult things in the world.
Things that have proven too hard to resolve only by action at the individual, local, national or regional levels.
So I hope I've given some framing for this dialogue, and I encourage you to build bridges today and throughout the conference.
With that, I wish you a successful dialogue.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Martin.
Now, I would like to invite our panelists and participants to share their experiences, solutions, and recommendations.
The panel draws the experience from the CSOs from all five regions and will highlight the meaningful participation of civil society, indigenous peoples, local communities, pastoralists, and youth, including in intergenerational knowledge transmission.
Today, we will hear about pastoralists contribution to land restoration and territorial conservation, as well as women's essential role in implementation of the convention.
We will also be drawing on diverse community led experiences.
Panelists will present local solutions for resilient agri food systems and stronger synergies across land, climate, and biodiversity.
Achieving these goals requires direct, flexible, non discriminatory, and culturally appropriate finance.
The session will also advance the arranges and pastoralist Declaration and would allow me to invite our first panelists, Marcell Stepan from Pastoralists goals Foundation, ranges pastoralists, who will talk about the terms of reference and local communities.
Marcel the F is yours.
I will kindly remind all panelists we have exactly 5 minutes each.
Thank you so much, Madam Ellen.
Madam President, Madam Executive Secretary, distinguished delegates, panel members, and civil society colleagues in the room.
Good morning.
I extend my gratitude to the Secretariat and the government of Mongolia for hosting us here in Umbata.
It's been a very nice time.
We've had a nice time for those of us from at least for me who comes from Africa and I'm sure others from other regions also.
My name is Marcella Steven.
I come from the Rendilo community in Northern Kenya and I lead an organization, Pastoralist Goals Foundation.
Since 2014, the Pastoralist Goals Foundation has worked directly with pastoralist communities on rangeland governance and land rights.
And from our work, two key lessons speak directly to the theme of this panel or this open dialogue.
First, despite managing vast vital ecosystems, less than 1% of global climate and land restoration finance reaches pastoralist communities directly.
Money is allocated in the name of pastoralists far more than often it reaches them.
This is because layers of intermediaries, there are a lot of intermediaries in between, including project consultants absorb most of it before it ever reaches a hada or a community institution.
Secondly, community led governance works, but only where tenure is secure.
If you look at that and from the presentation, you look at that the finance ply reaches pastoral communities, less than 1% of that finance.
Secondly, when you have secure tenure for communities, and you do not have ambiguous or contested land ownership rights, then communities can plan.
But without that, it becomes very difficult to plan.
I also want to speak directly to the value of pastoralism because this is where the conversation about finance must begin.
Pastoralism contributes about 15 to 30% of GDP in most of the pastoralist practicing countries.
This is through livestock, hides, diary, and the value chains that they support.
Yet, less than 3% of most national and international investments is directed to the sector.
And when you look at pastoralism and its contribution, it's a very major economic engine, but receiving such a small fraction.
Again, every year that finance bypasses pastoral systems, our countries forego massive productivity gains, ecosystem services, and climate resilience.
Now, let's frame the question before this panel.
What more should pastoralist do for biodiversity? I think that the question should actually be whether finance and policy should support the continuation of pastoralism.
If you look at the next slide, 80 to 85% of Sub Saharan Africa come from Africa.
The remaining biodiversity in Sub Saharan Africa is outside formerly protected rangelands.
But you look at the finances, most of the finances go to formerly protected areas and institutions that work with formerly protected areas and ecosystems, which then means it goes to 15% of the biodiversity.
Now, I want to bring three direct asks to this conversation.
First, we need direct financial access, a dedicated simplified funding mechanism for grassroots pastoralist institutions and others that are working with pastoralists.
It must reach the actual stewards of the land.
Second, secure ten and mobility rights.
Customer land rights and community mobility corridors must be legally protected.
Land restoration will fail if pastoralists are fenced out of their ancestral grazing land.
Pastoralism depends on mobility.
It's a very important aspect.
We've discussed these a lot during the International of Regance and pastoralism, and it's important that with secure tenure, mobility is secured.
Third, we need to honor indigenous and local knowledge, a because if you look at over 70% of livestock derived food consumed in low and middle income households come from informal pastoralist market.
It's our request that traditional ecological knowledge be formally integrated into national action programs and national adaptation plans on equal footing with the scientific data.
Most of the time we depend on science and scientific data and forget that we really need also to include indigenous knowledge into this.
Now, finally, I would like us to ask this question.
Where should the finance go? One, we need to secure Later as the foundation for thriving range lands.
Two, we need to work out a way where education systems are adapted to mobile pastoralists so that pastoralist children like myself are not I was forced to choose whether to go to school or to be a pastoralist.
I think pastoralist children deserve to not make a choice whether they should go to school and or to be pastoralists, they should be able to do both.
They should be able to go to school, to get education, but also as they get education, practice their livelihood system, which is pastoralism.
Thirdly, livestock market systems, we really need to strengthen livestock market systems.
You know, for and along the value chain, the pastoral livelihood systems and the value chains, because we strengthened livestock market systems, pastoralists are able to, you know, enjoy the products of their land.
Lastly, preservation of indigenous knowledge as a living management systems.
Finally, to the parties and partners in this dialogue, as we mark the international year of Vglance and pastoralist, commitments on paper, and I love that the executive secretary also mentioned this must translate to action on the ground.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Bleed.
Now, allow me to invite our second panelists, Garima Rajpal from the Climac Act Initiative.
She will talk about the role of indigenous women in land restoration.
5 minutes.
Namaste, everyone.
My name is Gamma and I'm from the Climac Initiative.
I will get to it.
We're here talking about guardians of the grassland.
When we talk about indigenous pastoral women across India, or for that matter, South Asia, they act as primary custodians of grassland.
However, they're often overlooked in policy discussions, and that is what we are going to talk about today.
Pastoralist women collect f, manage herds, they facilitate natural seed dispersal, maintain native plant diversity, and they keep invasive species at bay.
One of the very techniques I would like to talk about is that, in shallow grasslands and low lying grasslands, uh, women dig wells that filter brackish groundwater into drinkable freshwater using natural soil layers.
This also helps prevent soil salinity from destroying the root systems of native perennal grasses.
Now, these are the women who are protecting, resilent indigenous breeds.
They have co evolved with grasslands, Yet, there exists a paradox here.
Communities that sustain landscapes are increasingly losing access to them and that is what we're going to talk about next.
I would like to talk about states legal classification.
There is a clear distinction between grasslands and wastelands.
Yet legal lines are blurry today.
Legally, in India, especially, a lot of grasslands are today classified as wastelands, which easily are then acquired by industries.
I would also like to talk about even when they're not acquired by industries, when they are identified as wastelands, they're also utilized for wind energy and solar energy, something that you may consider sustainable.
But my question today is, how is that climate justice for indigenous women whose lands access have now been limited? What is sustainable without climate justice is one of the bigger questions I would like to ask today.
Another problem is that the state, especially in South Asia, routinely converts open grazing commons into reserved forests, wildlife, and Chris national parks, limiting the access of pastoralists, but there's a larger problem here.
Monocultur tree plantations and introductions of non native species.
I want you to focus on the lack of integration of indigenous knowledge systems here.
Even when the state is converting open grazing systems into reserved forests, they're planting monoculture, which is then eventually degrading the land, the same land that we're trying to protect.
In a lot of South Asian countries today, criminalization of grazing and terming them as encroaches is still prevalent.
However, in positive light, how have women led the fight against this? Indigenous pastoralist women have taken central roles in community led movements to legally secure grassland rights, and that is exactly where CSOs and gender come in hand in hand together.
Under the Forest Rights Act of 2006 in India, Tribal women from Gujarat, which is a state in India, participated in mapping natural resources, they defined seasonal grazing routes, they filed community forest resources, claimed to protect grasslands from industrial expansion and improper government forestry schemes.
None of this would have been possible without the participation and leadership of indigenous women with support of CSOs.
We want to shift the narrative today.
From looking at them as vulnerable beneficiaries, we want them to be an equivalent partner as land restoration partners.
First, we would want to recognize pastoral landscapes, which basically means we want to reserve community forest rights for indigenous women their access to common goods.
Second, we would want secure pastoral mobility.
Securing mobility means creating pastoral corridors under the pastoral corridors, protecting migratory routes, establishing safe transit resting points, ensuring access to seasonal water resources, and removing transit interstate border barriers, something which is very crucial.
I would then move on to implement existing rights, something that we wouldn't want to spend a lot of time on.
It's simple as that, implement existing rights from policy to action.
Like my co panelists here mentioned, invest directly in pastoral communities.
We're not looking at you providing them further subsidies for ration for livelihood.
What we're looking at is shifting economic subsidies to stall fed industrial livestock production.
We want to decentralize pastoral supply chains.
We want to invest in camel goat milk collection centers.
We want the state to provide mobile health care units.
We want direct market linkage for pastoralist women.
That is how we change to structural financial systems, not simply by providing subsidies.
Finally, put pastoralists at the decision making table.
Please move away from the tokenism of representation.
Simply having women in policy or on table doesn't guarantee that the rights are being eventually implemented at the ground level.
What we continue to follow is the top to bottom approach, but I request every state member sitting here to kindly consider bottom to top approach.
In India, we have experienced how inculcating traditional indigenous knowledge systems have vastly benefited grassland systems.
We come from a place where we have diverse grassland systems ranging from semi arid arid grasslands, plateau grasslands, higher Himalayan grasslands.
That is exactly why I request everyone to look at why women in leadership, especially indigenous women in leadership and CSOs are very important to the action that we are going to commit after the Cop 17.
I think that will be my time.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Garima.
We're hearing quite interesting issues and we're listening, we're learning stories from the pastoral terms of reference.
We're waiting to hear next from the local communities terms of reference, and we're listening about the issues of gender and women engagement in the issues of land restoration.
And food resilience, but also importance of financing in these particular areas.
Our next presenter, the panelists is Tatiana Mihala Blanco Quiroga.
She's from the Association communitaria team.
Tatiana, the floor is yours and Tatiana's presentation is on videos.
So those who do not speak English, please, you may wear your headphones for the translation.
Thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Tatiana.
I'm an indigenous woman from Bolivia, from the shores of the Uruu Lake at 3,600 meters above sea level.
I was a child who ran barefoot on that shore, chasing flamingos, ducks, chopas, Well, our elders told us that water is not only resource.
It is a living part of Patra mama or Mother Earth.
Mining waste, plastic and climate change slowly poison that water.
Heavy metals showed up in the blood test of my own family members.
Families left or community was becoming a case study in what happens when the land goes unfinanced for too long.
However, in 2019, we decided to act.
We couldn't just wait for help.
Then we started the du routine with a group of indigenous woman, braves and that cannot just watch what was happening with our set lake.
We had no large budget and no heavy machinery, only ancestral knowledge than the principle of reciprocity.
What you take from Earth, you must keep.
We turn to something our grandparents already know, tutorial, a native red that naturally absorbs heavy metals from water.
We planted It worked.
Today, more than 6,000 total s have restored over 10 kilometers of shoreline, cutting heavy metal pollution by more than 30%.
We trained over 300 indigenous families in nature based solutions and we build wing the first Bolivian Indigenous woman drug Environmental Laboratory, which has empowered more than 20 indigenous young women in project management and also science.
What changed was not only the water, It was who gets to lead.
Women who were once excluded from technical decisions now run our lab.
Families who watched their leg die are now the ones restoring it on their own terms with their own knowledge validated by science and of course, Mother Earth.
Our community went from being described as climate refugees to being recognized locally and also internationally as a model for land restoration.
The lesson is simple.
The cheapest, fastest, most locally appropriated restoration technology for the greater land is often already inside the community.
It doesn't need to be invented.
It needs only one.
Finance that directly intentionally reaches the ground.
Right now, that finance moves in the opposite direction.
Small grants for restoration filtered through layers of intermediaries against extractive industries operating at an entirely different financial scale.
This is why investment matters.
Every dollar that reaches an indigenous initiative directly without five foreign intermediaries by LDs health, community resilience, and women's leadership at once.
Ours is proof it works.
Multiply it.
You don't just heal one lake, one pastural land.
You with a model range less and healthy land programs everywhere can be replicated.
A your mama mother and entrusted this land to us, to all of us.
Trust us with the resources, and we will keep our promise to her.
Aala, Pachi, spartan.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tatiana.
That was very interesting, very engaging, and very passionate, finance, finance, finance in the indigenous practices, but also in indigenous knowledge and most importantly into intergenerational experience sharing experience transitioning, and also knowledge transmission.
Now I would like to invite our next panelist, my dear friend Hay Moorghai from Ciesa.
She will talk about a topic on the finance and the indigenous people's terms of reference.
Me.
Thank you very much.
Good morning, beautiful people and dear relatives.
I would like to bring by expressing our appreciation for decision five slash CP 16 and particularly for the call to establish an Indigenous People's Caucus and our terms of reference.
For me, the importance of this decision begins very far from this conference room.
I come from Iran, from Asia, from a region where indigenous nomadic pastoralists have sustained range lands through mobility and customary governance for generations, where communities continue to conserve territories through knowledge carries across centuries and where women and young people are not simply beneficiaries of land policies, but holders and transmitters of knowledge that keeps these territories alive.
These are examples from my region, but they are not an Asian history.
Every region represented here carries its own example of peoples whose lives and identities and knowledge are inseparable from territories of life they start.
If these voices are to remain present in this conference, not occasionally here, but meaningfully part of its work, they need a safe and legitimate and self organized space that safeguards their full and effective participation.
And that is why the establishment of all caucuses matters so deeply.
And this principle extends beyond indigenous peoples as right holders.
Meaningful participation matters to civil society organizations, pastoralists and local communities and women and young people to whom the future we are negotiating ultimately belongs.
But the rights to participate is inseparable from another fundamental question.
Who has access to the resources needed to turn participation into action.
This is where participation meets finance.
Here, together with civil society and IUC Jeff and DNet, we underlook an in depth assessment and mapping of financing for land degradation neutrality and it brought together the lived experience of hundreds of organizations across the world.
This is the real assessment which comes from the ground itself.
Finance exists, but too little of it reaches the grassroot actors who are already caring for the territories of life.
From finance mobilized to finance received, we are seeing a very big gaps, which is shown in this slide.
And that's why direct access to finance is very important.
It is not simply about moving more money.
It means finance that is accessible and flexible and shaped around community defined priorities with indigenous and customary institutions recognized as part of finance financial governance.
When finance is restricted, and pays the price.
Finance must also be free from discrimination, free from sanctions, free from unilateral coercive measures.
A community's ability to protect its land should never be determined by its nationality and geography or circumstances.
The community needs its flexible and free from any politicizing.
From financing projects to financing stewardship, perhaps the shift we need is simple but fundamental.
From financing projects to financing a stewardship, direct and flexible and equitable finance that reaches right holders and stakeholders and territories of life towards themselves because none of our territories exist in isolation.
Our range lands connect to food system, our ecosystems cross political borders and consequence of the degradation do not stop at national boundaries.
Ultimately, we are all interconnected.
And so when finance reaches an indigenous peoples, a pastoralist, a local community, a woman, protecting who protecting their land, or a young people, person carrying knowledge into the next generation, we are not financing one community alone.
We are investing in the continuity of the living system upon which we all depend.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lori.
Thank you, honey.
So because I'm inviting Lori now.
Thank you, honey.
Our next presenter, it will be doctor Laurie Marko from the Conservation and Synergies Wildlife Crime and International Policy Cheetah Conservation Fund.
Today, we will hear not only about the conservation area, but also very importantly about human wildlife coexistence and general conservation of the range lands.
Laurie, the floor is yours.
Okay.
Do we get my slide, sir? No slides? One.
Thank you.
Well, Excellencies, distinguished delegation colleagues and fellow citizens of Earth.
When we see a cheetah running across the open plains, we see more than the world's fastest land animal.
We see a living rangeland.
The cheetah is an icon of the arid landscapes and a powerful indicator of their health.
The cheetah needs space, connected habitat, healthy prey populations and communities able to coexist with wildlife.
When these ecosystems weaken, the cheetah is among the first carnivore to disappear.
The decline warns us that the land is also in trouble.
Soils are degrading, open grasslands are disappearing, and pastoral livelihoods are becoming more vulnerable.
When cheetahs, most of them, over 80% are living outside of protected areas, working across rangelands shared with people and livestock.
Cheetah Conservation Fund therefore cannot succeed without practical and protected areas alone.
It must be incorporated into how rangelands are managed, restored, and governed.
At the Cheetah Conservation Fund, based in Namibia, we have learned that coexistence must be practiced and it must benefit people.
Our livestock guarding dog program helps farmers protect their herds without killing predators.
One of nature's solutions, the dogs have been used for over 6,000 years, but we've forgotten about simple solutions.
The dogs reduce livestock loss, protect farmers livelihoods, and allow cheetahs and other carnivores to remain on the land.
Through future Farmers of Africa programs, we've combined livestock guarding dogs with improved herd management, predator identification, secure corralling, and sustainable land use practices, managing our lands, our rangelands, our wildlife, our livestock, and supporting the livelihoods.
This strengthens food security while reducing human wildlife conflict.
We also restore habitat, bush encroachment, which is one of the biggest problems we have through much of the arid lands where cheetahs found, where thickened thorn bush has taken over our rangelands, drinking our underground water because their roots are so deep causing deseration, limiting habitats for cheetahs and their prey.
We've developed a habitat restoration program which carefully harvests our encroaching bush, converts it into a biomass fuel, which is Forest Stewardship Council certified.
This creates employment, opens up productive grasslands, and promotes rural enterprises and connects ecological restoration with economic value.
Community based conservancies are critical and Namibia is a leader and foremost with the conservancy Initiative.
These solutions from individual farms to the wider landscape, they place communities at the center of governance, monitoring, benefitial sharing, and decisions about land and wildlife.
They also help protect the movement corridors that cheetahs and other wildlife need.
Together, these solutions deliver land restoration, drought resistance, biodiversity recovery, climate adaptation, and stronger livelihood for rural communities.
The integrated outcomes are at the heart of UN CCD.
Finally, our next step to work towards is to look at ecosystem stewardship certification, which could be a credible and measurable system that recognizes rewards for landholders and communities who restore range lands, conserve biodiversity, maintain wildlife, connectivity, protect predators, and strengthen livelihoods.
Certification can connect responsible land management to markets, investment, climate and biodiversity, finance, and public recognition.
It can transform coexistence from a cost carried by rural communities alone into a value shared by society.
I invite UN CCD parties, communities, technical partners, and the private sector to help us develop at the scale that this certification can be supported to help our communities to promote our dry lands into productive ecosystems.
If the cheetah can run, the rangeland is alive.
Let us recognize and reward the people who steward keeping things alive.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lori.
We are seeing we're learning quite a lot today, including even the synergies of the three conventions in the Art of Ranch conservation and restoring degraded land, as well as wildlife conservation.
Now, I would like to invite our panelist of the day Us Oscar, very good friend of mine as well from the World reindeer Herders.
He will present today the Global Pastoral Indigenous Pastoralist Call for Action, Ulam Batar Declaration 2026.
Welcome, Us.
Thank you.
Excellencies, pastoralists, ladies and gentlemen, Rob Oscalhn Maria Hun.
I bid you all a good day.
First, we congratulate the always hospitable Mongolia for a brilliant hosting of Cop 17.
We thank Mongolia for initiating and championing the first ever International of range lands and pastoralists.
We also thank Mongolia for hosting the global pastoralist gathering held here last week, August ten to 15.
This global gathering brought together some 300 pastoralists from across the world.
Here we produced a declaration that in effect gives a voice to several hundred million pastoralists, the voice of the global pastoralist community.
We thank Mongolia and the Global Alliance for range lands and pastoralists for making this possible.
This is our call for action for our lands, our territories, our heritage, and our future.
I will read now the first section of the preamble.
We, the pastoralist peoples of the world, including the indigenous pastoralist peoples, declare that we are the true guardians, knowledge, and rights holders of our ancestral lands, territories, and resources.
For generations, we have sustainably governed and managed pastoral range lands through our customary institutions, traditional knowledge, mobility, and collective stewardship, sustaining biodiversity, ecosystems, food systems, cultures, and livelihoods.
Pastoralism is not a relic of the past.
It is a living, dynamic, and resilient system that contributes to the well being of present and future generations.
This declaration have 11 sections after the preamble, and I will read the titles.
Pastoralist people's rights, mobility and nomadic pastoralism, land degradation and land tenure, climate justice and biodiversity, pastoralist knowledge, land stewardship and governance, youth, women, and family based pastoralism, markets, value added and food sovereignty, people, health and well being, information, data, technology and innovation, direct access to finance, financial justice, and finally, global recognition, solidarity, and continuity.
This is our roadmap, our call for action, and I will offer some additional remarks.
As our territories span the Earth and as we provide food security and food sovereignty on a global scale for 500 million people, our realities, our knowledge, and our perspectives must be central and not left behind.
We assert that we are not merely beneficiaries or stakeholders, we are right holders, knowledge holders and solution providers.
And our rights are key, and the UN rights based approach must be followed.
As pastoralist peoples, the key question is not whether we have rights.
The question is whether our rights are recognized and respected.
We find that today there are still many myths about pastoralists and pastoralism.
We hold that for any policy to be effective, myths must be replaced by facts.
To be clear, we assert that pastoralism is not causing desertification, but on the contrary represents a viable land use in the support of arid, semi arid, and cold arid areas, as also backed by the latest science.
Here, I will quote the cop president, the Honorable Bitzk Bmnk to live from the land has always meant accepting responsibility to care for it.
Indeed, well spoken.
A further word on mobility.
Pastoralism and nomadic pastoralism are neither inefficient, backwards, or a problem to be solved, nor is it forced by poverty or driven by randomness or placelessness.
Our mobility is rather a rational choice and a resource and strength for our adaptation and resilience and for the preservation and enhancement of biodiversity.
Our mobility represents a systematic adaptation strategy for climate change and sustainable nature use in often marginal, variable, and unpredictable environments.
It should not merely be something that governments tolerate.
It should not just be something that governments should actively enable and support.
It is something that holds lessons of global value on how to live with change and on resilience.
Because today our global outlook is increasingly complex, variable, and unpredictable.
The world is increasingly raising questions that pastoralists have for long been answering.
We have been living change for generations, centuries and millennia.
President, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, towards my conclusion, pastoralism is not a relic of the past.
It is a living, resilient livelihood system.
Mobility represents a systematic adaptation strategy for climate change variability.
We are rights holders, knowledge holders, and solution providers.
We are part of the solution for our common future.
Our declaration proposes concrete calls for action within the CCD mandate and beyond that would maintain and develop pastoralism globally.
We affirm that the global pastoralist gathering marks the beginning.
We commit to lead and convene another global gathering in 2030 to review progress, assess implementation, and renew these calls to action.
And we invite governments, other indigenous peoples, institutions, and partners, and other stakeholders to support this process and work.
Please use the QR code to find the declaration.
This is our call for action.
We invite your collaboration.
O.
Thank you.
Thank you, and I kindly request you to give a very, very good round of applause to all our panelists and the keynote speaker, as well as the delegation that is seated at the high table, the presidency, the Secretariat, and the secretary.
Please give them also the very big round of applause.
And your moderator.
Now, I would like to kindly request those who wish to ask questions, give comments, to use the microphone and we will start with the parties, and then we will proceed with all others who are present.
The session was very interesting.
We heard six presenters and very diverse topics from conservation to inclusion to wildlife to financing up to the declaration, including all of this combination using science, technology, knowledge management, intergenerational transmission of information and knowledge.
Now, I would like to request in the order.
I give the floor to the representative of European Union.
Thank you very much.
Dear representatives of civil society organizations, dear delegates, good morning.
It is my privilege to deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its 27 member states.
Civil society organizations play a pivotal role in strengthening inclusive and participatory governance at the molal, regional, national and local levels.
Through their work on the ground, they have advanced the implementation of the UNCCD and its efforts to combat desification, land degradation, and drought while bringing valuable expertise and practical experience to UN CCD processes.
Their insights are meaningful for both our discussions and deliberations.
Their participation further promotes transparency, accountability, and supports of effective monitoring of progress in implementing our commitments to address DLDD.
Unisity is commonly called the People's Convention and has a long history of CSO involvement.
The first dedicated CP decision is decision five slash CP nine in Buenos Aires in 2009.
The UN City's nearly 1,200 accredited civil society organizations provide information on what is working, where implementation is failing, and how policies affect communities, land users, and other stakeholders.
Excluding that information does not make the convention more focused.
It risks making decision making less informed.
There is no addressing DLDD without implementation on the ground.
We therefore acknowledge the important role of the CSO panel, accredited CSOs within the UNCD and welcome the terms of reference for the establishment of the indigenous peoples and local communities caucuses.
The EU and its member states call for the adoption of all proposed agenda items, including the agenda item on participation of civil society organizations.
Removing agenda item eight A is not simply dropping a discussion about CSOs.
It would interrupt a 17 year sequence of COP decisions on an established institutional arrangement.
We therefore support retaining the agenda item and consider ICD Cp 17 slash three as mandated by the Cp 16.
Parties should have the opportunity to examine the secretary's report, assess what is useful, and decide collectively on any implement needed to CSO participation.
We welcome the focus of the consultations on pastoralists, resilient communities, and finance.
These matters deserve to be discussed at the UNCD as they represent three interconnected parts of the implementation equation, stewardship, implementation on the ground, and resources.
We thank the CSO panel for giving pastoralists and local communities a space and the opportunity to make their voices heard during this Cp 17.
We invite all parties to carefully listen to them.
Their contribution in our joint efforts towards land restoration and drought resilience is essential for translating our commitments into action on the ground.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I now give the floor to the representative of Armenia.
Thank you.
I have a privilege on behalf of Armenia first to thank government of Mongolia and people for Hospitality and Secretariat for organizing Cop 17, and of course, our panelists for sharing their views about this important topic.
For Armenia, I would like to highlight that a The importance of rangelands and pasturalist, their contribution to sustainable land management, biodiversity conservation, and resilient rural livelihoods.
Armenia is a mountainous and landlocked country with an average elevation of around 1,800 meters, reached 4,090 meters at highest point and around 82% of territory is covered by permanent pastures while natural grasslands form another important part of our landscape.
For Armenia, grasslands are not simply areas for livestock production.
They are living landscapes, homes for biodiversity, source of livelihoods and an important part of our natural heritage.
Our relationship with livestock and biodiversity also goes back thousands of years.
This presence of wild relatives of domestic animals, including wild sheep, goats, and pigs, reflects the long history of animal domesification and breeding in the Armenian highlands.
This natural and cultural heritage reminds us that biodiversity, pastoralism, and human livelihoods are deeply interconnected.
Armenia is part of a globally important biodiversity region with remarkable diversity of species and ecosystems.
Our mountains, pastures, and grasslands provide essential habitats for biodiversity and support rural communities whose livelihoods are closely connected to these landscapes.
Pastoralists are therefore not simply users of French lands, they are stewards of these landscapes and custodians of traditional knowledge.
Sustainable pastoralism can contribute to maintaining biodiversity, preventing land degradation, and straightening resilience to drought and climate change.
This is particularly important for Armenia as we prepare to host CBD Cop 17.
For us, the connection between land, biodiversity, climate, and livelihood is not theoretical.
Healthy range lands are essential to achieving our biodiversity and land degradation objectives while ensuring that conservation also delivers benefits for local communities.
Recognition must be matched with action and resources.
Armenia calls upon donors, international financial institutions and development partners to mobilize greater financial resources for sustainable management and restoration and to invest in the communities that are protecting these landscapes.
As we mark the International year of range lands and pastoralist, let us move from commitments to implementation, increasing investment, strengthening community based management, and ensuring that pastoralists have a meaningful voice in decision concerning their lands.
Taking this opportunity, let me warmly invite all of you to Armenia for CBD Cop soon in October.
Armenia stands ready to strengthen cooperation across the Rio conventions and to share our experiences.
As we prepare CBD Cop 17 under the call to Act for Nature, let us take this message forward together.
Let us act for nature and communities and act together for the future of our range lands.
Thank you.
I now give the floor to the representative of Brazil.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you all delegates and representatives of civil society present here.
I would like to thank you also for this beautiful session, for the blessings that we received in the beginning.
You know the interesting presentations on how civil society is already contributing to the implementation of the UN Convention to combat the certification.
I would like to emphasize that Brazil attaches great importance to the participation and engagement of civil society in this convention and deeply regrets that the item on civil society participation was requested to be removed from Cop 17 agenda.
As a strong supporter of the establishment of a caucus for indigenous peoples and a caucus for local communities in this convention, Brazil has already expressed support to the plenary for the original agenda together with the European Union, and we will continue doing our best efforts to maintain the item as it is, including on the participation of civil society.
Nevertheless, Brazil is extremely concerned with all the uncertainties on the next steps for the adoption of their terms of references and is trying to find alternative solutions to keep the process alive.
Therefore, we would like to suggest here that we include the discussion of the terms of reference for both caucuses as part of this open dialogue sessions.
In Brazil's perspective, a debate on the terms of reference would allow us to keep the process alive until Cp 18 if we don't manage to revert the item to cop seventeen's agenda.
It would not impede us to continue working in parallel for the official adoption of the terms of references at this session, which is Brazil's priority.
Thank you.
I now give the floor to the civil society speaker representative.
I apologize.
I retract.
I'll kindly request I give the floor to the representative of Iraq.
Your Excellency, dear delegates, the delegation of the Republic of Iraq is honored to express its gratitude to the Republic of Mongolia for the excellent hospitality and organization.
Iraq with its various regions and provinces from the marshlands in the south to the mountains in Kurdistan, all of our areas are facing increasing impact of desertification and land deterioration, as well as increasing impact on biodiversity and water security.
That's why we reiterate that tackling these challenges requires an inclusive approach based on institutional partnership with the CSO organization as the pillar for field solution for sustainable solutions, namely when it comes to adaptation and increasing resilience, as well as supporting local initiatives for natural resources management, water rationalization and fighting the land slides such as marshlands and Kurdistan.
We call for nature based solutions for restoring forests and vulnerable ecosystems in order to limit land degradation.
We call for awareness and outreach in society.
We call for the transfer of technology to rural communities in order to secure efficient adaptation to climate change.
Finally, we call for mechanisms that can Enable CSOs financially and technically and to include them in national and regional plans to contain desertification in order to translate our commitments into land restorations and preserving our land for future generations.
Thank you.
Thank you, delegates, dear colleagues.
Our session today is very interactive.
I would like you to take note of that.
And we would also like to hear from the panelists at some point to hear their reaction, and I will give back the floor to you to give comments and ask questions.
If you don't mind, I will kindly give the floor to the Maldives and after that, I will allow the panelists to give their view for two to 3 minutes and we will continue with our comments.
The Maldives, the floor is yours.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you.
As this is the first time Malice has taken the floor, allow me to begin with thanking the government of Mongolia for their generous hospitality in hosting the COP.
We have been deeply moved by the Mongolian own experience in the land degradation and by the leadership you have shown in bringing the world to Ulambata under the themes restoring and restoring Hope.
As a small island developing state, our experience in land degradation looks fundamentally different from the dry land context.
Our challenge is not desertification.
It is a loss of land itself, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion into our freshwater lands, and sea level rise steadily, including the arable ground our food system depends on.
The scale of this context is stark.
Molds has approximately 27 square kilometers of cultivated land nationwide, a figure that leaves us structurally dependent on food imports and action acutely exposed to any further loss of arable ground.
We must find avenues through this convention to help address the challenges seeds face in the context of land degradation, coastal land loss and the associated impacts on the land and livelihoods are deeply concerned for countries such as Maldives.
It is then important that we develop adequate indicators and mechanisms to capture these challenges.
Concurrently, we urge that the land outlook Scopes processes includes a dedicated coastal and see specific assessment and that parties consider how the convention's financial architecture can better connect with adequate adaptation finance mechanisms already built for exactly this challenge.
Restoring land, restoring hope must mean restoring all lands including the lands we lose to the sea.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It will be unfair not to invite voices from the human bodies and civil society speaker before I give the floor to the panelists, and then we will continue with our comments.
I therefore now we give the floor to the representative of the human bodies.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Moderator.
Madam President, Excellency's distinguished delegates.
On behalf of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations entity on Gender Equality and the empowerment of Women, we welcome this important session on the inclusion of activities of civil society organizations within the official program of work of the Conference of the Parties.
Civil Society organizations, including women led organizations, indigenous peoples, local communities, and youth are not only key stakeholders, but effective partners in advancing sustainable land governance and implementation of the Convention.
Ensuring that decisions are informed by life experiences, local realities, and the voices, knowledge, and leadership of those most impacted by desertification, land degradation, and drought is critical to effective implementation.
A gender responsive, human rights based approach to environmental action requires the full, equal, safe, informed, meaningful, and effective participation of all persons and decisions that affect them.
Participation is not merely a procedural consideration.
It is a human rights and an essential foundation for legitimacy, accountability, and better environmental outcomes.
OHHR and UN Women also underscore the vital role played by environmental human rights defenders in protecting ecosystems, advancing sustainable land management, and promoting human rights, particularly the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment and the rights of nature.
Yet around the world, individuals and communities working to protect land and ecosystems continue to face threats, intimidation, and reprisals.
Women environmental human rights defenders face gender specific challenges and gender based violence.
We appeal to the parties to align actions with the Escaso Agreement, which reinforces the commitment to recognize, protect and promote all the human rights of human rights defenders in environmental matters and stress the need for UNCCD Cop 70 outcomes to support measures that enable civil society and women environmental human rights defenders to participate safely and effectively in environmental decision making processes.
Such efforts are consistent with international human rights standards and can help ensure that decisions are informed by diverse perspective, traditional knowledge, and lived experience.
Thank you.
Thank you, representative of the UN bodies.
May I kindly also request you to probably tell us what UN bodies are you representing.
Thank you.
If you can just mention them before I proceed to the next representative.
Can you hear me? Yeah.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN Women.
Thank you.
I thank you representative of the UN bodies.
I now give the floor to the representative of the civil society.
Currently the Civil Society speaker, you may press.
Yes.
My name is ve Kanandan working in N Seva based in India.
So this 1992, in the Rio Summit yet Summit, Jeff, Global Environment facility, they constituted small grants program, SGP.
So this UNDPSGP program, see, they are very fast, you know, they're allocating 50,000 to 75,000, even, of course, like $50,000 for strategic projects.
So that funds come to national level, you know, They are not specifically, even though this international year for rangeland and pastor is 2026, their objective is their message is very clear to devote the money for this degraded rangeland community participatory, restoration of rangeland.
When priority comes, they are not at all mentioning that even though we are representing this at national level and international level.
They have to mention clearly at least the 088 phase HDP eight phase they have to clearly mention giving priority for rest now degrade our person with the community participation so that thematically, it should be included.
That is one of the aspect, we want to give as a comment.
Thank you.
Thank you, the CSO speaker.
I now give the floor to our panelists for a few minutes and I will continue with the comments from the parties.
I see hands? Yes, please, Andrés.
Thank you, Chair.
In partial response to the intervention from Iraq.
Yes, in face of environmental change, planning is key, but so is leadership.
Capacity building for pastoralist peoples and communities should be built on so that communities can take charge for leadership locally.
In face of crisis, including those that slowly manifest, the worst that can happen is that our communities become apathic.
So we call for support to pastoralist led initiatives, including for women and youth in leadership that recognize that while support from science is valuable.
Pastoralists also know best ourselves how to adapt on the ground as we live the change and as we apply our traditional knowledge systems.
Such support would be meaningful and would be contributing to the development and maintenance of pastoralists for the reasons I gave in my intervention.
Thank you, Keto.
Thank you, Andrés.
Do I see Anne? Yes.
Thank you very much.
Following our presentations, we greatly appreciated hearing several parties here, recognize the important contribution of indigenous peoples and local communities and pastoralists and civil society organizations, women and youth.
These statements reflect a shared willingness to listen and learn and work together and the real synergy.
The establishment of an Indigenous people's caucus as well as local communities caucus could provide a safe and welcoming and respectful spaces for regular and upon dialogue with parties and they would allow us to share our experiences and perspectives more comfortably with you and while also listening to and better understanding the priorities and responsibilities and concerns of our governments.
These caucuses would serve as a bridge for building trust and acing mutual understanding and identifying areas of common ground.
They could also help women and youth participate more confidently and fully while enabling civil society organizations to contribute as supportive partners and through clearer and more consistent channels of communication.
These caucuses could help all of us develop practical and collectively supported way forward.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes, you may proceed.
Thank you so much.
From the conversation here, I think one thing that comes out clearly is that when I think I'll borrow from the comment from my sister Jane, when finance is restricted, the land pays the price.
It's really important that even the parties here in understand that this need for financing to get to the grassroots level.
And secondly, we need diverse voices in this, you know, within the COP systems, and therefore, I'll also, you know, reiterate that they need to support the Indigenous people's caucus to have it formally, you know, structured within the COP system so that we are able to, you know, bring diverse voices both from the grassroots CSOs and, you know, local communities.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
I would first like to congratulate the representatives of the World render heroes for their declaration.
Then I would like to thank nation states and the European Union for encouraging the inclusion of CSOs and gender.
I would like to make comments on the statements made by the delegation from Maldives and the representative of the OCHCR and UN Women.
Beginning with the comments made by the delegation of Maldives, I think it's equally important to recognize the status of the small developing island nations and how we can act with them, keeping in mind climate justice.
When I say climate justice, I include the DI principles, which is diversity, equity, and inclusivity.
It is important for us to also address people with needs, people with disability, who are usually sidelined or often overlooked during these discussions.
However, it is important to recognize that the ones who are the most vulnerable to climate crisis, especially in small island developing states, Um, moving ahead, I would like to thank the representative from the Office of High Commissioner of Human Rights and UN Women for highlighting the need for a gender based response towards climate change crisis, especially when we're talking about indigenous pastoralist women, um, or members directly linked with range lands.
I think it is important to recognize how women in our society carry an additional burden, which is the burden of the social reproduction of labor.
They're not only at the forefront of the crisis, but also at the forefront of sexual abuse, assault, and violence.
I think it is equally important to recognize their sexual reproductive health needs when it comes to the way they are dealing with climate crisis and heat waves.
I think that would be my comment.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I now invite you to Tiana.
Thank you, dear moderator.
Thank you, distinguished delegates.
You've just heard our story in Bolivia, experience of other sisters CSOs and we've just heard from a number of countries who've supported mechanisms for indigenous peoples and grassroots communities.
We thank them.
But let me be frank.
Supporting is not the same as financing and financing is not the same as direct financing.
In we're not expecting new technologies.
We use what we know the principle of reciprocity, what you take from the land you return.
That's what we'd apply in many areas in our land.
Many women who've never been at a technical decision making table now direct technical laboratories.
We haven't done with much funds.
We've done it with virtually nothing.
I come here to ask for more than just talk of support.
I come to ask for a mechanism, a mechanism that doesn't go through five intermediaries before reaching the ground to indigenous peoples, local communities, to women, to youth.
Every intermediary that spends $1 is part of m that deteriorates while a memorandum is being signed.
What we want, I can sum up in three words, direct trust now.
Trust that ancestral knowledge validated by scientific technology development by indigenous hands by youth, women is more than sufficient.
Direct financing to those who are already there in the land, not to those who write about it.
Because every season that passes without that mechanism is another family that leaves, another Pachama entrusted this earth to us and we are doing our part.
Now it's your turn deciding whether the global financial system will keep its promise.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you.
I now thank you, Tetiana Lori.
You may want to say something Thank you, delegates for the great insight that you provided to us and we do look forward to carrying this on also in Armenia.
We have shared that our communities are actually at the middle section between that policy and that of the stability.
With that, we are looking at how to bring this all together.
I represent wildlife.
Wildlife has no voice and therefore they live in harmony with people or coexistence.
We need to find that harmony together and that's why I'm asking us to look at a public private partnership that would be a global representation where we could actually start looking at certifying and working together with the people on the land so that they are rewarded for carrying forward good land practices.
Working with animals, we use positive reinforcement.
And with that, I think our communities need positive reinforcement as well, and that's very difficult when so many of the people are in poverty.
They can't get from point A to point B and somehow we have to bridge that gap.
Once we bridge that gap, then we can start seeing success, success in the survival of our ecosystems, the biodiversity, and the communities that live within them.
But what we really need to do is to find that way forward and we need to do that together.
We need to do it rapidly.
Our time is running out.
And with that, I'm asking us all to really think outside of the box on ways that we can make a plan that could actually help support communities, range lands, get a healthier ecosystem all together and the biodiversity which is living on the land with people.
We don't want to be on the earth alone and our dry lands are getting drier.
I encourage us to look at something around an ecosystem stewardship type program that could be a public private partnership and help get our communities going better.
We also need community education and we need to work with the the countries that are not as well developed and help develop the capacity on the lands within the governments and within the policies that are there so that we can all live in harmony together soon than later.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, panelists.
I now give the floor to the representative of Peru.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Peru expressed, first of all, his sincere gratitude to the government of Mongolia for his generous hospitality and the excellent organization of this conference.
For the We welcome the holding of the CP 17 under Restoring Land and Restoring Hope and within the framework of the International Year of the Range Lands Pastoralist 2026, an initiative championed by Mongolia that place dry lands ecosystem and the communities that depend of them at the center of our attention.
Peru reaffirms his support for the inclusion of the civil society and the communities in the agenda of this Cp.
It's not just about the issues themselves, but about amping to undermine the process.
In order to maintain dialogue among all parties, Peru will propose that the Gulag Group internally evaluate its position of this important issue and will announce it in the coming days.
As you know, Peru is highly vulnerable of the El Nino phenomenon, which exerts a profound impact of desertification, land degradation, and urgent needs for restoration.
And this has an impact on the communities.
High impact.
So Peru comes with this conference with the conviction that restoring land is restoring hope for present and future generation.
We stand ready to work considerably with all parties, civil society, local communities, and international partners so that the decision we adopt in Ulambor translate into a concrete and measurable action on the ground.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Beeru.
I now give the floor to the representative of Turkmenistan.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
My country, Turkmenistan is speaking here for the first time.
I take this opportunity to thank the Mongolian government for their hospitality, for creating good conditions for successful work.
Also, thanks also to the Secretariat for outstanding organization of this meeting.
In the Central Asian countries, Kazaksan, Kygksan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, Agriculture is a key aspect of the economy and herding is a big feature of life in those countries, unfortunately.
As a result of irrational use, uneven redistribution of rangeland and exposure to drought has ruined many of these lands.
Countries in the sub region are working in scientific research studies whose activities is directly linked to pastural land restoration and degraded land.
At our meeting today, much has been said about the need to disseminate knowledge when it comes to use of rangeland resources.
Colleagues, I think that our main problem here, I'd call it even our main woe is an absence of interaction between science and pastoralists.
We all need to think, how can we forge interaction between scientists and local pastoralists and herders.
What sources of financial resources? How can we draw financing to disseminate that knowledge to mainstream scientific advancements? In order to preserve and restore rangeland ecosystems.
I thank you very much for organizing this meeting.
This meeting is very much needed.
Thank you.
Thank you to Turkmenistan.
I would now like to give the floor to the representative of Australia.
Thank you.
Australia welcomes civil society organizations engagement in the UN CCD.
The open dialogue sessions are an important part of the Cp and it is great to hear all the views around the room today, including from the esteemed panel.
CSOs play an important role in linking the UN CCDs global agenda to the local level and ensuring the diverse perspectives of stakeholders are heard.
Involvement of CSOs is important to the implementation of the convention.
We welcome their valuable on ground experience in managing DLDD.
CSO participation is a central element to the delivery of COPs within the UNCCD, UNFC and also the CBD.
We appreciate the work done by the UN CCD CSO Panel to facilitate coordination, communication and collaboration among the CSOs.
We support the meaningful participation of CSOs within the UNCCD to reflect diverse stakeholder perspectives.
Australia also strongly supports the participation of indigenous peoples in shaping the future direction of the UN CCD in areas such as land restoration, sustainable land management, environmental protection, and food security.
We recognize the deep connection indigenous peoples have to their land and waters, which underpins their economic, social, cultural and spiritual well being and offers valuable contributions to the convention's objectives.
The Indigenous People's Caucus will provide a dedicated channel for Indigenous people's perspectives, knowledge, and recommendations to inform parties' deliberations and the UNCCD's future work.
Australia is police have advocated for and supported the decision to establish an inaugural Indigenous People's Caucus at UNCCD Cop 16.
We are also proud we have supported the UNCCD Secretariat's initial work on establishing the caucus, consulting regionally with indigenous peoples and developing the terms of reference.
We see the Indigenous People's Caucus as a vital mechanism to ensure indigenous peoples can meaningfully contribute their views, perspectives, and perspectives to the UN CCD's work.
We want to see the establishment of the standalone Indigenous people's Caucus at Cop 17, as well as the establishment of a local communities caucus.
We welcome the consultative approach taken by the UN CCD Secretariat and others in developing the Indigenous people's Caucus to ensure this is an indigenous people's led process designed to reflect indigenous priorities and approaches.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Australia and now I would like to invite the representative of China.
Thank you, Madam President.
China highly appreciates the Secretariat work in promoting CSO's participation in the conventions meetings and processes, including supporting the operation of the CSO panel, further increasing the number of accredited CSOs participating in the corp conferences, expanding the participation of specific groups such as indigenous people, local communities, you women, people with disabilities in the conventions processes.
And strengthening capacity building and financial support to the CSOs.
During this scope, dialogue between parties and CSOs will also be held as an established practice.
China wishes this event a complete success.
The CSOs play a vital role in assisting parties, state parties to improve the desertification control policies, disseminate expertise and skills, and provide capacity building and financial support.
They are a key force to advance the convention's global implementation and to complete the efforts made by all state parties.
China stands ready to work together with all parties and the Secretariat to guide the CSOs, to continue playing the dual role in the convention's processes, while further enhancing the representation and participation of the CSOs from developing countries.
So Furthermore, China thanks the Secretariat based on the previous COP resolution for providing explanation and analysis of the advantages and disadvantages regarding the procedure of CSO's participation in convention process, including participation in COP contact groups and for summarizing the relevant rules and practices of other multilateral environmental conventions such as UFCC and CBD.
China believes that the convention process is a party driven intergovernmental process and should refer to the general practices of the UN and existing multilateral environmental conventions.
While considering the current status of the convention and adhering to the convention's rules of procedure and existing practices, the corp contact group should be led by government delegations.
While the local practices of CSOs are very important, their voices can be heard through the government delegations in the contact group negotiations.
Next, my colleague would like to speak on the rangeland related issues.
This year is the International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists.
We're pleased to see that through the joint efforts of the Secretariat, the host country, and the relevant international organizations and countries, This cop has further recognized the importance of rangeland and pastoralists and reached a consensus on the key role of healthy rangeland and the importance of improving pastoralist livelihood.
Mongolia and FAO have jointly proposed a ten year action plan for rangeland restoration, which China highly appreciates.
This is an important measure to continue the achievements of the International Year of Rangeland and pastoralists.
Currently, rangeland restoration and pastoralist livelihood has been elevated to an unprecedented level and has received widespread attention.
Sustainable Rangeland management is a long term effort.
We welcome and stand ready to respond to the suggestion made by the Asian group in the opening ceremony to establish international Rangeland Day.
We hope to establish such a commemorate day for rangeland and patch lists worldwide, similar to the International Day to combat deserification, the International Day of Forest and the International Day of Wetlands to continuously enhance the international community's awareness attention to rangeland and patrols and to inspire governments and partners worldwide.
Um We're concerned with this issue to work together towards the common goal of sustainable development of rangeland and patist.
We hope the outcome of the COP will reflect the party's cause and promote the establishment such a commemorate day in the necessary format.
We also appreciate and look forward to the initiative on sustainable Rangeland Management and the development of Patist livelihood released at this cop and stand ready to share China's experience in Rangeland ecological protection and sustainable management with all parties.
And to work together to promote rangeland health, realize rangeland value, and promote the development of pastoral area and pastoralist livelihood.
I thank you.
I thank the representative of China.
I now give the floor to the representative of Yemen.
Madam Chair, Madam Executive Secretary Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, representatives of NGOs, I thank Mongolia for the hospitality and for the good organization.
Yemen welcomes this open dialogue and expresses its gratitude with regards to the introduction of NGO activities at this cop.
NGOs.
One of the parties that oversee the implementation of the convention, they take practical measures both at national level and local levels.
They have the, the necessary expertise, particularly in countries that suffer from conflict, fragility, from drought and weak institutional capacities, land degradation, and water scarcity, as well as drought and desertification as well as from the impacts of climate change.
All of these factors affect the livelihoods in these regions and particularly they affect the most vulnerable.
NGOs those that intervene to meet these challenges.
They're made up of youngsters, women and civil society participation should be targeted and be continued.
It should not be limited to assistance and attendance at conferences, rather, NGOs should play a role in monitoring, reporting, and in, drawing up topics.
There also needs to be participation and financial support to NGOs, especially those coming from developing countries.
These NGOs face obstacles in terms of visas and other factors.
Therefore, we encourage partners, the Secretariat to expand capacity building and programs and to facilitate accreditation for NGOs, while to provide them support, the expertise that NGOs have and youngsters, women, smallholder farmers and herders.
This all needs to be reflected in NGO programs.
Arrangements need to be made to help those NGOs participate.
We also need to take into account the situation of indigenous peoples.
We call for opportunities to be given to facilitate procedures to allow national and local NGOs to be able to travel and to reach funds that would allow them to restore land.
In conclusion, to implement the convention, there needs to exist coordination between governments on the one hand, and local and international partners on the other, that partnership needs to be joint.
It must be led by the stakeholders at national and particularly at local levels.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Yemen.
I now give the floor to the representative of Sengan.
Mercy, Madam Thank you, Madam Moderator.
We welcome this civil society open dialogue session with the parties focusing on financing and pastoralism.
We commend the panelists for the very rich presentations that highlight once more the crucial contribution of non state actors to attaining the land degradation neutrality targets.
The principle of participation is a fundamental safeguard in the convention combating desertification.
Civil Society plays an essential role in fighting desertification.
And sustainable land management.
It mobilizes local populations.
It carries the voice of vulnerable communities to international negotiations.
It supports numerous governments in drafting and implementing anti desertification programs and implements tangible solutions on the ground.
The global drop in rainfall in recent years, has led to chronic deficits and has had a major impact on pastoralism.
The most important diagnosis is not just that the land is degrading and that desertification is intensifying, but rather that the degradation and desertification has become a problem of multisexual resilience that affects food systems, pastoral rangelands, it affects water security, transhumans, migration, financing, and local governance.
When it comes to pastoralism, Senegal has developed many initiatives to improve pastoral rearing through pastoral units.
Those grassroots organizations manage water resources, they protect the environment, and they also manage in coordination transhuman corridors.
Investment has been made at the level of the Sahel region to support pastoralism in certain regions of the country.
Milk units.
Dairy units have been established to manage the transport of dairy products and for better entrepreneurship at local level.
We are convinced that civil society, grassroots and pastoral communities continue to be key sustainable development actors in combating desertification in the sustainable land management and resilience resilience to drought and it is important to strengthen our gain so far in supporting stakeholders in community resilience to be able to access innovative financing for the benefit of communities, especially those in the agri paastoral sector.
Thank you very much.
I thank the representative of Senegal.
I now give the floor to the representative of Uruguay.
Thank you very much.
Rig, I would like to thank the organization of this dialogue, the presenters and the presentations given by the panel.
Having listened carefully to the various statements, we understand that it has been proven that the important role that civil society plays as well as actors in civil society to comply with the goals of the convention, in particular, to conserve, restore, and manage range lands sustainably.
Above and beyond recognizing this role, Uruguay also recognizes the right of civil society to access to information, public participation, and access to justice in environmental affairs.
Therefore, we would like to join the parties who have requested that we consider the participation and involvement of civil society organizations in meetings and processes of the convention under the Cops agenda by respecting the previous mandates of other conference of the parties.
Thank you very much.
I thank the representative of Uruguay and now I give the floor to the representative of Equatorial Guinea.
Madam Chair, Excellencys distinguished delegates.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're grateful to the government of Mongolia and the executive secretary of the organization for the excellent organization of this COP Cop 17, which is to restore and restore Hope.
I am very pleased to congratulate all of the panelists for the importance of the topics they have each put forward.
Our country, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, in particular, in the sub region of Central Saline Africa continue to face significant challenges.
One of these is the need to restore land.
Bearing in mind that our economies continue to be very fragile and thus the issue of rangelands is crucial.
Our economies are based on the extraction of raw materials, and there are a number of stakeholders who intervene here, whose interventions have a direct impact on land degradation, hence the need to bolster technical capacities, data, and monitoring systems as priorities for our country.
Multifaced north, south, South, and other frameworks are all vital.
Hence, the inclusion of civil society is essential by sharing experiences and mindsets so that we can grapple with major environmental challenges globally.
I'm very pleased to request the Toyo organization if they can share their experience in the environmental laboratory, particularly when it comes to the plantation of various species and water, this being done sustainably.
Because of the issue of heavy metals, heavy materials is one of the most recurring issues we face currently, we would urge the executive Secretariat and the subsidiary bodies to identify optimal practices so as to disseminate them or replicate them in various parts of the world in line with the ten year framework, 2020, 2030 of this convention.
We would stress The direct issues that are involved as highlighted by one of the panelists.
Thank you for your attention.
I thank the representative of Equatorial Guinea, and now I give the floor to the representative of IGOs.
And after that, I'll give the floor to the civil society speaker and we will proceed back to the panel because the time is not on our side and we need to conclude the session.
Thank you.
Madam Chair.
Please press the microphone.
Representative of IGOs.
Are you here? I give the floor to the representative of the civil society speaker, please.
And after that Zimbabwe.
I give to the representative of Zimbabwe.
That will be the last representative from the party, followed by the representative of the civil society, and then we will conclude.
Thank you.
Chairperson and distinguished delegates, the government of Zimbabwe applauds the Secretariat for the report contained in document ICCD slash CP 17.3 on the participation of civil society organizations in the meetings and processes of the convention and takes this opportunity to align itself with the position of the Africa group.
Zimbabwe recognizes the valuable contribution that civil society, community based organizations, and other non state actors continue to make towards the achievement of the convention, objectives, particularly in raising awareness, mobilizing communities, and supporting the implementation of programs to combat desertification, land degradation, and drought, particularly on our arrangements.
Zimbabwe therefore calls on the Corp to preserve the observer status of civil society organizations in the formal negotiating processes of the convention while encouraging parties and the Secretariat to continue strengthening avenues for CSOs engagement at the national and community levels where their contribution is most impactful.
I thank you, Chairperson.
I thank the representative of Zimbabwe.
I give the floor to the representative of IGOs.
If you are here, please press the mic.
You have exactly 30 seconds.
I now give the floor to the Civil Society speaker.
Good morning.
Thank you.
Dear Chair and all delegates, I'm Khalid Haalde from A Latata Pastoralist tribe from Jordan.
I'm here as a global coordinator of the World Alliance with Bindgous people and pastoralist Womb.
I would like to thank our brothers and sisters from the Civil Society organization for their insightful presentations and precious remarks.
OMP was constituted 20 years ago during the UN CCD Cop eight in Madrid and here we are again, bringing our voice and requests for recognition as main actors for the protection of range lands and customary experts of land restoration.
In this more than two decades, we have reunited hundreds of grassroots pastoralist organization from the Tundra to the desert and with ten regional networks in the five continents.
We have just carried out our pastoral assembly in Mongolia and constituted the drafting committee of the global pastoralist Declaration that our dear brother Andrew Oskal from the reindeer Hrdles just presented.
We second the request for both indigenous peoples and local communities caucuses and we also request a pastoral Caucus as official tool of engagement with your respected track for keeping our Mother Earth suitable and caring for all.
As global pastors network, we want this important global pastors Declaration to be recognized and embraced by the parties.
We also call for your support to provide the grassroot pastors movement with the means to put in action, allowing us to implement and monitor this road map for action with all the regional networks and the diversity of pastoral peoples.
The instrument is here and the time is now.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, the representative of civil society.
I give the floor to the representative of IGOS.
The floor is yours.
Thank you very much at the onset.
Allow me to express my sincere appreciation to the United Nations Convention, UNCCD Secretariat for the excellent organizations and the successful conduct of the Cop 17 in coordination with the government of Mongolia.
The Arab Organization for Agricultural Development that I represent works with all Arab countries supporting governments, communities, and rural population in addressing land degradation, drought, water scarcity, and challenges facing sustainable agriculture and pastoral livelihood.
We would like to emphasize an important message today that communities affected with conflict must not be left behind.
In several Arab countries, conflict and instability have seriously affected rural communities, smallholder farmers, pastoralists, women, and youth.
At the same time, access to international programs, calls for proposals and financing opportunities have become increasingly limited.
We therefore call for flexibility and inclusive mechanisms that would allow vulnerable communities in conflict affected areas not to be left behind.
AOID has continued despite these challenges to support Arab countries in addressing water scarcity, drought, strengthening the resilience of smallholder farmers and pastoralists and developing policies and strategies for raining lands and natural pasture.
Our work has also focused on empowering women and youth, supporting value addition, local industries and raining lands products, and improving household income and rural livelihood.
We have provided national and regional capacity building programs for government institution, technical professions, farmers, pastoralists, women, and youth.
We have also supported countries in preparing national drought plans and national action programs to combat desertification and continue to assist countries that have not yet updated their plans.
We believe the civil society organizations and regional intergovernmental organizations have critical role to play.
In translating global commitments into practical actions on the ground.
Therefore, we encourage the UN CCD and partners to strengthen direct engagement with the regional organizations and local institutions, facilitating their access to finance to ensure that conflict affected and vulnerable communities receive the support they need to build resilience, restore their land, and ensure sustainable livelihood.
AOD remains committed to work with the UN CCD and UN agencies, government, civil society, development, development partners to ensure that no community is left behind in fighting against desertification, land degradation and to fast track this engagement, AAD, OAD being An implementing agency on the ground would appreciate initiation of a serious dialogue with financial institutions, especially the GCF and GF, under the auspices of the UNCCD to implement targeted and focused project to augment limited national activities on the ground and fill the gap that is existing.
Thank you very much.
I thank the representative of IGOS.
I now kindly give the floor to the representative of the civil society before we conclude the session.
Hello.
I am Harsth.
I come from India and represent Foundation for Ecological Security and the rainfed Livestock Network.
I have three propositions on today's panel.
The first is that from the experiences of India and some of the side events here, there is a dynamic nature of pastoralism where herders that may be migratory may become agro pastoral for some time and then go back into migration, and that has social, ecological and economic reasons.
Then usually when we think about finance and budgets, we always look for something that is very measurable, very clear, very bounded.
While that is needed and possible with even pastoral systems, there is some flexibility that needs to also be taken into account.
Because when we talk about roots and rights, we think about access to certain areas and bounded land parcels.
But when it is migration, there is a different imagination that needs to go into there and that needs to come in the finance part so that it accounts for this.
The second is that in addition to market, when we talk about market access, can we also have the local circular economic models, which are the alternative economical models, which also facilitate mutualism between communities pastoral and non pastoral.
One very good example that exists today is the penning of animals and that cannot be in my limited opinion, monetized fully, but it is the cultural customary access that is given, which ensures stewardship, it ensures mutualism, it ensures livelihoods of both the parties.
So when we talk about land rights, when we talk about access, it is these levels of access and use that need to be considered.
My final proposition is that and also in continuation of that in penning there is also draft power, and then there are sports, then there is, um, economic interactions between pastors and residing communities which needs to come into the finance mechanisms.
The last proposition and the most important one is that, um, when we talk about finance, payment for ecosystem services and carbon markets are very, um, one of the first thing that we all think about.
But then can we also look at this not as a payment for the services, but rather in finance that, uh, promotes stewardship and facilitates mobility and dependence.
Because we can think about financing mechanisms that might be beneficial.
But if in any way they disrupt or transform mobility in ways that may not be right in the long term, then it becomes counterproductive.
This dynamic nature and managing uncertainty and this seemingly a little unpredictable pattern of pastoral mobility needs to be considered and accordingly, the financial processes needs to be made.
Thank you.
I.
Thank you.
Our time is really limited.
We have exactly 10 minutes and we still need to close and hear from the panelists.
I'm seeing requests from the Paraguay.
I therefore give the floor to the last representative, the representative of Paraguay.
After that kindly note, we will not take anymore I will not give the floor to anyone because we need to close the session.
Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I think there was a problem with the communication system.
We haven't indeed requested the floor.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Paraguay.
I give the floor back to the panelists.
I would like them to react to the comments and I will request the panelists only 1 minute each so that we can then go into the concluding session.
Thank you.
Do I see your hands? From the panelists, those who would like to give comment, I'll start on my right.
You have one person.
You have exactly 60 seconds each.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Today I shared a story of a shore in the Bolivian Andes.
But I didn't just come here to tell the story.
I came here to give you some work.
Degraded land doesn't require further assessment or diagnosis.
It needs money to flow in, it needs to be deliberate, direct without any intermediators within the hands of those who are sowing solutions on the ground.
In Uruu, we learned that restoring land and restoring dignity is part of the same act.
When you fund an indigenous woman to lead, not only are you cleaning up a soil, you are guaranteeing a future.
The question that I would leave with you in this room isn't whether you support indigenous peoples, is whether rather you are willing to place your trust in us with resources, to show this, to prove this, to trust in indigenous communities, and local communities, in women and young people.
Pach mama or Mother Earth gave us this earth.
We want to ensure that the financial system and As also comply with this.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Yes, I give you the f.
60 seconds.
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you.
All right.
I'll keep it very short.
There are three requests that we want to make.
One, direct involvement of CSOs, direct involvement of CSOs, not indirect involvement.
Direct financing mechanisms for pastorals and herders, where they come in as stakeholders and not simply as beneficiaries of the financial mechanisms, Iclusure of gender based response, and a just based approach towards members of the society.
Thank you.
Thank you for keeping time.
On my left hand side.
Yes, please.
Thank you very much.
Actually, more than three decades have now passed since the adoption of this convention.
After everything we are already experiencing together on the ground and the growing risk and consequences of desertification and drought and land degradation, nothing should take us backward to begin here at 20:26, beginning again with just talking about the role and knowledge of a stakeholder and right holders.
We must therefore ask ourselves an honest question.
After more than 30 years, are we not already late in ensuring that indigenous peoples whose knowledge and stewardship and contribution are repeatedly recognized here in this room again have their own dedicated channel through which they can participate actively and consenously in the whole of this convention and contribute to our shared future? I will leave you with this question.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, honey.
Please, Andrés, the floor is your 60 seconds.
Thank you.
We are delighted for all interventions in favor of including and mobilizing the civil society and thank you for this historical opportunity to address you.
In reflection of the intervention from Turkmenistan on the interaction between pastoralists and science, we do agree that there can be much work undone.
Challenges before us, however, are of such proportions that we must use the best available knowledge to cope.
But what knowledge? Science has been and will be important in the future, but there is another way of knowing the traditional and indigenous knowledge that must also be mobilized.
A concrete example is that in my language, we have over 318 terms for snow, whereas no scientist on this planet is even remotely close to this complex knowledge of snow physiology.
So we call for a respectful collaboration between knowledge systems so that two and two plus two could become five.
As Senegal mentioned, the land degradation neutrality targets.
We also see that there is a need for a reframing of LDN to the context of pastoralism, not to sacrifice the integrity of our customary pastoral mobile systems by any forms of offsetting, and we should be involved in this.
We refer to our Ulambatu declaration broadly and on these issues specifically.
Alus.
Thank you again.
Thank you and thank you all my panelists for keeping time.
Once again, a round of applause for everyone, to the parties, to yourselves, and to the panelists, to the delegates and to the president here present today.
And now we come to the conclusion of the session.
This open dialogue session was prepared and organized by the CSO panel representatives of all five regions.
The conclusion that we will hear right now that I will read is based on the recommendations from the CSOs from all the five UN CCD regions, including those who were present here today at the panel.
The key CSO messages that we would like to take away today are as follows, strengthen recognition of pastoralism and mobility as an essential strategy for adaptation to desertification, land degradation, and drought and secure the rights of pastoralist communities.
Secure equitable land rights and legal recognition for all with particular attention to women, youth, indigenous peoples, local communities, and pastoralists to safeguard tenure rights and promote responsible land use, effective restoration, and enhanced resilience to climate related risks.
Support women's leadership, including that from the indigenous peoples, youth groups, and local and pastoralist communities in sustainable land management, restoration, resilience, and building efforts.
Extend gender responsiveness beyond reporting frameworks and support women's meaningful participation across the entire policy cycle at all levels and access to resources, as well as finance range land restoration through supporting community led initiatives, prioritize funding for small to medium scale youth, women, indigenous peoples and community led land and soil conservation and restoration projects, and I will not say last and not least.
However, connect science.
This came today from Tajikstan we heard in from other parties, but also connect science and users as well as support science policy mechanisms with the participation of civil society and better integration of traditional and indigenous knowledge.
And don't forget, coexistence is very important, human wildlife, as much as we talk about range lands and all other aspects of conservation and restoration of the land.
And now thank you and I want to conclude by this, I give back the floor to the presidency.
Madam President, the floor is yours.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very much.
I would like to thank the moderator, miss Ellen Otaro Okadon for expertly guiding the discussions during this open dialogue.
I appreciate your leadership.
I also thank all participants, particularly representatives from civil society organizations for their active engagement in the deliberations.
Distinguished delegates.
We have concluded our program of work for this meeting.
The next Cop 17 open dialogue with the civil society representatives will take place on Monday, 24 August at 3:00 P.M.
And focus on drought resilient lands and territories.
The next Cop 17 plenary meeting will take place tomorrow afternoon, 21 August, immediately after the closing of the meeting of the committee for the review of the implementation of the convention.
As afore mentioned, the conference will also consider agenda item one D entitled credentials of delegations at that meeting.
And I would like to remind delegations again to submit their credentials as soon as possible.
Further information is available in the journal of the conference.
Today, there will be another meeting of the committee of the whole and a meeting of the committee on Science and Technology.
Furthermore, information on the program Cop 17 and related meetings is available on the conference website and on the UNCCD app for mobile phones.
So I see on the board that request for question a couple of 30.
So floor is yours.
Question.
The question and answer is over, but I give you the floor.
A few minutes, right? Okay.
Please.
This must be a mistake.
We sorry.
I didn't touch the microphone.
We apologize for that.
Thank you.
So the meeting is adjourned as well, but please be seated, the delegation, and the team who started with praying.
We are inviting kindly the guests.
So we will finish with praying again.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Madam President, delegates, the Secretariat at the high table, and all those who are present here today, we started our day with a prayer, and we will conclude with a song from the Elders Council of the World Union of Indigenous Spiritual practitioners.
Allow me to invite Bazar La Soul to be present here today.
He he has the honorary title given by the Mongolian government to the best pastoralists.
Thank you.
Please give them the round of applause.
Tab.
I represent the Western Alta mountain chain, and I'm a herder.
My name is Bar.
My warm greetings to all of you.
And I'm very much blessed to be a part of this whole process on discussion on desertification, combating, and I wish a long and healthy life to, and I offer my epic song I So the Just CSOs, we'll meet outside with a group photo.
Those who are present, CSOs, come forward for group photos.
CSO representatives, my colleagues, CSO, come forward.
We're taking a group photo.
Thank you.
Okay.
Let's go over there.
Can we go back down there? Okay.
Okay.
You guys are here.
Okay.
All right.
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I And And Distinguished delegates, please have a seat.
We shall start right now our meeting.
Colleagues, your sisters and brothers, please have a seat.
Excellencies, distingui Excellencies, distinguished delegates.
I call to order the third meeting of the Committee of the Whole of the Conference of Parties to United Nations Convention to combat certification at its 17th session.
I now invite the committee to hear an update from the contact groups, and I will give the floor now to Mr.
Heron from Mauritius, facilitator of the contact group number one, dealing with budgets.
Mr.
Hon, the floor is yours.
I think there is some technical issues.
Please, technicians, if you could help us.
Yes.
Go ahead, please.
Thank you, Chair.
I'm pleased to report that the budget group has met several times since Monday evening and has made good progress.
It is very likely that we will be able to adopt updated financial rules at this cop.
Which will indeed make way for an up to date and comprehensive framework for financial and administrative matters for the coming years.
There remains a few paragraphs still open, and we are confident that those will be sorted out in the coming days.
We have also made good progress with a text of the budget decisions.
However, we still have some work to do before reaching a consensus based agreement in regards to the resources for the next biennium.
Group is working steadily with deep focus and high energy and will continue with the work this afternoon tomorrow and another day over the weekend.
I thank you for your attention.
I thank Mr.
Horn, for this briefing and now I will give the floor to Madame Marin Colon of France to give us an update on the work of the contact group two on other matters.
The floor is yours, Madame Marin.
Max Buns.
Thank you very much and good afternoon to one and all.
Thank you, President.
Last plenary, we had two meetings at the contact group.
We had one yesterday evening where we continue our discussion on drought.
It was mostly a discussion on process and on how we would continue our work and we aim to continue our discussions tonight based on the text with different option and with invitation to delegation to also come and put forward proposition to help us continue to move forward.
We also I'm happy to indicate that today we had two sessions of the contact group which helped us to start a first reading of the decision on migration up to the operative, the first operative paragraph.
And we then had a session just before this plenary on the private sector where we were able to have a first reading of all preambula paragraph and the two first operative paragraphs.
Our plan is by tonight share with delegation a Who are in the mailing list to draft and with the objective to continue discussing them tomorrow and tonight to focus on draft and continue also our discussion.
Just to highlight the importance for us, but we are able to have different slots, if possible tomorrow so that we're able to address the many different items that we need to take forward.
President, delegation, Paul more constructive, We appreciate the support and the constructive attitude.
I'm certain that we will be able to reach satisfying results.
Thank you kindly.
Thank you, Madam Marin, for this updates.
Distinguished delegates, now I invite the committee to begin its consideration of agenda item number two entitled 2018 2030 Strategic Framework of UNCCD with sub item B entitled Enhancing the Implementation of the Convention and its 2018 2030 strategy framework for which the committee has before it documents ICCD slash cop 17 slash five.
I will first give the floor to Mr.
I will first give the floor to Madam Sato, of City Secretariat to introduce these notes.
You have the floor, Madam Sato.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair and good afternoon.
By decision seven cop 15.
The conference of the parties launched the midterm evaluation of the UNCCD 2018 2030 strategy framework, which involved an evidence based independent assessment of the progress made toward the objectives of the strategic framework, and a report of an intergovernmental working group presenting its findings and recommendations to Cop 17.
Building on the recommendations of the intergovernmental working group, parties adopted Decision seven Cop 16 on enhancing the implementation of the UN CCD 2018 2030 strategy framework in 2025 2030.
This agenda item and the document that I am presenting are in follow up to that process.
By decision seven cop 16, the CP requested or proposed several measures addressing parties, the convention institutions and bodies and key stakeholders with the aim to enhance the implementation of the convention and the strategy framework.
These measures were about national information sharing and coordination, the private sector, synergies, gender equality, women's empowerment, the globality of the impacts of justification, land degradation, and drought, science policy interfacing, national reporting, resource mobilization, and the engagement of the civil society.
Most measures that were taken after COP 16 in follow up to the decision are presented in detail in those COP CRC and CSD documents that are specifically dedicated to the topic in concern.
To avoid application, the document under this agenda item provides a brief overview of the action taken only on those two topics that are not covered elsewhere, national information sharing and coordination and the globality of the impacts of desation, land degradation, and drought.
The focus of the document is therefore on measures taken by the convention institutions and bodies.
As the content of this agenda item and related documentation are directly relevant for the consideration of the next UN CCD strategic framework, it is proposed that in future GOPS this agenda item and related documentation are merged with those of that process.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Madam Sato.
I now open the floor in connection with the note that was just introduced, and I kindly request speakers to keep their statement brief.
The floor is yours.
China, you have the floor.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
The strategic framework is a strategic guiding document for the efforts of parties to implement the Commission.
We have now reached the closing phase of the implementation.
In our view, we must first of all, give full importance to the implementation of this strategic framework.
The commission bodies and the cooperation partners must fully consider the actual needs and requirements of countries while supporting the national capacity building of state parties, as well as information sharing and coordination of various institutions.
We should encourage all parties to bear in mind their own specific management system and practical experience while searching for implementation path which is compatible with the national circumstances.
Secondly, when it comes to monitoring and the reporting of indicators, both the present and future strategies should fully consider the different needs of various countries at the national, global and regional levels and the different reporting capacities in order to avoid over complication.
The use of new technologies must be on a voluntary basis and must be based on respecting the digital sovereignty of various countries along with supporting the capacity of those countries.
The current strategic framework will be over in four years time.
We must consider the assessment of the implementation of the current strategy while seeking to formulate the future strategy after 2030 while ensuring the coherence of various policies.
Fourthly, we must specify the goals and ways to achieve the objectives so as to provide more assistance to developing countries.
I give the floor to European Union.
Chair, Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen.
I am speaking on behalf of the European Union and its member states.
The EU and its member states acknowledge the critical role played by the UN CCD and its 2030, 2018 to 2030 strategic framework in urgently addressing the global challenges of desertification, land degradation, and drought whose impacts are disproportionately suffered by the most vulnerable people and are exacerbated by climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and other issues.
We welcome the efforts of the UN CCD Secretariat to implement the recommendations made by parties following the midterm evaluation of the current strategic framework.
We welcome also the incorporation of these recommendations into other items for discussion at Cop 17.
We also welcome the specific recommendations relating to the roles and responsibilities of national focal points and science and technology correspondents, many of whom are gathered with us today.
These positions make up the backbone of parties efforts to implement the convention, representing a strong global community of policymakers and scientists committed to combating DLDD and we salute their tireless work towards a better future.
A clear and standardized understanding of the roles across the parties will assist NFPs and STCs in the delivery of their duties.
We would draw attention in particular to the vital role of NFPs in integrating UN CCD implementation into national development plans, climate plans, biodiversity frameworks, and other areas of policy, acknowledging the strong interconnections between DLDD and these areas and the need for policy coherence.
We also point to the critical importance of properly integrating scientific expertise into the work of the convention through the collaboration between NFPs and STCs.
A core element of both roles must be to coordinate action on a whole of government, whole of society basis, effectively working with the private sector and civil society organizations.
We also recognize the work done to encourage all parties and encourage their participation in the work of the convention.
The challenge of combating DLDD is a challenge facing the world as a whole and one to which we must ensure all are committed.
Capability gaps in implementation and reporting can affect developed countries as well as affected parties.
It is worth noting that many parties, including in the European Union, are both substantial donors to addressing DLDD globally, while also experiencing its effects directly.
Advocacy, communication, and awareness raising around DLDD must therefore have a global reach, particularly with regard to the mobilization of financial resources from all sources.
It will be important that the development of the future strategic framework continue consideration of this topic.
Thank you very much for your attention.
I thank the representative from European Union.
I have just one speaker on the list from civil society.
I want to make sure if are there any other member states that want to take the floor.
I see no request for the floor.
Bangladesh, you have the floor.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair, Distinguished delegates.
Bangladesh welcome to continued follow up to decision, particularly the recommendation on the roles and responsibilities of national focal point and science and technology correspondent contained in the annex.
Bangladesh recognized the value of clear institutional mandates and strong NFP SDC coordination mechanism at mandate and stronger SDC coordination mechanism and the national level.
As a country actively strengthening its own national DLDD coordination architecture, including efforts on integrated reporting under Phase four, national roadmap for land degradation, drought, and desertification, our National Agriculture drought monitoring systems, BAMIS and soil health work by the soil Resource Development Institute, SRDI.
We consider this recommendation both timely and practical.
We would highlight three points for consideration.
First, we support the recommendation to enhance digital system for data sharing and reporting.
Note that this must be must be accompanied by predictable capacity building must support, particularly for developing countries to ensure that digitalization narrows rather than widers implementation gap.
Second, we underscore the importance of institutional continuity for both national focal point and science and technology correspondent.
Frequent turnover undermines the accumulate technical and negotiation memory that as UN CCD implementation requires.
Third, on the globally of DLDD Bangladesh reforms that herd salinity, intrusion, and route are increasingly interlinked and cross border in nature, and we look forward to the outcome of the intergovernmental working group for the future strategic framework in this regret.
We support the proposed to march this agenda item with the cop 2030 strategic framework process for future session to avoid duplication and streamline parties engagement.
Thank you, Chair.
I thank the representative of Bangladesh.
I give now the floor to civil society representative.
Thank you, Chair.
Distinguished delegates, on behalf of civil society and indigenous people, we acknowledge the efforts in advancing the implementation of the strategic framework.
Recognizing the importance of strengthening the implementation pathway during this critical period towards 2030.
Implementation success will not be determined only by indicators and reports, but by communities, especially those in vulnerable situation with healthy and productive land secure livelihood, greater resilience, and stronger voice in decisions affecting their future.
Therefore, civil society recommend the following.
Accelerate implementation through stronger national ownership and local action, addressing persistent implementation gaps, strengthening community based programs, early warning and drought resilience systems, and integration of local and indigenous knowledge into national policies, recognizing communities as partners, not merely beneficiaries, by ensuring the meaningful and inclusive participation throughout the design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and decision making processes.
Strengthen youth leadership in implementation with stronger mechanisms to support youth participation in decision making, access to sustainable financing, technological innovation, mentorship, and capacity development.
Science, capacity building and innovation must be strengthened by combining scientific evidence with local knowledge to develop practical and locally owned solutions and supporting stronger knowledge platforms and regional cooperation.
Gender equality, indigenous people and local communities must remain at the center of implementation efforts, protecting their knowledge, land rights, and leadership, while ensuring free, prior, and informed consent and addressing the structural inequalities that limit their participation and contribution.
Close the implementation gap through accessive finance and partnership that directly support local action through simplified funding mechanisms, long term support, and investments in community led solution, and strengthen accountability beyond reporting to ensure that implementation delivers tangible results on the ground.
Finally, we urge parties to reinstate the items on gender, the synergies among the real conventions and the participation of civil society organizations on the agenda of this cop.
Excellencies, the coming year until 2030 are decisionsive.
Let's cop 17 strengthen implementation by putting people at the center of the convention.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of civil society.
Now, I give the floor to Botswana.
Thank you, Chair and distinguished delegates, Botswana has followed with keen interest the growing attention to dry and forest within the UN system, including discussion initiated at the UNFF 20 in 2025.
We are disappointed that the Forum's 2026 resolution did not translate that attention into dedicated action, and we see this convention's new strategic framework as the place to correct that gap.
At this framework takes shape for the next decade, Bosona offers a concrete and replicable example.
Government ownership support by partners such as FAO and v has created the enabling environment to transform national targets into action.
The seven Rideland Program growth shows that ddland forests can serve as the glute for integrated approaches, delivering results across forest, croplands and grasslands alike.
Looking ahead, the potential is far greater.
Development partners and the private sector can amplify these gains through investment in restoration finances, innovation, and inclusive partnerships, aligning this work with the UNCCDs imaging agenda on drought resilience, land based financing and gender responsiveness action will ensure that dry and forests are not only protected but leveraged as engines of sustainable development.
Bosonas to contribute actively to embedding these priorities into the 2030, post 2030 strategic framework.
I thank you Chair.
I thank the representative of Botswana.
I see no further requests to speak.
I give now the floor to Madame Satu of De CCD Secretariat to react to discussion we've had.
The floor is yours, Madam Sato.
Many thanks, Mr.
Chair.
Just briefly, we have taken due note of all the comments and we'll be delivering them to the process of developing the future strategic framework.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Madam Satu.
The Sandwich delegates, I propose now that further discussion on this agenda item be taken up during contact groups meeting.
I hear no objection.
It's so decided.
I now invite the committee to resume its consideration of agenda item five entitled Policy Framework and thematic Issues and to turn its attention to the issue of sand and dust storms.
Under this issue, the committee has before its documents ICCDsla Cp 17 slash nine and ICCD slash Cp 17 slash 12.
I first give the floor to Mr.
Sasha from UCCD Secretariat to introduce the document ICCD Cop 17 slash nine.
The floor is yours, Mr.
Sasha.
Thank you, Chair.
Distinguished delegates.
Do ICCD Cop 17 slash nine provides a summary of the activities undertaken by the Secretariat and the global mechanism as requested in Decision 27 cop 16 on sand and dust storms.
Here, I would like to highlight of some of these activities.
The Secretariat continues to be an active member of the United Nations Coalition on combating sand and dust storms, contributing to the framework action plan for the United Nations decade on combating sand and dust storms 2025 to 2034.
The President of the General Assembly high level event on sand and dust storms held in New York in observance of the International Day of combating sand and dust storms on 12 July 2025, and the Secretary-General annual report on sand and dust storms to the United Nations General Assembly.
On 12 July 2026, the International Day, the Secretariat updated the sand and dust storms toolbox with the aim of enhancing its utility for the parties.
I would like to draw your attention to the revision of the first two modules of the sand and dust storms toolbox.
Module one on the identification and mapping of sand and dust storm sources provides an overview of the most common approaches and methods used to detect SDS sources as part of a basic workflow to obtain, refine, and validate results.
Module two, on SDS source Management, contains an inventory of tools, technologies, and good practices that can be used to inform decision makers and other stakeholders about the nature based and human engineered solutions.
These include potential experimental and proven SDS source management interventions.
The global mechanism in collaboration with the Secretariat, has been developing a global implementation initiative for sand and dust storms to assist parties in their efforts to address and better manage anthropogenic SDS sources.
Envisioned as a contribution to the United Nations decade on combating sand and dust storms, the initiative is being developed to serve as a catalyst for the mobilization of technical and financial resources for SDS source mitigation projects and programs.
Draft elements for a decision on sand and dust storms are contained in document ICCD cop 17 slash 12 for the consideration of the parties.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Sasha from UC City Secretariats.
Distinguished delegates, now I open the floor in connection with the document that was just introduced, and I kindly request speakers to keep their statement brief so we can hear from as many speakers as possible.
Now I give the floor to Algeria.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
The African Group thanks the Secretariat for its work on sand and dust storms and welcome the progress made since Cop 16, the United Nations decade to combat sand and dust storms, the strengthening of the dedicated UN Coalition, the update of the toolbox, and the development of the global Implementation Initiative for source Management.
Africa remains one of the region's most exposed to sand and dust storms whose frequency and intensity are increasing under the combined effects of land degradation, desertification, and drought.
Their impacts affect health, food security, agriculture, water, infrastructure, and ecosystems, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people.
Mr.
President, for the African group, SDS do not represent only an environmental challenge, but also a matter of development, climate resilience, and food security.
In this regard, the African group supports the strategic direction of GISDS in particular, the mapping of source areas, the restoration of degraded lands, sustainable land management, and the strengthening of national monitoring capacities.
In this regard, we underscore the importance of the new source detection module and encourage the Secretary to continue its refinement in order to strengthen ecosystem specific management, improve the prioritization of dust sources, and support more targeted land restoration interventions.
We also call for strengthened monitoring, forecasting, and early warning through enhanced scientific cooperation and innovative technologies, remote sensing, geographic information system, and artificial intelligence.
The group also underscores that particular attention must be paid to developing knowledge on the socioeconomic impacts of SDS, including their differentiated impacts on women, children, indigenous peoples, and local communities in order to better inform public policies and investments.
Furthermore, we reaffirmed the importance of synergies between efforts to combat SDS and land degradation neutrality targets, national adaptation strategies, the SDGs, the comial framework, and the Sundai framework.
Mr.
President, the African group calls on the Secretariat, the global mechanism, and technical and financial partners to increase their support to affected countries for land resporation, early warning, institutional strengthening, and technology transfer.
We also encourage regional and cross border initiative to address the root causes of SDS.
In conclusion, the African Group reaffirms its commitment to the United Nations decade to combat SDS 2025, 2034 and calls for strengthened coordinated and cooperative international action to restore degraded land, reduce dust sources, protect vulnerable populations, and strengthen the resilience of our countries.
Thank you for your attention.
I thank the representative of Algeria.
Now I give the floor to Chile.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
In Northern Chile, characterized by conditions of extreme aridity, sand and dust storms do occur in certain areas.
When such events arise, action is taken to minimize their adverse effects on communities and urban areas.
Chile's experience highlights the importance of linking, monitoring, forecasting and early warning with effective institutional coordination and anticipatory action.
When an event has the potential to develop into a disaster, Chile's National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response may convene the relevant Disaster Risk Management Committee and activate the corresponding alert mechanism.
Depending on the magnitude and expected consequences of the event, this framework allows the competent authorities to coordinate appropriate actions to safeguard the population.
This may include where necessary the closure of educational establishments or border crossings, evacuations and other measures aimed at reducing exposure and vulnerability.
At the local level, initiatives are also being developed to establish green areas and wind breaks to reduce wind driven dust uplift and transport, working in coordination with local governments.
Chile, therefore, consider it important to move beyond identification of sand and dust storm events towards comprehensive risk management, combining monitoring and early warning with preparedness, impact mitigation, and locally adapted interventions.
In this regard, we support strengthening scientific cooperation and knowledge exchange together with enhanced capacities for risk and vulnerability assessment, early warning and preparedness with a view to reducing adverse impacts and strengthening the resilience of affected communities.
Thank you, Chair.
I thank the representative of Chile and now I give the floor to European Union.
The EU and its 27 member states understand that sand and dust storms are an important topic for many countries with transboundary multifaceted and cross sectoral impacts.
The importance is only further highlighted by the increase in the global frequency and intensity of sand and dust storms over the last decade, exacerbated by desertification, land degradation, and drought, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
Their negative impacts can extend far beyond the areas where they originate, affecting human and animal health, the economy, the provision of essential ecosystem services and biodiversity, food security, infrastructure, and livelihoods.
Nature restoration is one of the most effective long term measures to prevent and reduce anthropogenic sources of SDS and helps to enhance the resilience of ecosystems and communities.
Nature based solutions and sustainable land and water can also play a key role in mitigating negative effects of sand and dust storms and adapt and build resilience to them.
We encourage efforts to restore degraded ecosystems as part of integrated strategies to address desertification, land degradation, drought, and SDS in a mutually reinforcing manner.
The EU and its member states welcome the updated and and dust storm toolbox with the revision of the module on source detection and the creation of an inventory of tools, technologies, and good practices for SDS source management.
The EU stresses the importance of implementing gender responsive and transformative actions to address SDS and of promoting the empowerment of all women and girls in the actions taken to combat SDS by ensuring they are involved in the decision making process.
The EU and its member states also underline that effective action on SDS requires strengthening the operational links and synergies between SDS mitigation and other established global frameworks such as the Paris Agreement and the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and their national implementation frameworks.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the European Union and now I give the floor to China.
Thank you, Chair.
China welcomes the work carried out by the Secretariat and the global mechanism in the context of the United Nations alliance to combat sand and dust storms, in particular, updating the toolbox, improving monitoring, and developing different management measures.
We have the following recommendations to increase surveillance monitoring of sources of dust in national areas of drought in order to establish a system to monitor different kinds of drought and the evolution of sources.
Two, in vulnerable areas.
We must integrate stabilization and restoration measures for source areas into land management policies, and for environmental restoration policies.
Three, we need to boost local capacity through using new technologies to monitor erosion, wind erosion, to carry out mapping, and to have predictions which are computer assisted.
China shall continue implementing best practices for the management of sources of dust storms through using technologies and solutions which are innovative for the most vulnerable areas, including in Central Asia and Africa in the context of the South South initiatives and on a bilateral level, which will continue to strengthen our exchanges and cooperation with countries of Northeast Asia on monitoring of sandstorms and to manage sources.
Thank you.
In of China.
Now I give the floor to Republic of Korea.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Sand and dust system are trans boundary and environmental issues that transcend national borders, making international solidarity and cooperation accessible.
The Republic of Korea is also affected by transboundary SDS, particularly during spring time with impact on air quality, human health, and ecosystems.
Recognizing the importance of international cooperation in addressing SDS, the Republic of Korea has worked to develop practical solution through the USSD framework and regional cooperation in Northeast Asia.
First, through the Chawan Initiative, the Republic of Korea has consistently supported the development of policy and practical tools for the international community, including SDS toolbox.
In particular, we welcome the reset update of the SES toolbox, including the improved source detection module and enhanced assess technology and good practices for source management.
We also welcome the progress made in developing the global implementation initiative on those systems and support its direction toward strengthen source monitoring and management, land restoration, science policy integration, and regional cooperation.
Second, at the regional level, the repolio Korea has been carrying out a Greenbelt deforestation project in Mongolia since 2007.
We are now expanding the scope of cooperation beyond combat identification of deforestation to include the restoration of fire affected area, wildfire prevention, and income generation for local communities.
In addition, we are promoting pilot project for joint SDS response in cooperation with the member countries to identification of land reation and drug network in Northeast Asia.
We believe that such cooperation can demonstrate how land restoration and sustainable land management can reduce SDS risk at their resource while strengthening local resilience.
In this regard, Republic of Korea would like to make two requests to USC Secretariat and international community.
First, given that Northeast Asia is directly affected by SDS, we request the Secretariat continue attention and support for SDS response at the regional and sub regional levels.
We also encourage strong inter regional and inter regional cooperation for the regions facing similar SDS challenges can share approaches and experiences in source monitoring and management as well as good practices.
The Republic of Korea will continue to strengthen its cooperation with the international community to address global SDS challenges and advance sustainable land management.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the Republic of Korea and now I give the floor to Morocco.
Monsieur President.
Chair, Your Excellency', distinguished delegates, the Kingdom of Morocco welcomes the efforts made by the Secretariat and the global mechanism to make progress in the work on dust and sandstorms.
We really do need to have the appropriate response to these and we align ourselves with a statement made on behalf of the African group.
Chair, sand and dust storms are a major challenge For countries with economic, social impacts which go beyond national divisions and borders.
We need to make sure that we improve monitoring, we do capacity building, and we do land restoration.
We welcome progress made on the global initiative for the global implementation Initiative for sand and dust storms to assist parties in efforts to address sand and dust storms in particular, improve knowledge of sources and land restoration and the economic consequences.
The Kingdom of Morocco is part of this dynamic trend, conducting research and monitoring, in particular through modeling.
We also use strategies and programs to combat land degradation for the restoration of ecosystems and to combat wind erosion so that we can boost the resilience of the different territories.
Chair, given the trans frontronier nature, the transboundary nature of this phenomenon, strengthening knowledge and regional cooperation remain essential To complement national priorities and programs, the Kingdom of Morocco remains available to make a constructive contribution to this process and to endeavor together with all partners to pursue this work.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, the Representative of Morocco.
Now, I give the floor to the Syrian Arab Republic.
Syrian Arab Republic.
Thank you, Chair.
Chair, the Syrian Arab Republic suffers from the consequences of sand and dust storms and we really do consider it as a priority for us to combat these.
This is a phenomenon which knows no borders, which does indeed cross borders.
We need to look at early warning, preparation, and prevention, as well as the management of the impact of the SDSs.
We need to have data management, statistic collection and as this phenomenon has no borders, we need to work together.
Chair, in Syria, we have a national program to define to fully identify the consequences of dust storms so that we can seek to prevent drought and manage the consequences of drought and this with international cooperation.
This is part of our efforts to limit the adverse impact of such phenomena.
In the implementation of these efforts, we do require further financial resources.
Thank you.
Representative of Syrian Arab Republic, now I give the floor to South Africa.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
South Africa would like to support the position expressed by Algeia on SDS on behalf of the ADA Group.
We welcome continued improvement of the UNGCD Storm toolbox, particularly the source decision model as a valuable tool for strengthening evidence based planning, monitoring and management of SDS.
Mr.
Chair, we acknowledge that the toolbox has improved.
We are of the view that the toolbox require further refinement to move beyond identification of source location towards characterizing source landscapes through the integration of land use, ecological condition, and land degradation data.
Mr.
Chair, we further support the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, the age observation technology to strengthen SDS monitoring and source detection, while we emphasize the need to complement this tool with robust ground observation to improve validation, reduce ainity and enhance real time.
Monitoring and early warning system.
We call for the prioritization and improvement of ground based tools, ethnic technologies to assist parties in addressing SDS issues at a national level.
Mr.
Chair, the preliminary national assessment confirmed that South Africa is affected by SDS with significant events recorded in the northern and western part of the country.
Climate risk and socio ecological vulnerability assessment also demonstrate that pastoralist women and youth are affected the most.
Mr.
Chair, as I conclude, South Africa has joined the UN Coalition on combating SDS.
We would like to reiterate the importance of strengthening synergies amongst the period of convention at all level, in tackling issues of SDs through the implementation of land degradation neutrality targets, climate change adaptation strategies, the global biodiversity Framework, and the Sundai framework for disaster risk reduction.
Thank you so much, S.
I thank the representative of South Africa and now I give the floor to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Mr.
President, distinguished delegates, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the government of Mongolia and the organizers of this important meeting, especially the Secretariat of UNCity for their warm hospitality and excellent arrangement.
Ladies and gentlemen, like many countries around the world, Iran suffers from sand and dusty stores and the degradation of range land is a shared concern.
Regarding assistance in addressing these challenges, Iran has a long history based on indigenous knowledge and innovative methods by the active participation of beneficiaries and stakeholders.
Rehabilitation of canals, flood spreading, comprehensive watershed management, using non leaving wind bricks, restoration of degraded rangelands, conservative agriculture, and early warning system development by focusing on hotspots are part of Iran's National action plan for sand and dust storms control.
Also, regional momentum for addressing sand and dust storm held in Tehran 9-10 September 2023, which highlighted for a stronger cooperation.
The fact is that due to its cross border and multidimensional nature of SDS, no single country can solve this global challenge on its own.
That's why coordinated measures are more effective than isolated national initiatives.
Close cooperation among all relevant stakeholders at the regional and international and inter regional level is suggested.
In this regard, the inter regional initiative to combat sand and dust storm in West Asia, which finalized over the past year through the efforts of ESCP and ESCA can serve as a roadmap for dust control in the region.
Mr.
President, today, more than ever, we need to adopt an integrated and holistic approach to controlling sand and o source.
If this happens, it will be a win win strategy for both source and see countries.
So more cooperation on sharing best practices, early warning systems, combining innovative methods with indigenous knowledge and providing affected countries with timely and equal access to international financial resources and technologies can lead to solutions that are more cost effective, community based, and sustainable.
Thank you for your attention.
I thank the representative of Islamic Republic of Iran and now I give the floor to Guyana.
Thank you, Chair.
Guyana, thanks to the Secretariat and the global mechanism for document ICCD slash Cp 16 slash nine.
Ghana appreciates efforts to assess and manage sand and dust storm sources.
However, we believe that sand and dust storms are a challenge that extend beyond's source regions and represent a growing threat that requires preventive and integrated approaches.
Episodic transboundary saharron dust events have impacted Ghana's coastal population by degrading air quality, aggravating respiratory illnesses, reducing visibility and transport and affecting agriculture and water systems.
For us, these impacts compound pressures from drought, flooding, and sea level rise.
Ghana welcomes the action plan for the United Nations decade on combating sand and dust storms, the updated sand and dust storms toolbox, and the global implementation Initiative.
At the same time, we believe that the source focused pillars must be matched by equal attention to impact resilience in receptor regions.
Thus, attention should be given to receptor countries, including small island developing states impacted by transboundary dust events.
There must also be explicit recognition of affected parties eligibility for technical and other support, including for those in non sourced regions.
We encourage collaboration among the UNCCD, WHO, WMO, and regional institutions to link those forecasting withheld early warning.
We also encourage the United Nations Coalition on combating sand and storms, the global mechanism and financial partners to further support capacity building and regional cooperation in the Caribbean, including for risk assessments and national and regional action plans.
Finally, Guyna calls for recognition of sand and storm impacts affecting receptor regions as an issue requiring dedicated research, monitoring, and technical support.
I thank you.
I thank the representative of Guyana and now I give the floor to Botswana.
Chairperson, distinguished delegates, Botswana would like to confer with the submission of the Africa group under this item.
In our view, sand and dust storms affect all countries in different ways.
In Botswana, we manage St.
June's primarily in the Southwestern Kalkdia region, addressing both ecological stabilization and economic development.
San June and dry land management are integrated into the country's national action Program to combat desertification under the UNCCD, which prioritizes land rehabilitation and sustainable livelihoods.
Key efforts include fencing to protect fragile dunes from overgrazing, community led planting of indigenous vegetation, and sustainable ecotourism initiatives.
Local initiatives utilize community trusts to fence off active dunes from livestock.
Allowing indigenous grasses and trees to stabilize the shift in St.
Jones.
In order to derive value from St.
Jones, Botswana has incorporated its St.
Jones into the national tourism strategy with the annual off road motorsport named Kowa Jun Challenge, bringing economic activity to the region while authorities monitor the ones to ensure events cause no permanent ecological damage.
Thank you, Chair.
I thank the representative of Botswana and they give the floor now to Mongolia.
It's clear shift from assessment and guidance towards practical implementation.
For Mongolia, sand and dust storms are not only an environmental concern.
They're a serious economic and development obstacle.
Research based on national meteorological and household data recorded an average of 29 dust events annually, with some provinces experiencing as many as 108 events in a single year.
Sand and dust storm exposure reduces crop revenue by 2.7%, representing a potential economic loss of approximately $78 million or 0.27% of national GDP under a national impact scenario.
The costs are also borne directly by rural communities.
During the severe storms of March 2021, Dorav province alone reported nine human deaths, at least 160,000 livestock killed, and approximately 230,000 livestock missing.
Such events destroy pastoral assets, reduce agricultural productivity, damage infrastructure, interrupt transport and trade, increase health risks, and deepen the vulnerability of rural households.
Sand and dust storms are inherently transboundary.
Dust does not stop at national borders and no country can address its sources, pathways and impacts alone.
Mongolia therefore calls for stronger cooperation among source, transit and affected countries through shared monitoring, timely data exchange, coordinating early warning, joint research and investment in sustainable land and water management.
Mongolia encourages to support in source area assessment, range restoration, early warning, public health protection.
Cop 17 should recognize that investment in sand and dust storms is investment in food security, public health, resilient livelihoods, regional connectivity, and sustainable development.
Thank you.
Thank the representative of Mongolia and now I give the floor to Iraq.
Good afternoon.
Peace me up on you.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
The delegation of Iraq reiterates the need to promote regional and international cooperation to address sand and dust storms, especially that they are among the transnational challenges through exchange of information expertise, promoting monitoring and early warning systems, building capacity and technology transfer, preparing national and regional action plans.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Iraq.
Now I give the floor to Turkey.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Turkey is a country affected by sand and dust storms, attaches importance to advancing cooperation to address this environmental challenge.
Turkey believes that launching of the UN decade on combating sand and dust storms 2026 to 24 is important step in enhancing collective action against this global challenge.
In this regard, we believe that efforts should concentrate on strengthening scientific cooperation, early warning systems, sustainable land management, capacity building, and technology transfer.
With this understanding, greater emphasis should be placed on translating political commitments into concrete action through exchanging scientific knowledge and best practices, enhancing monitoring and forecasting to improve preparedness and resilience in affected regions.
Given the transboundary nature of sand and dust storms, closer regional and international cooperation is indispensable.
At regional and global levels, differences in technical capacity between countries can limit cooperation.
Additionally, limited financial resources, insufficient data, and the relatively low number of studies can create obstacles to address sand and dust storms.
Greater efforts are needed to strengthen capacity building, access to innovative technologies, and promote scientific cooperation, particularly by supporting technical assistance, training programs, and sharing of expertise among member states.
Through the Ankara Initiative, Türkiye has supported capacity building of countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia to combat land degradation and desertification and consequently sand and dust storms, contributing to the establishment of land degradation neutrality targets.
Since 2012, 1,220 experts from 108 countries have been trained on desertification and SDS under international training programs carried out by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and the Climate Change of Turkey.
In addition, under the FAO Turkey Forestry Partnership Program, Turkey leads sustainable land management projects in the Great Green Wall countries and in Central Asia.
Within the framework of this program, land restoration has been successfully carried out in North Africa through the Bridges Project, while SDA sources have been addressed in Central Asia through the France Project.
These projects are significant examples of sharing best practices and strengthening capacity.
Last but not least, Turkey was pleased to host the third round of international collaboration on sand and dust storms in support of the United Nations decade on combating sand and dust storms 2025 to 24, jointly organized by UN EsquiA and ESCAP on one to July this year.
The meeting highlighted the importance of strengthening dialogue, promoting exchange of experiences, and identifying political solutions tailored to the needs of affected countries.
To conclude, Turkey remains committed to working with all partners to advance international cooperation and collective action in addressing the challenges posed by sand and dust storms.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Turkey and they give now the floor to Namibia.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
Namibia would like also to appreciate the government of Mongolia for organizing this excellent gathering here in Ulandbar.
We also want to thank the UN CCC Secretariat for putting together this very, very important gathering.
Namibia, I would like to align with the statement made by Ageria on behalf of African region.
As you know, Namibia is one of the country that is experiencing Sand and dust storm because of the desert region that occur on the western coast of Namibia.
This is also a region that is popular for tourism activities.
And each time we have period of sand and dust storms, we obviously tend to lose income that is the local communities generate from tourism related activities.
Therefore, Namibia also would like to join other countries in calling for sharing of data and putting measures in place to see to it that the problem of sand and dust storm is dealt with collectively and because it has got negative impact on people as well as livelihood.
I thank you, Chair.
I thank the representative of Namibia.
This was the last speaker from member states on my list.
Now I invite United Nations bodies to have the floor.
Sorry, I see, Chad, you have the floor.
Please press the button.
Yes.
Okay.
Okay.
Go ahead, please.
Excellency President.
On behalf of the government of the Republic of Chad, I should like to express our gratitude and our commitment or decided commitment in favor of objectives of the convention.
CP 17 is an opportunity, and it's a crucial one at that for us to ensure that the health of our land be the pillar and continue to be the pillar of our security, prosperity, and common future Indeed, the protection of our ecosystems provides our access to pastoral lands, rangelands, forests collectively and in a spirit of equity with a strict respect for the environment and for all of our citizens in Chad.
We firmly condemn the illegal overexploitation of our forests, poaching and desertification, as land degradation.
Chad is stepping up its regulations to put an end to these excesses which compromise and mortgage the future generations, increasing the vulnerability of our lands and territories.
Dust storms and sandstorms are deteriorating our health and our well being in our cities and towns on behalf of the government of Chad, our government launches a solemn call for a massive support for the Great Green Wall and an increase of reforestation and land restoration efforts, as well as South South cooperation launched throughout our national territories.
Technical support and capacity building, with surveillance stations and early warning systems, all of this to better respond to these realities and to protect the populations.
Mobilizing financing for the climate internationally.
With direct and specific access to the Jeff for financing rural community and Rangeland pastoral community resilience is essential.
Chad is living up to his responsibilities and we invite the international community and our partners, our development partners to remain by our side.
I thank you kindly.
I thank the representative of Chad.
Now I give the floor to United Nations buddies.
Go ahead.
While waiting for United Nations bodies, I will give the floor to Sudan.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
We'd like to thank Mongolia for the excellent organization of this Cop 17.
Sudan suffers in some parts from sand and dust storms that could be powerful and impact the livelihoods, property of people and natural resources, including forests and croplands.
This is why it is of the essence to combat SDS locally, nationally, regionally and internationally, and to exchange information, early warning system, a opportunities and ensure that there is enough technological transfer and support to countries that suffer from these phenomenon.
We come back to United Nations bodies.
Thank you, Chair.
The United Nations Environment Program welcomes the note on the summary of the progress on sand and dust storms.
Their drivers and impacts are transboundary and cut across land degradation, climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution, and health.
Fragmented responses are insufficient.
This is why cohesion must come first.
The sand and dust work reported here and the global implementation initiative now being launched should build on existing networks, partnerships, and mandates rather than set up parallel ones.
The same synergies that led scarce financing go furthest.
Coordinated this way, sand and dust storms becomes a demonstration of the UN system delivering coherently on an issue no single agency owns.
We therefore welcome the document's explicit recognition of sand and dust storms and wildfires as hazards compounded by diminishing water availability and the drying of soils.
These are concrete, actionable entry points through which countries can operationalize integrated aridity and drought responses, and we encourage that they be carried through consistently into the planning guidance and its follow up.
Highlight strong potential synergies with ongoing UNEP led work.
The UNEP focal points to the UN Coalition on combating sand and dust storms are leading a coalition task team, developing a policy brief on how organizations are working across multiple agendas and frameworks to address the adverse impacts of SDS, a direct complement to the cross framework ambition of this guidance.
The focus should now be practical.
More coordinated country support, compatible indicators and reporting, stronger safeguards and better alignment of finance and capacity building.
UNEP stands ready to support parties, the UN CCD Secretariat, and other MEA processes in taking this forward.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the United Nations Environment Program, and now I give the floor to a specialized agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair, for giving the floor to FAO.
We welcome the continued collaboration with UN CCD parties and the members of the United Nations Coalition on combating sand and dust storms in advancing coordinated action to address the growing challenges posed by sand and dust storms.
Agriculture is among the sectors most affected by sand and dust storms, but it is also part of the solution.
Sustainable management of land, soil and water resources, together with the restoration of degraded agricultural lands and soils, offer one of the most effective pathways to mitigate sand and dust storms at their source, as well as their adverse impacts while strengthening resilience and supporting sustainable agri food systems.
FAO supports countries by providing data, technical guidance, decision support tools, and capacity development.
This support helps countries to identify effective mitigation measures and integrate sustainable land and water management international policies and resilience strategies.
We have developed practical knowledge products, including the guide to mitigation, adaptation, policy, and risk management measures in agriculture, featuring a database of more than 150 sustainable land management practices, risk assessment and contingency planning methodologies.
FAO continues to be an active member of the United Nations Coalition on combating sand and dust storms to support science based solutions, strengthen partnerships, and coordinated action at global, regional and national level.
The annual commemoration of the International Day on the 12th of July and the Declaration of the United Nations Decade on combating sand and dust storms 2025, 2034 provide a unique opportunity to scale up cooperation, investment, and action.
We commend the efforts of UN CCD Secretariat and the global mechanism in advancing the global implementation initiative for sand and dust storms.
The initiative can provide a practical framework for implementation during the UN decade on combating sand and dust storms.
We remain committed to working with UNCCD, the Coalition, and all partners to translate knowledge into action and help countries reduce wind erosion, mitigate sand and dust storms, strengthen food security, and advance the sustainable development goals.
Thank you, Chair.
I thank the representative of FAO, and now I give the floor to Yemen.
Great.
Gatt.
Mr.
President, first of all, we would like to thank you all for all the efforts made in this COP.
On combating desertification would like to indicate that Yemen is among the countries that are facing the scourge and the challenge of sand and dust storms, particularly in the coastal areas as well as inland parts of the country.
This has a great impact on local communities and threatens livelihoods and resilience and increases land deterioration and weakens the crops because our lands face the impact of SDS.
Quite regularly, and this is why we need to cooperate in order to improve our ecosystems and ensure land degradation neutrality and bring back sustainability in the management of land and crops and increase food security.
Yemen is committed to joint action with all partners in such a way as to further combat drought, increase drought resilience, improve soils, and ensure sustainable livelihoods for rural and coastal communities.
Thank you.
Representative of Yemen, I now give the floor to Civil Society representative.
Thank you, Chair, Distinguished delegates.
On behalf of civil society and Indigenous peoples, we welcome the Global Implementation Initiative for sand and dust storms, including its attention to anthropogenic sources linked to land degradation, unsustainable grazing and deforestation, natural resources, and persistent data gaps, as well as strengthened international cooperation.
Sand and dust storms affect an estimated 330 million people across more than 150 countries with serious consequences for health, livelihoods, mobility, agriculture, infrastructure, and economies.
Those living closest to degrading dry lands are often both the most exposed and the least represented in the institutions responding to these risks.
Global coordination must therefore translate into locally grounded preparedness and protection.
We call on parties to place communities and populations in vulnerable situations at the center of implementation and two, recognize indigenous peoples and local communities, pastoralists, smallholder and family farmers, women and youth, not merely as populations at risk, but as knowledge holders, generators of SDS relevant data, and co designers of early warning, information, and response systems.
Formally integrate indigenous and traditional knowledge systems into SDS early warning systems, including the science policy interface Fast Track Assessment methodology and the global and Outlook, alongside scientific and remote sensing data.
Establish formal consultation channels with communities, including through Indigenous Peoples Caucus and local Community Caucus throughout the design, implementation, and monitoring of the Global Implementation Initiative and the UN decade on combating SDS 2025, 2034.
Ensure gender specific indicators under decision 25 cop 16 capture differentiated SDS impacts, including the disproportionate health and post storm burdens borne by women and girls with indigenous and local women structurally involved in indicator setting.
Strengthen cooperation among national institutions, scientific communities, civil society, indigenous peoples, local communities, and pastoralists, and establish structural participation in global SDS forecasting and early warning mechanisms were absent.
Finally, investment must extend beyond monitoring technologies to community awareness, preparedness, local capacity, and locally led solutions.
Early warning systems must be designed from inception with the people they are intended to protect.
We call on two parties to ensure the international cooperation on SDS ultimately delivers practical protection, meaningful participation, and resilience at community level, particularly for those most exposed.
Thank you, Chair.
I thank the representative of civil society.
I see no further requests to speak, so I invite Mr.
Sasha from UCity Secretariat to react to the discussion we had.
The floor is yours, Mr.
Sasha.
Sorry for if there any member states, please Libya, you have the floor.
Go ahead, please.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
I would like to affirm that sand and dust storms represent one of the environmental, developmental and health challenges that are ever increasing in our region.
Libya, given its geographic location and its expansive land, is facing SDS quite regularly.
This has a negative impact on public health, on infrastructure, on transportation, on agriculture, and livelihoods of local communities.
In our view, dealing with this phenomenon requires a comprehensive approach based on sustainable land management, ecosystem restoration, and improving early warning systems and increasing regional cooperation in monitoring and predicting SDS, as well as evaluating their impact.
We need to take into account the previous Libyan initiatives, including creating a green belt.
Libya here would like to reaffirm its readiness to cooperate with the various programs under the UN CCD, and we are ready to be an active player in elaborating regional and international mechanisms for data sharing, early warning systems, and implementing programs for land and pastoral restoration in such a way as to attenuate the impact of SDS.
We call for increasing financial and technical cooperation for affected countries to enable them to implement effective national action plans that take into account the capacities and circumstances of every nation.
Libya is of the view that international cooperation within the framework of full respect of sovereignty is the only way to further improve our action against SDS.
We're looking forward to a COP providing further concrete support to the most affected countries.
Thank you.
The Representative of Libya, I saw before that the Representative of Tajakistan want requesting for the floor.
Do you want to speak? Yes, Tajikistan, you have the floor.
Proceed Distinguished Chair, distinguished colleagues, thank you for giving me the floor.
For Tajikistan and for the other countries of Central Asia too, dust and sandstorms are becoming very serious problems.
Formerly in Tajikistan, we would have just one or two dust or sandstorms and then there would be rain which would calm it down.
Now we're seeing some 70 days this year of sand and dust storms.
Given this increase in the problem, I have to note that sand and dust storms are slowing down the growth of vegetation.
And this has led to a drop in the harvest of our agricultural crops.
So I have some proposals to make to strengthen the scientific research in this sphere.
So that we can develop new instruments as we believe that the current ones are not sufficient, we need to have more specific tools for specific action, and then secondly, to increase investment into this area.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Tajkistan and this was the last speaker on my list.
I see no further requests to speak.
I will give the floor to Mr.
Sasha from Secretariat to react to discussion we've had.
The floor is yours, Mr.
Sasha.
Thank you, Chair.
I appreciate the comments and the recommendations from all the parties and observers, and we'll be happy to answer any questions in the contact group.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
Sasha.
Now I invite the committee to turn its attention to the issue of range lands and pastoralists.
For this issue, the committee has before it documents ICCD slash cop 17 slash ten, and again, ICCD slash Cp 17 slash 12.
I give now the floor to Mr.
Sasha from Secretariat to introduce the documents ICCDssh cop 17 slash ten.
Thank you, Chair.
Distinguished delegates.
Document ICCD Cop 17 slash ten provides a summary of the activities undertaken by the Secretariat and the global mechanism as requested in Decision 29, Cop 16 on range lands and pastoralists.
Here, I would like to highlight some of the activities.
With the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Secretariat organized three regional dialogues on sustainable range lands and pastoralism in February of 2026.
These explored how evidence based rangeland solutions can be systematically embedded in climate, biodiversity, and land restoration strategies.
In collaboration with the steering committee of the International Year of Range Lands and Pastoralist, the Secretariat organized the Silk Road caravan.
This communications campaign encompassed a symbolic and physical 6,000 kilometer journey along the fabled Silk Road to highlight the value of rangelands and their stewards.
The caravan will make its grand entrance to Cop 17 on the morning of Land and People Day, the 26th of August and commemorated during a special high level event on rangelands and pastoralists that same day.
The Secretariat has published three information briefs to showcase regional issues and perspectives on range land degradation, sustainable pastoralism, and landscape restoration.
A fourth brief focused on women herders and pastoralists.
The Secretary contributed to the report entitled Range Lands Rising, led by the Economics of Land Degradation and other Partners.
This report will be launched during Finance Day to support the Range lands Flagship Initiative and highlight the opportunities and mechanisms for investing in Rangeland Restoration.
The Secretary also contributed to the WWF publication from Roots to Riches, Priority, Policy and Investment Decisions for grasslands and savannas, launched at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in October 2025.
Led by the global mechanism, the Range lands flagship Initiative is a multi partner global initiative which aims to increase investments to achieve land degradation neutrality by conserving, sustainably managing, and restoring range lands.
The initiative will be launched during Finance Day, 24th of August, featuring its three operational components of knowledge generation, resource mobilization, and institutional collaboration.
The objective is to develop the evidence base and the cooperation mechanisms for increased public and private investment in the range lands and their communities.
Draft elements for a decision on rangelands and pastoralists are contained in document ICCD cop 17 slash 12 for the consideration of the parties.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mr.
Sasha.
I now open the floor in connection with the reports that was just introduced by Mr.
Sasa.
So delegation, the floor is open.
I see Chile, you have the floor.
Thank you, Chair.
Cover more than one quarter of the Earth's land surface, generate economic value and are essential for carbon sequestration, regulation of the water cycle, biodiversity conservation, livestock production, and migratory wildlife species.
In this context, Chile considers it essential to develop legal regulatory and policy frameworks for their sustainable management, strengthen their governance and tenure security, and support participation and technical cooperation.
We propose promoting synergies among the REO conventions and the ransom convention, as well as nature based solution for the integrated management of rangelands, together with recognition of regenerative livestock production and pastoralism as part of resilient food systems.
In this regard, Chile supports efforts to continue developing instruments, knowledge, partnerships, and initiatives that contribute to conserving and restoring ranch lands and strengthening the livelihoods associated with them.
I thank the representative of Chile.
Now I give the floor to China.
Thank you, Chair.
China affirms the achievements of the IYPRP in raising global awareness of the importance of rangeland ecosystem and petrol and pastures, as well as in promoting the international exchange and cooperation.
China encourages parties, international organizations, and stakeholders to continue advancing the implementation of the results of the year, as well as enhancing the restoration, protection, sustainable management, and resilience building of rangeland.
We hope that just like the International Day for the Prevention of deserification, more research will be used to help establish the International Day of Rangeland as a commemorative day for rangeland and pathways so as to continue to improve the awareness of this issue.
This morning at the meeting, we support The idea of establishing initiative arrangement proposed by the Asian group, which was well received, it shows this is a common aspiration of all of us.
We hope that through our common efforts, we will promote the establishment of a commemorative day so that the pastors will have a festival of their own.
This will be an important milestone as an important extension of the results of the International Year and will be used to increase the attention to the issue.
Thank you.
Representative of China, now I give the floor to European Union.
Thank you, Chair.
The European Union and its 27 member states express our sincere gratitude to the Secretariat for its thorough and forward looking draft decision on rangelands and pastoralists.
This International of rangelands and pastoralists has been a pivotal moment in bringing the global attention to these ecosystems and their stewards that they so richly deserve.
We reaffirm our commitment to the protection, conservation, sustainable management and restoration of rangelands, recognizing their indispensable role in combating desertification and land degradation and increasing drought resilience.
The European Union and its 27 member states would strongly support integrating conservation alongside restoration in line with the UN CCD Cop 16 Decision 29 and paragraph two.
Prevention and protection are more cost effective and must precede restoration efforts.
We recall the need to adopt sustainable range land management as a holistic framework, ensuring coherence with the Kunming Montreal global biodiversity framework and nationally determined contributions.
Pastoral systems rooted in mobility, adaptive management, and traditional knowledge, represent resilient and sustainable systems.
They deserve our full support.
To achieve this, it is essential to secure land tenure rights for pastoralist communities by recognizing customary and collective land governance systems in line with the FAO voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests.
The European Union and its member states believe this decision presents an opportunity to address critical gaps that are too often been overlooked in global discussions on rangelands.
Specifically, we must integrate themes that are vital to the long term resilience of pastoral systems, such as education and training for pastoralist communities, particularly for youth and women who are the future of these traditions.
We should also highlight the urgent need to conserve animal genetic diversity, which is the bedrock of resilient livestock systems in the face of climate change.
We should break down the silos.
Sustainable rangeland management is intrinsically linked to climate action, biodiversity conservation, and land degradation neutrality.
That is why the European Union and its member states urge that synergies among the three Rio conventions be strengthened, ensuring that sustainable rangeland management is fully embedded in national climate strategies, biodiversity action plans, and land use policies.
In summary, Chair, the EU and its member states broadly support the draft decision and we propose targeted adjustments to reaffirm the importance of conservation restoration, strengthen the role of pastoralists in governance and decision making and explicitly integrate often overlooked themes such as education, genetic diversity, and youth access to pastoral professions.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the European Union, and now I give the floor to Uruguay.
Distinguished delegates.
These natural environments and rangelands are some of the most important part of environments.
They support a great deal, the rangelands, that is, of our livestock and other essential components of our biodiversity.
The interaction between livestock and the rangelands have become part of our cultural heritage and also part of our story and identity in our rural communities.
However, we recognize that in recent decades the loss and degradation of rangelands has increased.
We must design and strengthen public policies to preserve them, to restore them, and to maintain them sustainably, aligning productive patterns with biodiversity and ecosystems.
These lines, we appreciate the work of the Secretariat in drafting the document, Cp 1710, and we hail and welcome the efforts developed to operationalize or implement the content, including capacity building regional workshops and knowledge sharing.
We support the draft decision on rangelands and pastoralists and the work being done for range lands.
We also commend Mongolia for the leadership and for the lessons learned in putting this item on the agenda.
Thank you.
Here at the COP.
We encourage ongoing efforts to recognize the role of rangelands, supporting and valuing the role of them in sustainable development.
We have success stories that show that it is possible to preserve biodiversity and promote livestock, mitigating climate change and generating synergies among the Rio Convention, allowing for actions that contribute to the strengthening of these synergies, recognizing the role of sustainable development and restoration of degraded rangelands for our ecosystems.
With mitigation adaptation to climate change, drought resilience and water security are all key parts of this.
We also believe it is necessary to broaden access to financing for capacity building, technical and scientific cooperation, and technology transfer that allow for extension programs for livestock workers to share knowledge, including monitoring systems for decision making that are evidence based.
President, to conclude, I should like to mention that in your role as COVID president in this year of rangelands, Uruguay in its role, we'll be organizing in Latin America Caribbean an event on rangelands and pastoralists in order to help develop local public policies, foster horizontal dialogue with local and regional scientific knowledge, with traditional knowledge, raising awareness among societies and consumers regarding the role of those working livestock in carbon, water, and diversity.
Thank you very biodiversity is.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, the representative of Uruguay.
Now I give the floor to Botswana.
Thank you, Chair.
Chairperson, distinguished delegates, on behalf of Africa Group, I'm honored to present our United position at the 17th session of the Conference of Purchase to the UNCCD.
Africa's strange lands cover more than 60% of our continent.
They sustain our 268 million pastoralists and agro pastoralists, support globally significant biodiversity and provide critical ecosystem services.
Yet despite their immense value, they remain historically under invested.
We therefore call for a fundamental shift in global investment priorities to operationalize decision Geng nine Cop 16 across all UNCCD programs, financing mechanism, and reporting frameworks, national action programs, NDCs biodiversity strategies and road plans must embed sustainable range land management with a stronger synergies between land degradation neutrality targets, national climate adaptation strategies, and the global biodiversity framework.
Range lands and grasslands must be recognized as distinct categories and CP decisions to reflect their unique management realities.
We therefore call for strengthened scientific research and evidence based monitoring of land health degradation and restoration Trench line data must be fully integrated into national and global agent frameworks to close knowledge gaps and guide sound policy and investment decisions.
Africa recognizes flagships or global coalition French lands and pastoralists as a strategic partner and proposed the establishment of an African investment platform to mobilize blended finance and promote bankable restoration projects.
Platform to mobilize blended finance and promote bankable private sector investment must be encouraged in great green bonds, ecosystem markets, climate risk insurance, and incentives with both opportunities spinning climate smart agriculture, dryland forestry, ecotourism, indigenous, renewable energy, and biodiversity.
Distinguished delegates, Africa's strange lands, and dryland forests are interconnected socio ecological system.
Restoration must be holistic to address grasslands, woodlands, wetlands, and forests through silver pastoral systems, assisted natural regeneration, watershed rehabilitation and biodiversity conservation.
We reaffirm that indigenous people, pastoralists, women, and youth are the custodians of Africa's range lands.
The full and meaningful participation and planning, implementation and benefit sharing is non negotiable.
Indigenous knowledge must be sustainable, passed to the next generation to safeguard livelihoods and cultural continuity.
Chairperson, let me underscore that resilient Rangeland economy must secure restoration, food security, climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable livelihoods, while ensuring indigenous knowledge is sustainably passed to the next generation.
I thank you Chair.
I thank the representative of Botswana.
Now I give the floor to Republic of Korea.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
The Republic of Korea recognized the important role of range land in supporting food security, conserving biodiversity, addressing climate change, and strengthening their livelihood resilience of local community.
Given that range land cover about 54% of the world land surface, and that a significant portion of them are degraded or at the risk of degradation.
The conservation, sustainable management, and restoration are essential to achieve LDN.
Rangeland restriction should not be assessed though in terms of increased vegetation cover or expand deforestation, it requires an integrated approach that respect the unique ecological characteristics of rangeland, including natural grassland and savanna, reduced extensive land conservation and degradation.
And restores soil health and water cycle.
It is also important to ensure that pastoralists and local communities participate not merely as beneficiary, but as key steward of the sustainable management of rangeland.
In particular, the International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists 2026 provide an important opportunity to translate growing international attempt to range land into concrete policy, investment, and action on the ground.
This requests science best management and restoration, respect for the right and traditional knowledge of pastoralist, inclusive governance, and sustained financial support.
Through the Chang Initiative, the Republic of Korea is contributing to advocacy and awareness rising on range land policy and plans to support the development of sustainable angement management and restoration project in the region, including in Mongolia and Central Asia.
The Republic of Korea will remain committed to conserving sustainable managing and restoring range and through international cooperation and domestic policy implementation and to linking the report with the achievement of LDN and enhanced resilience of local communities.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the Republic of Korea.
Now I give the floor to Uganda.
Uganda? It was just an error.
Thank you.
Thank you.
No problem.
Now, I give the floor to Morocco.
President.
President, Excellencies, distinguished delegates.
The Kingdom of Morocco hails the work of the Secretariat for rangelands and pastoralists and we associate ourselves with the statement made on behalf of the African group.
Sir, Morocco reaffirms the strategic importance of the range lands for food security, subsistence for pastoralist communities, biodiversity, and drought resilience, sustainable management and the restoration are essential in the fight against desertification and land degradation.
We welcome the flag shift program on range lands on three pillars, knowledge, investment, and institutions.
This approach is reflected as well in the strategies and national programs in Morocco that prioritize integrated systems for managing rangelands, with different actors and different communities concern being brought in, focusing on research and follow up on the restoration of range lands and also on the use of satellite data to address drought.
This also, depending on the context, allows for compensation mechanisms or support mechanisms for pastoralists with restoration efforts in range lands, bearing in mind the realities of the concerned communities.
These efforts are within a legislative framework and institutional framework that is dedicated to the management of range lands.
Sir, the bearing in mind of realities and experiences on the national level can nourish the work on sustainable management and range land restoration with an approach that focuses on environmental factors and the realities of pastoralists, the Kingdom of Morocco remains favorable for ongoing exchanges with a constructive spirit marked by cooperation.
Much obliged Morocco.
Now I give the floor to Zimbabwe.
Chair, Cab aligns itself with a statement by Botswanam on behalf of Africa.
Cab recognizes that they recognize resilience as a support system for pastoralism and interconnectedness of pastoralism with agriculture and drilling forests.
A holistic approach is recommended for successful management of systems that support pastoralism, which are by and large drilling forests in most cases.
On the reflex initiatives, as Bb reiterated that trail and forests make up roughly 27% of the world's forest area and underpinning food security, resilient agriculture, livestock systems, water regulation, and revenues for over 2 billion people.
SPAC is therefore calling for action towards integrated management of the different land use systems, drawing lessons from the dry sustainable impact program funded under the seventh cycle of the Global Environmental Facility in the wake of the committee on forest and aggressive pastoral systems for working group.
With countries facing rising average temperatures, declining rainfall and land degradation, maintaining forest and trees alongside productive range lands and agtal land is central to drought resilience, land restoration, and raw rule.
Government of Zimbabwe therefore strongly supports the focus on resilience and pasturals in this international year of range lands and pastures.
We strongly feel that d forest entries within range s and aggressive pastoral systems be recognized alongside grass and soil as key assets for resilience so that restoration investments reflect the world landscape.
In conclusion, we raise the need for one, building scientific evidence to assist in the design of national level guidelines and tools critical for addressing knowledge gaps in rent and management.
Secondly, supporting resource mobilization efforts for national level initiatives that strive to improve local levels and the stewardship of rents, I have mentioned.
I thank the representative of Zimbabwe and now give the floor to Iraq.
Sra.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
The delegation of Iraq supports the promotion of sustainable management of range lands as an important part of the efforts to combat desertification and addressing land degradation, drought resilience.
We call for promoting financial and technical support capacity building to implement projects in connection with the restoration of range lands.
And encouraging exchange of expertise and best practices supporting communities that rely on range lands.
We call for international initiatives to promote investment in the restoration and management of rangements and capitalizing on the momentum achieved through the International on range lands and pastoralists.
Thank you.
Now, I give the floor to Oman.
Mr.
Chair, the Sultanate of Oman welcomes this document that reiterates the importance of sustainable management of rangelands, as well as land degraded land restoration and promoting investment and exchange of expertise to this end.
In this respect, the Sultan of Oman would like to review its international experience in the area of range lands in the governate of Zufar as part of our efforts to preserve range lands and promote their capacity to recover and to limit land degradation, to support sustainability of ecosystems and livelihoods of local communities, especially the Oman as the largest area of rangelands in the province of Zafar.
Oman also believes that our experience is a practical example that can be utilized and expertise could be exchanged to this especially in view of the challenges related to land degradation and climate change.
Oman also welcomes the pioneer initiatives on range lands.
We look forward to promoting cooperation and knowledge sharing among states in the area of range land restoration.
And management in a sustainable fashion to contribute to neutrality of land degradation.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Oman.
Now, I give the floor to Sudan.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Range runs for Sudan are one of the main livelihoods for population in our country and they also are economic ecologically important.
They contribute to national income and tourism.
We have around 68.6 million hectars throughout our areas in Sudan that provide nutrition for 150 million livestock.
And despite their importance in terms of livelihoods and ecology, but they continue to face challenges including climate change, drought, desertification, and loss of many species that are also ecologically friendly.
Livelihoods are based on rangelands in Sudan.
Pastoralists continue to move from one place to another seeking water, but there are also conflicts, and therefore, we need to provide sufficient support for the restoration of range lands and conduct scientific research and also combat invasive species.
There should be instruments to resolve disputes on rangelands.
Given that, um, this activity goes beyond national boundaries, there should be protocols to organize transboundary range, um, pastoral activities I think this is an activity that dates back to a long time ago.
So we need to utilize indigenous knowledge and we support, in this case, the statement of Botswana on behalf of Africa.
F to Algeria.
Cedar.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
The delegation of Algeria, thanks to the Secretariat for the document ICCD Cop 1710 on range lands and pastoralists.
We commended the efforts of the global mechanism and the secretary since CP 16 in this area.
Mr.
Chair, Range lands have a great importance in Algeriia given the large area of rangelands in Algeriia, this constitutes an important source of livelihood for local population.
They play a critical role in food security and biodiversity and alleviating the impact of climate change as well as adaptation.
We share the concern expressed by the document with regard to the degraded rangelands because of lack of organization and sufficient efforts.
This also aggravates the vulnerability of pastoralists.
Therefore, Algeria for decades has accumulated experience in terms of addressing the degradation of range lands and other lands.
We stabilize sand dunes and rehabilitate range lands.
We have the project under the rehabilitation of the green wall that includes measures to support pastoral activities in a sustainable manner and reserving vegetation and also in strengthening drought resilience and efforts to combat climate change.
We welcome the initiative on range lands and we commend the leading role of Mongolia, as well as the agreement or the UNCCD we support the three pillars, including knowledge, investment, and institutions.
We commend the efforts made to have a global standard to categorize the range land degradation and improve livelihoods, including taking into account social and economic factors in addition to scientific aspects.
We call for mobilizing additional financial resources from the private and public sectors to support range land rehabilitation member states, especially in Africa that has a double burden given the certification in climate change.
Including, the delegation of Algeris supports the initiative on range lands, and we hope that the outcome of this session would promote the ability of states parties, especially countries that have vulnerable range lands to preserve this critical source of income.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Algeria.
Now I give the floor to Cambodia.
Mr.
Chair, Cambodia welcome this report on the ranchland and pastoralism.
While our country is not defined by the vast arid ranchland, we are home to seasonal flooded grassland surrounding the sa lake and upland area that are vital to livestock rearing community, including indigenous groups.
For Cambodia, pastoralism is intrinsically linked to the resilience of our smallholder farmer.
These grassland serve as a critical grasing ground during the dry season and as the natural buffer again the flooding and drought.
Therefore, Cambodia view the work of the Secretat and the global mechanism on sustainable graing management as high Equilovan.
Cambodia called for the targeted technical assistance to support community ranch land management, specifically, Cambodia needs support in one, integrating traditional pastoral knowledge with modern land use planning and second, securing a communal land tenure progressing zone, which directly prevent conversion to unsustainable agriculture.
Cambodia look forward to practical tool and financing mechanism that empower local community to restore this vital landscape.
I sent you research here.
I thank the representative of Cambodia.
Now I give the floor to Brazil.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Brazil considers this issue of particular relevance.
We add ourselves to those countries that know that 2026 is being celebrated as the International Year of Rageilance and pastoralism, providing an important opportunity to highlight the contribution of sustainable pastoralism and rage land management to land degradation neutrality and resilience.
In this regard, we would like to make reference to pastoralism from indigenous people and local communities or oranges and their role in sustainable use of resilience.
Brazil has policies aimed at restoring integrated pastures, increase agricultural productivity, and promote resilient production systems.
We see the discussions at cop 17 as an opportunity to further recognize agriculture's role as part of the solution to desertification, biodiversity laws, and climate change adaptation, while taking into account national circumstances and preserving parts flexibility to determine their own policies and approach.
Brazil recognized the important contribution of the productive restoration of degraded pastures and technological innovation to achieving the objectives of this convention.
In this regard, we would also like to highlight the importance of scientific cooperation as an instrument to implementation.
The development and dissemination of technologies adapted to diverse ecological conditions require the active engagement of scientific and research institutions whose contribution should be a knowledge.
Brazil stands ready to engage constructively with the parts, indigenous people, local communities, and civil society during CP 17.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
I thank the representative of Brazil.
Now I give the floor to Yemen.
In the name of God, the compassionate members for Mr.
Chair, we would like to thank you and we thank the secretary.
Yemen has a large area of range lands that contribute to providing food and livestocks.
Range lands also contribute to striking the natural balance of biodiversity and the range land area in Yemen constitute 57% 30 million hectars In Yemen, there is also 26 million animals that communities rely on to improve livelihoods for local communities.
However, there are also problems such as land tenure and private ownership.
These are obstacles standing in the way of optimal use of range lands.
There is also the problem of The weak voice of pastoralists, their voices are not heard by decision makers.
I would like also to refer to a significant problem facing Yemen, which is the island of Skatra Yemeni island that is part of the international world heritage, and it is one of the most significant world reserves as in accordance with UNSCO records.
But there is also a low level of precipitation that caused drought on the island, and there isn't sufficient capacity to address these challenges.
This has also led to low productivity in the area of Dairy products.
This has impacted nutrition for women and children in particular and has also led to stunting.
There is also climate change that has greatly affected our resources when it comes to plants.
Many trees and forests have died, and we have lost many rare trees.
In Yemen, we appeal to the Secretariat to render technical support and financial support to protect rangelands and pastoralists.
We support the initiative on range lands to enable local communities to protect animal resources and the role of pastoralists.
Thank you.
The floor to South Africa.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
We fully support this statement by Botswana on behalf of the African group.
Range land cover nearly 75% of our country and provide current ecosystem services and support livestock production while still facing significant degradation pressures.
Mr.
Chair, we recognize and acknowledge the multifaceted importance of range land for indigenous people, local communities, women, youth, and other people in vulnerable and disadvantaged situation.
We believe there's a need to accelerate sustainable land and water management practices to support diversified livelihoods, cultural and social identity and climate resilience.
Mr.
Chair, distinguished delegates, we advocate for the national and global strategies that allow for content specific implementation of sustainable range land management practices to address the impacts of DDD in recognition of interrelationship with an integrated implementation of other thematic areas.
Such as drought resilience, anum, gender, sand and dust storm to address key challenges that are related to food and water insecurity, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
Mr.
Chair, we further welcome the work done by the global mechanism in relation to knowledge generation, awareness, and partnership on the promotion of the value of healthy, rest and responsible stewardship by pastoralists and regilt communities.
South Africa is of the view that there's a need to intensify practical capacity building, mobilization of technical and financial resources for the development and implementation of projects and programs that support range land management and pastoralist.
Mr.
Chair, we further emphasize the need to empower pastoralist and rangeland communities as stewardship of the land.
Through the improvement of livelihoods, creation of sustainable supply chains and market access and community based led project and program.
In conclusion, Mr.
Chair, we are of the view that sution financial resources from all sources will be required for the implementation of sustainable range land management restoration practices, and country level land improvement initiative.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
I thank the representative of South Africa and now I give the floor to Mongolia.
Thank you, Chair.
Mongolia strongly supports the adoption of the decision on range lands and pastoral lists.
Range lands cover over 80% of Mongolia's territory and sustain our livestock economy, rural livelihoods, food systems, and nomadic cultural heritage.
At the same time, Mongolia's national assessment found that approximately 65% of monitored range lands showed some level of degradation.
This demonstrates the urgent need to move from isolated interventions towards coordinated landscape scale action.
Mongolia has made important progress.
We have established a nationwide Rangeland health monitoring system, expanded community based pasture management, seasonal grazing plans, and strengthened cooperation among herders, scientists, and local authorities.
Mongolia has also championed the United Nations International Year of Range Lands and Pastoralists, helping to bring global political attention to these historically undervalued ecosystem their custodians.
Mongolia's experience reflects a much wider global reality.
Range lands cover more than half of the world's land surface and support the livelihoods of approximately 500 million people, yet they remain among the most undervalued and under invested ecosystems.
Although ecologically and pastoral systems differ across regions, countries face many common challenges, including land degradation, climate change, drought, declining mobility, insecure access to resources, and insufficient investment.
For Mongolia's steps to range landscapes across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, conserving, sustainably managing, and restoring rangelands is indispensable to achieving land degradation neutrality.
Range lands must therefore be recognized as vital natural capital and essential ecological infrastructure.
Investment in their sustainable management can deliver benefits simultaneously for the UNCCD, the Paris Agreement, the Konman Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and the sustainable development goals.
Mongolia calls upon parties to integrate range lands into national LDN targets and relevant policies.
Implementation should be supported by adequate and accessible finance, reliable ground based monitoring, scientific and traditional knowledge, secure access to land and resources, and the meaningful participation of pastoralists, particularly women and youth.
We encourage parties, financial institutions, development partners to use the range lands and pastoralist flagship Initiative to connect national experience with global action.
It should serve as a practical platform for cooperation among rangeland countries sharing science and pastoral traditional knowledge, developing project pipelines, and scaling up locally proven solutions.
Mongolia stands ready to work with all partners to transform the growing global recognition of range lands into coordinated action and measurable benefits for land and people.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Mongolia.
Just here, I want to recall that you are running out of time.
We have less than one half hour and we have on the list 11 requests of the floor.
Distinguished delegate, please keep your statement brief and accurate so we could hear from as many speaker as possible.
Now, I give the floor to Bina.
Please be brief in your statement.
Thank you, Mr.
President President Madam.
Thank you, Delegates Benin.
We'd like to express appreciation of this CP 17 work on range lands and we also would like to commend the Secretariat for the work undertaken.
This work on rangelands is an essential pillar of ecosystem resilience and food security as well as subsistence for thousands of pastoralist communities.
However, given agricultural pressure on lands, it is urgent that we strengthen knowledge and protection of these zones, the issue of rangelands is economic and social in nature.
The increasing pressure on land and the reduction of pastoralist lands and rangelands has brought greater tensions on livestock and pastoralists.
These tensions are linked to uncontrolled displacements of herds, which has brought damage to agriculture and this has created a greater fragility of communities.
This reality shows that managing range lands cannot be addressed except just the angle of land exploitation, but rather also as an issue of national stability.
This should also bear in mind.
The complex uses of lands.
Management should bear in mind equitable access to natural resources as well as the strengthen of links between communities but inhales the stressing in the convention of this topic and we hail the African group for its full participation and meaningful participation of local communities and those working in livestock that are sharing their knowledge and experience, which is crucial and in our planning and the implementation and follow up of our work that should be considered to be a ynquin factor.
Sir Benin nationally has numerous actions underway to bring better management of range lands and relations between agriculture and livestock, including agreements between these groups on resources aimed at reducing conflict.
These efforts are aimed at also addressing coexistence.
The different stakeholders.
We recognize that there should be strengthened efforts to bring sustainable management.
It is for that reason, that the multi stake work should help to overcome the difficult situations, finding solutions that are agreed upon.
We're also working to promote sustainable pastorus work and land restoration of degraded land.
Benin reaffirms the three principles that should guide our work, respect and restoration for land.
Benin also recognizes that the restoration of range lands, it comes with investment, scientific research and the involvement and effective participation of the concerned communities.
We call for an implementation of the decision 16 so that these communities can increasingly be recognized in national policies, investment and such actions.
Thank you very much.
I thank the representative of Bina.
Distinguished delegate, I will close the list of speakers just before after the next speaker.
Now I give the floor to Tjakistan Be brief, please.
Distinguished Chair.
Tajikistan has 93% of mountainous territory.
We have the 10 million hectors.
And a population which lives mostly in the mountainous regions.
We have 3.9 million hectas of pastoral land, but unfortunately, some 90% of it is degraded land.
Given this situation, we have some proposals to increase an exchange of opinion and experience and to step up an exchange of technology between countries.
We support the establishment of the International Day of rangelands and pastoralists and We believe we need a comprehensive, complex approach to this issue.
We need to look at human resources management because unfortunately, young people are not becoming involved in these activities.
We need to find ways to involve young people so that they are active in resolving our problems relating to range lands.
Representative from Tajekistan now I give the floor to Saudi Arabia.
Skran Seda.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
I would like to thank the Secretariat of the convention, and we seize the opportunity to speak about the state of rage lands in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Rage lands in Saudi Arabia are among the largest environmental sectors in the kingdom.
These cover about 146 million hectares.
That is about 70% of the total surface area of Saudi Arabia.
But unfortunately, over the past decades, these rage lands have suffered deterioration.
There was severe deterioration and medium deterioration as well.
So multiple levels of deterioration.
And this is why when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced vision 2030 back in 2016, We started restoring our ecosystems, and we established a Ministry of Environment and various specialized environmental centers, including the National Center for improving the vegetative cover and combating desertification, which is in charge of protecting age lands and developing them in a way that makes them sustainable.
And this is conducted in cooperation with various sectors, including the Royal reserves, which have been established in various locations across the kingdom.
This is in addition to the natural biomes reserves.
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2021, has announced the Saudi Green Initiative, which aims at planting 10 billion trees and protecting millions of hectors, many of which happen in rage lands.
And then we announce also the Green Middle East Initiative which targets the planting of 20 million trees and protecting large swaths of lands which do happen in most parts in age lands.
This is part of our efforts to increase regional and international cooperation efforts.
This has been followed by a series of initiatives, including hosting by a ad of cop 16 of the UN CCD, through which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had announced a number of initiatives that support sustainable action in combating desertification and droughts and supporting rage lands.
And conserving these range lands from deterioration or further deterioration.
This is why the Kingdom welcomes all efforts, including the decision that your presidency is about to adopt.
We thank you very much and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia supports this decision.
Thank you.
Saudi Arabia, just as I said before, the list is closed now, and I give the floor to Bhutan.
Bhutan, you have the floor.
Thank you, Chair and thank you to the UNC Secretariat for the report.
For Bhutan, rains are far more than grazing areas.
They are living landscapes that sustain pastoral communities, livestock, biodiversity, water regulation, carbon storage, and unique highland cultures.
Their health directly affects not only mountain communities, but also downstream populations.
Our traditional grazing land, known as ambro support pastoral livelihoods across Bhutan's highlands.
We have learned that sustainable ranch land management must go hand in hand with secure user rights, strong community institutions, and recognition of pastoralists as partners and stewards of restoration, not merely beneficiaries.
Bhutan is therefore strengthening community centered resident governance while combining indigenous knowledge with modern technology.
Through participatory mapping and the ambro More than 8,000 acres of pasture have been mapped, helping bring traditional pastoral knowledge into contemporary land use planning and range management.
At the same time, Bhutan is investing in the broader well being and vitality of our highland communities.
Through initiatives such as Royal Highland Festival, we celebrate and promote the unique culture and traditions of Highland communities, showcase their livestock and local products, strengthen market and livelihood opportunities, and draw national and international attention to the challenges and aspirations of our pastoral communities.
Our experience has taught us that the future of range lands cannot be secured by restoring grasslands alone.
We must also sustain the people, cultures, and livelihoods that have stewarded these landscapes for generations.
In this regard, Bhutan wishes to highlight three priorities.
First, recognize and empower pastoralists as custodian of land, knowledge, and biodiversity and strengthen their participation in decision making and range governance.
Second, invest integrated range land restoration through sustainable grazing, invest in species management, improved soil and water conservation, climate resilient livestock production, and sustainable value chains.
Third, create viable economic and social opportunities and enable young people to remain in or return to pastoral areas while recognizing the broader public benefits provided by mountain residents, including water regulation, biodiversity conservation, and carbon storage.
These benefits should be better reflected in international cooperation and financing.
Resident is truly restored only when its ecosystem is healthy and the people who have stewarded it for generations can sustain a dignified and viable livelihood from it.
Therefore, let us restore not only the grasslands, but also the social, economic, and ecological systems that make pastoralism resilient.
I thank you Chair.
I thank you representative of Bhutan.
Distinguish delegates, as I said before, I kindly request you to be brief in your statements.
Now I give the floor to Peru.
Thank you.
Peru welcomes the leadership of Mongolia in hosting Cp 17 and elevating the global profile of range lands and the pastoral communities that steward them.
Our presence here offers a timely opportunity to share Peru's experience from the high Andes and to underline the critical importance of grasslands and sustainable pastoral for land restoration, eliminate resilience, biodiversity, and human well being.
In Peru, the high Andean grassland, the Puna cover approximately 15 or 80 million acres, representing nearly 45% of the country agricultural surface.
These natural pastures form the foundation of the traditional pastoral system that have sustainable Andean communities for millennials.
Central to this system are the South American camemelic, alpacas, llamas, bunas, and Guanacos.
Peru is home to the world's largest alpaca populations, more than 85% of the global total, alongside the significant numbers of the llamas, an important population of the wild camels.
These animals are unique, adapted to the harsh condition of the high ends and play an essential ecological role in maintaining the health and productivity of the natural pastures.
Peru remains firmly committed to the conservation and sustainable management of this ecosystem.
We recognize that healthy natural pasture are not only a source of fiber, food, and income from tens of thousands of pastoral families, but also vital for the weater regulation, carbon storage, and the protection of the unique and the ambient biodiversity.
Our national policies reflect this understanding.
Despite these important efforts in Peru, pastoral communities continue to face significant challenges, including the eliminate variability, pasture degradation, limited access to markets and service, and the need for stronger recognition of this traditional knowledge and mobility practice, improving the situation of these communities and therefore a priority for Peru.
Peru in this spirit in the context of the International Year of range lands and passers, Peru proposed that cop 17 prioritize structured dialogue and reslence and passer with the clear objective of moving from discussion to concrete actions.
Peru stand ready to share this experience, learn from other and work collaboratively with parties, international organizations, cyber society, and pastoral representatives to ensure that the outcomes of the CP 17 deliver tangible benefits for the world's Gransand and the people who depends on them.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Peru.
Now I give the floor to Uzbekistan.
Please be brief.
Thank you, Chair.
Distinguished College, ladies and gentlemen.
We consider sustainable range of management and the well being of paster communities to be closely linked to addressing desertification, land degradation, drought, climate change, food security, and biodiversity conservation.
We particularly welcome recognizing operan land as important ecosystems that support livelihood, biodiversity, carbon succy and ecosystem services.
For Uzbekistan ranges are not simply agricultural land.
They are ecosystems that support food production, rural livelihood, biodiversity, and ecological connectivity across our dry land landscapes.
This issue is of particular importance of Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan supports strengthening regional cooperation on range land restoration and sustainable management, improving pastoral livelihood and introducing modern monitoring and management approaches.
We highly appreciate the flagship initiative.
We also support greater mobilization of financial resource and stronger public, private community partnership to scale up sustainable range land management and restore.
Uzbekistan supports this document and stands ready to contribute to strengthening regional cooperation on sustainable res management and the restoration of degraded lands land, particularly in Central Asia.
Thank you for your attention.
I thank the Representative of Uuzbkistan.
Now I give the floor to Syrian Arab Republic.
As Chair ladies and gentlemen.
The rural areas in the Syrian Arab Republic are more than half of the whole national territory, and this is closely linked, of course, to food security and to the maintenance of traditions and local knowledge.
Therefore, we pay great attention to All that the convention is doing to maintain range lands and pastoral lands, and we need to make sure that we preserve local pastoralist traditions, in particular, given the challenges of climate change.
Chair, all efforts deployed to address these challenges require greater implementation.
They require us to use new technology.
Resources need to be mobilized in an optimal manner and targeted clearly towards achieving the specific objectives in the different local communities.
Our efforts in Syria aim mostly to maintain pastoral lands and rangelands, and pastoral knowledge.
Which requires financial resources and support through national and international cooperation.
This was the last speaker from member states.
Now we'll move to the intergovernmental organization.
I give the floor to International Center for Integrated Mountain Development.
The floor is yours.
Go ahead, please.
International Center for Integrated Mountain Developments.
Are you here? There is a technical issue, I think.
We'll move to ASEAN and we'll come back to you.
ASN, International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Go ahead, please.
I think there is a technical issue.
Thank you, Chair.
I see and applauds the progress made by parties, the Secretariat, and the global mechanism in implementing Decision 29 of cop 16 and is pleased to have contributed to several of the activities highlighted in this report, both to raise awareness, and to generate knowledge on this critical issue.
We invite parties to build on this foundation to embed rangelands and grassland specific commitments within their LDN targets and to promote sustainable pastoralism and management approaches and to integrate these actions into national planning instruments.
Such practices are vital to confronting the biodiversity, climate, and desertification crisis, and rangeland restoration should be recognized as a valuable contribution towards national progress under target two of the King Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Further, noting similar commitments to halt deforestation, IUCN encourages parties to commit to halting indiscriminate commodity driven rangeland conversion as an LDN objective and to explicitly target the drivers of rangeland degradation, including poorly planned plantations and energy projects, as well as introduction and spread of invasive alien species in LDN planning.
The International Year of rangelands and pastoralists must be a turning point for pastoralist leadership and IUCN is pleased to be a part of the Global Alliance for rangelands and pastoralists, which aims to do just that.
IUCN strongly supports pastoralists well defined legal and customary tenure and access rights and the recognition of pastoralist mobility as a nature based solution for sustainable rangeland management.
We therefore invite parties to establish legal frameworks that recognize such areas as contributing to biodiversity conservation, potentially as other effective area based conservation measures.
Finally, IUCN supports both the Rangeland flagship Initiative and the coalition of Rangeland states and welcomes the opportunity to collaborate in their operationalization.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
A, Distinguished delegates, we have seven speakers on the list and we have just less than 15 minutes.
Please be brief in your statement to allow all of you to speak.
Now I will come back to International Center for Integrated Mountain Development.
You have the floor.
Please be brief in your statement.
The mic is still not working.
Thank you, Chair.
I speak on behalf of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, an intergovernmental organization working across the mountain rangelands of the Hindu Kush Himalaya, and in solidarity with the pastoralist communities of Asia and Beyond.
In view of the proposed decision, we request parties to act on three fronts.
First, we encourage the implementation and translation of the voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure into binding national protections against enclosure, against conversion, against encroachment on pastoral lands, especially through expanded legal frameworks that recognize the collective and mobile use of lands monitored and measured through inclusive, community validated and appropriate indicators.
We see land tenure as the foundation of Rangeland health, no restoration target, no financing mechanism, no land degradation commitment holds if the pastoralists stewarding these lands do not have recognized rights to land, territory, and mobility.
Second, we insist that parties protect pastoralist mobility, allowing flexibility to review and revise mobility routes year on year from one season to the next, recognizing pastoralist wisdom and capacity for decision making.
Third, we invite parties to link restoration to rights.
Every range land restoration commitment made at this CP should consider channeling through accessible financing mechanisms that fund pastoralist organizations and their initiatives, supporting and safeguarding pastoralist leadership and decision making, and actions on the lands and equal participation as rights holders.
We urge parties to adopt a range s decision that delivers on tenure, mobility, inclusive governance, and responsible investments with the full and equitable participation of pastoralists, including women and youth at every level.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of IC Mood.
Now I give the floor to the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers.
Please be brief in your statements.
Go ahead.
Siar.
I moved to Aksad Arab Center for studies of arid zones and dry lands.
Aksad, are you here? Yeah.
Go ahead, please.
Yes.
Thank you, Chair.
I wish on behalf of my secession to thank Mongolia and the people of Mongolia for their very warm welcome and to thank the Secretariat for the excellent organization of our work.
There's more than 30% of Arab land, which is Rangeland and Paziland and this is Arab land, which Really, it's highly dependent on precipitation of a seasonal nature.
90% of this land is pastoral land, which is characterized by major movements of the population of the inhabitants.
So we have plead in favor for a model for the Arab region, which is based on land restoration and coordination.
We are able to work with you.
Now we come back to Segar While waiting, I will go to the specialized agencies and invite FAO to take the floor.
Please be brief, FAO 257.
Thank you, Chair.
Please be brief.
We welcome the progress made in implementing Decision 29 Cop 16, including through regional dialogue, knowledge products and the Range Lands flagship Initiative.
FAO recognizes the critical role of range lands and pastoralists in achieving food security, supporting livelihoods and providing ecosystem services.
Range lands cover more than half of the Earth's land surface and sustained livelihoods, cultures and resilience of pastoralists and food security of 2 billion people worldwide.
Range lands host diverse ecosystem.
Their sustainable management and restoration require integrated approaches that link grazing mobility, local knowledge, culture, biodiversity, land tenure, and soil and water conservation, However, they remain undervalued and underfnanced.
Land degradation, desertification, drought, invasive species, conversion of range lands to other land uses, and competition over natural resources continue to threaten rangeland health and the pastoral communities who depend on them.
These challenges require holistic and integrated pastoral centered approaches that uphold pastoral rights, strengthen customary governance, and enhance range land restoration and water and drought management.
As part of the global efforts for enhancing action and raising global awareness of the importance of range lands and pastoralists for food security, ecosystem services and cultural heritage, FAO is leading the celebration of the United Nations International Year of Range Lands and Pastoralists 2026, in collaboration with member states, UN CCD, and partners, including the Global Alliance for Range Ls and Pastoralists.
As we reach the midpoint of this international year, we would like to commend the Global Alliance, a coalition of around 500 pastoralist organizations, supporting institutions and individuals for their important role in building global momentum and advancing the implementation, outreach, and visibility of International Year.
This collective effort has highlighted the importance of stronger partnerships to address the challenges fanging facing rangelands and pastoral communities, particularly in the context of increasing drought and climate pressures.
In this regard, the FAO.
Is FAO trying to conclude? Yes.
Co for working group on dryland forests and aggressive pastoral systems, together with UN CCD International Drought Resilience Alliance, IDR and partners offer a collaborative platform to enhance drought resilience.
Dryland forests and aggssive bu pastoral systems are essential for the resilience of rangelands, pastoralists livelihoods and agri food systems.
Sustaining their contributions requires stakeholder participation and cross sectoral collaboration among institutions to ensure policy coherence.
We remain committed to supporting pastoralists and parties and invite parties, donors, and partners to work together to translate the agreements reached under decision 29 cop 16 into concrete action.
We are confident that by implementing these measures, Ifail please more resilient rangelands ecosystems that sustain both communities and the environment and contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, E.
Now I give the floor to United Nations Environment Program.
Go ahead, please and try to be brief.
UP, while waiting for UP, I will give the floor to Arab Organization for Agricultural Development.
I think the United Nations Environment Program welcomes the notes and commends the UNCCD Secretariat and partners for the progress made in implementing Decision 29 Cop 16.
UNEP also welcome the Range and flagship Initiative and requests to be actively engaged in its further development and implementation.
We believe that sustainable range land management must be firmly grounded in right based approach.
This includes strengthening tenure security, recognizing customer land and mobility rights, and ensuring meaningful participation of pastoralists, indigenous people, local community consistent with the voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure of lands, fisheries, and forestry in the context of national food security.
UNEPs core principles for private conservation organizations and founders can provide a practical framework for equitable public, private community partnership that respects rights while mobilizing funds for conservation and restoration.
We also encourage stronger integration of range land and pastoralist solution into NDCs, NBSPs and LDN target and sustained investment in evidence, awareness, and resource mobilization.
Building on the 2029 Global Range Atlas, UNEP continue to support this agenda through the Calpin Convention and project in Mongolia, Jordan, and beyond.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Thank you, UP, for being brief.
Now I give the floor to Arab Organization for Agriculture Development.
Ram Maat Hello.
Man.
In the name of God, the compassionate merciful, Your Ecellncies Mr.
Chair.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, allow me at the outset, on behalf of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, to express my sincerest appreciation to the UN CCD Secretariat for their continued efforts to promote the implementation of the convention, and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development attaches great importance to the themes tackled today, notably the implementation of the strategic framework of the UNCCT 2018, 2030 and other linked issues in terms of pastoralists, sand and dust storms, droughts, empowerment of women, and rural community resilience.
When it comes to sand and dust storms, the Arab Organization or the Arab region is most affected by sand and dust storms.
And over the past years, this has become a recurrent phenomenon with negative consequences on the live health of people as well as livestock, livelihoods, economy, and environment.
The Arab Organization, makes strenuous efforts in Arab countries to raise awareness for communities and national institutions when it comes to the drivers of this phenomenon and promoting the culture of prevention, preparedness, and limiting the negative consequences.
But the phenomenon increases and this requires us to shift to a more advanced level of work.
The Arab region requires modern knowledge The chair interrupts.
The Arab region also requires advanced equipment in order to address this phenomenon in a more effective manner.
We also need promoting our capacity in the area of monitoring, follow up, prediction, early warning, and reducing to enable member states to predict these storms and to be prepared.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Wada.
Now I give the floor to CJR Consortium of International Agriculture Research Center.
Please be brief.
Thank you, Chair for giving me the floor.
We welcome the draft decision.
Calls for public private community partnership to secure tenure and inclusive governance to restore at least 30% of the graded rangelands by 2030, in line with target two of the Cumman Montreal Global biodiversity Framework with women, indigenous people, pastoralism, and other rangeland stewards recognized as leaders, not passive recipients of interventions.
We also welcome the coalition of range land states as a platform to catalyze the political commitment and investment needed to achieve restoration at this scale.
Recent work by CGR and partners show what this can look like in practice.
Emerging investment cases in Africa and Latin America are already mobilizing private and blended finance for range restoration linked to livestock value change.
Demonstrating that restoration range lines is not only environmental imperative.
But also a credible investment opportunity, generating returns for producers and investors while restoring the landscapes they depend on.
We urge parties to give particular attention to invasive alien plants and species as a growing driver of rangeland degradation.
The species reduce forage availability and granland capacity, often forcing overgrazing into new areas, underscoring the need of coordinated cross border action to prevent and manage their spread.
Finally, meeting these ambitions will require robust evidence and monitoring, including tracking of soil organic carbon as an indicator of rangeland health to guide adaptive management and support reporting across the Rio conventions.
We stand ready to support parents in translating this decision into ambitious long term action that secure the future of the world's rangelands and the communities who depends on them.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, CJR.
Now I give the floor to civil society.
The representative of civil society, you have the floor.
K.
Thank you, President, Chairperson, Distinguished delegates.
The year 2026 is International Year of Rangeland and Pastoralists and the party on the draft decision already recognizing their momentum, this greats.
We ask cop 17 to match this recognition with action.
In recognition and alignment with the global pastoralists and indigenous pastoralists call for action of 15 August 2026, the civil society organizations call on parties to take the following urgent actions.
First, implement pastoralist rights to land, territory, and mobility, including trans human's corridors and cross border mobility.
In line with the voluntary guidelines on responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries, forest, and decisions 29 slash CP 16, legal frameworks must recognize collective seasonal overlapping and mobile forms of land use.
Protecting against the appropriation of communal pastoral lands for industry, infrastructure, green climate solutions such as carbon markets, renewable energy, mining for transitional minerals, afforestation, and forest conservation.
Safeguard pastoral mobility as adaptive capacity and is a production strategy fundamental to keeping livestock production for food sustainable management and restoration of degraded territories, livelihoods, resilience, under challenging climatic conditions, ensuring that policy allows flexibility rather than fixed behavior, accounting for changes in accessibility and ecological suitability.
De inclusive pastoralist validated land tenure data and monitoring systems that accurately reflect the realities of pastoralism.
Reframe land degradation neutrality and pastoralist rights and initiate a pastoralist inclusive and participatory assessment of its potential arms.
We call upon the UNCCD to embrace a systematic approach to land degradation and soil health that respects the unity of pastoralist Greenland systems.
That goes beyond environmental metrics to include social cultural and economic criteria for the well being of indigenous peoples.
We oppose any restoration and nature conservation initiatives that encourage our territories and infringe on our rights.
Therefore, we call on parties to ensure that any attempt aimed at restoration and conservation should be carried out in full compliance with the legal and customary measures enriched in the UN Declaration on the Rights of pass and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples and in line with the VGGTs and drawing from the existing models such as the indigenous communities conserved areas and territories of life, ICCAs, ensure ten led investment in rangelands led organizations and initiatives through direct financing mechanisms, including through Range L Flagship Initiative.
Establish equitable and inclusive decision making process that ensures pastoralists, including pastoralist women and youth, arthrte and knowledge holders in rangeland governance at all levels, including through permanent consultative mechanism alongside society and establishment of pastoralist caucus to strengthen dialogue, coordination, and meaningful participation in UNCCD deliberations.
Thank you, Sir.
Thank you, Civil Society representative.
Sanguch delegate, we have one speaker remaining, which is Convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animal, and we'll have the statement tomorrow from CMS.
I now give the floor to Mr.
Alexander from Us City Secretariat to react to the discussion we had.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank all the parties and observers for their comments and suggestions.
We look forward to answering and clarifying any issues in the contact group.
Thank you.
I thank Mr.
Sasha from UC City Secretariat, and I propose that further discussion on these items in their totality be taken up into CO contact group two.
I hear no objection.
It's so decided.
This brings us to the end of our deliberation of today's meeting.
The next meeting of the committee of the hall is scheduled for tomorrow morning, Friday 21 August at 10:00 A.M.
In the plenary hall.
I would like to draw the attention of parties to the following change in the schedule of meeting.
The agenda item originally scheduled to be considered coming Tuesday, 25 August will be considered tomorrow morning.
Friday 21 August, this item are Agenda item two, D, entitled Review of Progress in the implementation of the United Nations Convention to Compass Certification Communication Plan, and eight C, entitled Program of Work for 18th session of the Conference of the Parties.
This information is already reflected in the daily journal at UNIC City website and For further information, please consult the daily journal at the UCCD website and the UCCD application.
The contact group two on other matters will reconvene after the closing of disciplinary at 6:30 P.M.
Before adjourning, I would like to thank the interpreters for the extension the gratsly gave us.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
We nearly heard all the speakers inscribed.
The meeting is adjourned.
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