AfDB backs calls for land restoration as COP17 gets underway in Mongolia

KAMPALA, August 21, 2021 — The African Development Bank [AfDB] pressed for greater financing to restore degraded land in Africa’s fragile and conflict-affected regions as a major United Nations land summit opened recently in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, held under the theme “Restoring Land.” Restoring Hope.”, has brought together more than 12,000 representatives of the Convention’s 197 Parties to accelerate global action against desertification, land degradation and drought.

The Conference comes at a pivotal moment as countries seek to translate global ambitions and commitments into tangible action for addressing drought, desertification and land degradation while strengthening food security, climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods.

In opening remarks, Mongolian Prime Minister Nyam-Osor Uchral underscored the need for global cooperation to address the growing impacts of land degradation.

“It is now widely recognised that desertification, land degradation and drought are challenges that transcend national borders and require a collective response from humanity.”

Spanning 1.56 million square kilometers, Mongolia ranks among the world’s hardest-hit nations by desertification, with nearly 77 percent of its territory already degraded.

The Bank Group is taking part in COP17 to advance Africa’s land restoration and drought-resilience agenda through a series of high-level events and technical discussions. On the opening day, it joined the side event “Unlocking Land Restoration Financing for Resilience and Stability in Fragile and Conflict-affected Settings,” co-organised with the UNCCD, the United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP] and the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP].

The session examined financing instruments that can better support land restoration in fragile and conflict-affected settings through improved coordination, risk-sharing and peace-responsive approaches, and introduced a proposed Fragility Financing Mechanism intended to move restoration from financing gaps to financing continuity.

In her remarks to delegates, UNCCD Executive Secretary Yasmine Fouad said, “COP17 must be a COP of implementation. The challenge now is delivery. We need to move from commitments to measurable results on the ground.”

Representing the Bank, Al Hamndou Dorsouma, Division Manager for Climate and Green Growth, said land restoration in Africa should be treated as part of a broader development and security agenda, not only an environmental objective.

“Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly half of the world’s fragile and conflict-affected settings,” he said. “For Africa, land restoration is a way of promoting peace and stability, an opportunity to build resilience and to address the underlying drivers of fragility before they evolve into larger conflicts.”

Since 2008 the Bank’s Transition Support Facility [TSF] has responded to the pressures facing Africa’s fragile and conflict-affected settings, applying climate, fragility and resilience lenses to its interventions and investing in shared ecosystems, Doursouma added. Examples include a TSF-funded US$ 9.5 million project to restore the ecological and economic functions of Lake Chad and a large-scale programme building climate resilience for food and livelihoods in the Horn of Africa.

Over the next two weeks, governments, development partners, financial institutions, civil society and the private sector will negotiate decisions and forge partnerships aimed at restoring degraded land, strengthening drought resilience and mobilising greater investment in sustainable land management. For the African Development Bank, COP17 provides a key platform to reinforce land restoration as a driver of climate adaptation, food security, economic opportunity and sustainable development across Africa.

The Great Green Wall Pavilion, led by the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall [PAGGW] and co-hosted by the African Development Bank Group and other partners, has become a hub for partnerships to restore Africa’s landscapes. Prime Minister Uchral made a surprise visit on the opening day, underscoring the global importance of land restoration and the Great Green Wall Initiative.

https://thecooperator.news/cop30-afdb-strengthens-investments-in-climate-peace-security-nexus/

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