News

The year 2015 will soon come to an end and 2016 is about to commence. This was a productive year for UNU-LRT and we thank our collaborators for good cooperation in 2015 and wish you all a prosperous New Year 2016 and success in raising awareness of the importance of combating land degradation and restoring degraded land.

UNU-LRT participated in a side event at the Climate Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, this week. The title of the side event was Desertification and Land Restoration – The Climate Connection. The side event focused on the challenges of land degradation, the goal of a land degradation-neutral world, the benefits of soil carbon sequestration and the importance of land restoration capacity building. UNU-LRT Director, Dr Hafdis Hanna Aegisdottir, gave a talk on the importance of training people to become change agents in order to combat land degradation, restore degraded land and mitigate and adapt to climate change. Ms Monique Barbut, the Executive Secretary of UNCCD, linked climate change and land degradation neutrality in her talk and emphasized the importance of land for us to be able to reach the goals of the other Rio conventions (CBD and FCCC) and for reaching the Global Goals.

To celebrate the International Year of Soils 2015, UNU-LRT has throughout this year organised short public meetings on issues related to soils, in partnership with the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland and the UN Association in Iceland. In those meetings topics such as soils & food, soils & education, soils & economy, and soils & cities have been covered. This week a seminar was held to mark the International Year of Soils where the importance of soils was discussed expansively and in connection to the new Global Goals for sustainable development. In the meeting the importance of soils and ecosystem restoration to reach the Global Goals and to fight climate change (goal #13) was emphasized. A panel of people from different arenas of society shared their thoughts on how they believe individuals as well as communities, nations and corporations could contribute to solving the pressing global issues related to soils and land health, which have a direct link to climate change.

From 12 – 23 October, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) hosted its Twelfth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP12) in Ankara, Turkey. At COP12, delegates focused on solutions to issues related to desertification, land degradation and drought, including how to pursue the target to achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN) and how to align the recently adopted Global Goals for Sustainable Development with the goals and action programmes of UNCCD. It was emphasised that by restoring degraded land and promoting sustainable land management, many of the Global Goals will be more attainable, including increased food and water security, less hunger and poverty and reversed negative climate change impacts. UNU-LRT organized a side event at COP 12, which presented the annual six-month training programme as a model for providing the capacity building necessary to support land degradation neutrality initiatives.

A set of 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development were formally adopted at a special UN summit in New York on 25-27 September. The goals raise great expectations and set the stage for the next 15 years. Their predecessors, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), focused mainly on the human aspects of development. The Global Goals go beyond this by integrating the role of ecosystems in sustaining human well-being. This is a major step forward, in that the new goals seek to ensure a better balance between economic growth and environmental protection.

On Thursday 17 September thirteen fellows graduated from the UNU-LRT six-month training programme; seven women and six men. The graduates come from Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, and Uganda in Sub-Saharan Africa, and from Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia in Central Asia. At the graduation ceremony the UNU-LRT Director, Dr Hafdis Hanna Aegisdottir, the Permanent Secretary of State, Mr Stefan Haukur Johannesson, and the Chair of the UNU-LRT Board, Mr Sveinn Runolfsson, addressed the fellows and guest. Addresses were also given by two graduating fellows, Ms Uuganzaya Myagmarjav from Mongolia and Mr Emmanuel Chidiwa Mbewe from Malawi, who spoke on behalf of the 2015 cohort of fellows.