UNCCD

• The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) announced the launch of its first-ever Data Dashboard compiling national reporting figures from 126 countries.
• The 21^st session of the UNCCD Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 21) will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from 13-17 November 2023.

 MAJOR FINDINGS

• It shows that land degradation is advancing at an astonishing rate across all regions.
• Between 2015 and 2019, the world lost at least 100 million hectares of healthy and productive land each year, adding up to twice the size of Greenland.
• Eastern and Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions experience the most severe degradation, affecting at least 20 per cent of their total land area.
• Meanwhile, sub-Saharan Africa, Western and Southern Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean experienced land degradation at rates faster than the global average.

 INDIA SPECIFIC FINDINGS

• From 2015-2019, 51 million hectares of India’s total reported land was degraded.
• India’s total degraded land is equivalent to the size of 43 million football pitches, according to UNCCD.
• 71 million Indians constituting 18.39 per cent of the country’s population were exposed to land degradation during the same period.

ABOUT UNCCD

• Established in 1994, it is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management.
• Members– 197 Parties to Convention, including 196 countries and European Union.
  • India is a
• The UNCCD permanent secretariat is located in Bonn, Germany.
• It addresses specifically the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, known as the drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems and peoples can be found.
• The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions, the other two being:
  • Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD)
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)