Terms of Use

The use of this web site constitutes agreement with the following terms and conditions:

The United Nations secretariat to the Convention to Combat Desertification (“UNCCD secretariat”) maintains thisweb site (the “Site”) as a courtesy to those who may choose to access the Site (“Users”). The information presented herein is for informative purposes only. The UNCCD secretariat grants permission to Users to visit the Site and to download and copy the information, documents and materials (collectively, “Materials”) from the Site for the User’s personal, non-commercial use, without any right to resell or redistribute them or to compile or create derivative works therefrom, subject to the terms and conditions outlined below, and also subject to more specific restrictions that may apply to specific Material within this Site.
The UNCCD secretariat administers this Site. All Material on this Site from the UNCCD secretariat appears subject to the present Terms and Conditions.
Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in the Materials on this Site are those of the various UNCCD secretariat staff members, consultants and advisers to the same secretariat who prepared the work and do not necessarily represent the views of the UNCCD secretariat or its Member States.

Materials provided on this Site are provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. The UNCCD secretariat specifically does not make any warranties or representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any such Materials. The UNCCD secretariat periodically adds, changes, improves or updates the Materials on this Site without notice. Under no circumstances shall the UNCCD secretariat be liable for any loss, damage, liability or expense incurred or suffered that is claimed to have resulted from the use of this Site, including, without limitation, any fault, error, omission, interruption or delay with respect thereto. The use of this Site is at the User’s sole risk. Under no circumstances, including but not limited to negligence, shall the UNCCD secretariat or its affiliates be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, even if the UNCCD secretariat has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

The User specifically acknowledges and agrees that the UNCCD secretariat is not liable for any conduct of any User.

This site may contain advice, opinions and statements of various information providers. The UNCCD secretariat does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information provided by any information provider, any User of this Site or any other person or entity. Reliance upon any such advice, opinion, statement, or other information shall also be at the User’s own risk. Neither the UNCCD secretariat nor its affiliates, nor any of their respective agents, employees, information providers or content providers, shall be liable to any User or anyone else for any inaccuracy. Error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, alteration of or use of any content herein, or for its timeliness or completeness, nor shall they be liable for any failure of performance, computer virus or communication line failure, regardless of cause, or for any damages resulting therefrom.

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This Site may contain links and references to third-party web-sites. The linked sites are not under the control of the UNCCD secretariat, and the UNCCD secretariat is not responsible for the content of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site. The UNCCD secretariat provides these links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of a link or reference does not imply the endorsement of the linked site by the UNCCD secretariat.

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Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others;
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Upload or attach files that contain software or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by rights of privacy and publicity) unless the User owns or controls the rights thereto or has received all consents therefore as may be required by law;
Upload or attach files that contain viruses, corrupted files or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another’s computer;
Delete any author attributions, legal notices or proprietary designations or labels in any file that is uploaded;
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Advertise or offer to sell any goods or services, or conduct or forward surveys, contests or chain letters, or download any file posted by another user of a Forum that the User knows, or reasonably should know, cannot be legally distributed in such manner.

The user acknowledges that all Forums and discussion groups are public and not private communications. Further, the User acknowledges that chats, postings, conferences, e-mails and other communications by other Users are not endorsed by the UNCCD secretariat, and that such communications shall not be considered to have been reviewed, screened or approved by the UNCCD secretariat. The UNCCD secretariat reserves the right to remove, for any reason and without limitation, e-mail and bulletin board postings.

Preservations of immunities

Nothing herein shall constitute or be considered to be a limitation upon or a waiver of the privileges and immunities of the UNCCD secretariat, which are specifically reserved.

General

The UNCCD secretariat reserves its exclusive right in its sole discretion to alter, limit or discontinue the Site or any Materials in any respect. The UNCCD secretariat shall have no obligation to take the needs of any User into consideration in connection therewith.

The UNCCD secretariat reserves the right to deny in its sole discretion any user access to this Site or any portion thereof without notice.

No waiver by the UNCCD secretariat of any provision of these Terms and Conditions shall be binding except as set forth in writing and signed by its duly authorized representative.

Use of maps

The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on the maps in this website do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the UNCCD and the United Nations. Care was taken in the creation of this map. The UNCCD, its staff and contractors cannot accept any responsibility for errors, omissions, or positional accuracy or be held responsible for any damages due to errors or omissions in these maps. Depiction of boundaries is not authoritative. There are no warranties, expressed or implied, including the warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, accompanying these maps. However, notification of any errors will be appreciated.

Photo credits

Unless expressly stated otherwise, the photographs in this website are taken from the following sources:

The UNCCD photo contests in 2005, 2009 and 2013
2015 International “Desertification” Photo Contest organized by the Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, General Directorate of Combating Desertification and Erosion, Turkey
Selected photos from Land for Life: Securing our common future (2011) (http://www.unccd.int/Lists/SiteDocumentLibrary/Publications/SLM-english… ) by courtesy of the GoodPlanet Foundation
The UNCCD Secretariat and the Global Mechanism including their staff members as well as the Parties to the Convention and partner organizations
Individual contributions
United Nations

Director's Message

The year 2024 was pivotal for the Global Land Initiative. Land degradation and restoration remained prominent on the global policy agenda throughout.

The UN Environmental Assembly, G7 Leaders’ Summit, G20 Environment and Climate Change Ministers’ meeting, and BRICS Leaders’ Summit addressed land degradation and committed to scaling up land restoration efforts.

The European Union passed a new Restoration Law mandating quantitative targets for land restoration. The UNFCCC, UNCBD and UNCCD Conferences of the Parties (COPs), held during the last quarter of the year, reinforced land restoration as a crucial solution to combat land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change.

Building on this favorable policy momentum, the Global Land Initiative continued to develop and deliver a robust program. In collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), we completed a database on Global Restoration Commitments by countries under the UNCCD, UNCBD, UNFCCC and the Bonn Challenge.

Representing a significant increase in global commitments since 2021, the total global commitment now stands at 1.2 billion hectares, with 30 countries, including 11 G20 members, pledging to restore over 10 million hectares each.

The UNCCD, with financial support from the Global Land Initiative, published the first global restoration economy international report, titled, Investing in Land’s Future: Financial needs assessment for UNCCD. The report defines the private sector’s growing role in land restoration and its potential for creating green jobs.

The study outlines key recommendations to support the growth of the restoration economy, which has an associated market survey valued at $37 billion globally, growing at 8.2% annually and is projected to reach $70 billion by 2031. Together, these studies stressed the need for focused policy action to encourage private sector investment and engagement in the restoration economy.

Working with the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Global Land Initiative launched the first cohort of the “Global Ecopreneurs Program,” training 100 young entrepreneurs from restoration startups. These entrepreneurs received training on improving business plans and pitching to investors. We plan to scale this program regionally to reach 10,000 ecopreneurs by 2029.

Training remained a cornerstone of the Global Land Initiative, with programs on the restoration of mining areas, of urban lands, of lowland-based systems, of drylands and with biosaline agriculture. These trainings consistently attracted more applications than available slots. To accommodate this high demand and broader participation, we also conducted online webinars on these topics, in English, Arabic and French.

The first University Curriculum Course on Sustainable Agriculture for Land Restoration was launched this year. It reached over 400 university teachers, with over 100 trained on implementing the curriculum. A university module on urban land restoration is in its final stages.

Representatives from 25 countries attended the second Global Changemaker Academy for Parliamentarians held in Bonn. With the European Union Restoration Law’s passage, global best practices can now be discussed and adapted to national contexts.

The Global Land Initiative’s visibility surged with participation in the G20 Environment and Climate Change Working Group meetings in Brazil, the COPs of the UNCBD and UNCCD and 7 other international exhibitions. In December, the Initiative, in partnership with Germany’s Federal Museum of Arts and Sciences, opened the Save Land: United for Land Museum Exhibition, the first museum exhibition on land restoration, which will run until June 2025.

Online engagement grew, reaching over 35,000 newsletter subscribers and over 14,000 followers across social media platforms, and a global reach of nearly 400,000. The Global Photography Festival, which attracted 17,000 entries from 154 countries, further boosted visibility.

The Global Restoration Information Hub was launched in July 2024. It is a compilation of globally available data on land restoration from credible sources. The site provides information on global best practices, restoration commitments, best practice legislations, documentaries, restoration actors and other databases.

The Initiative issued a global call for communities and NGOs to submit their restoration projects for small grant support, receiving over 600 submissions from 100 countries. Forty-one projects from XX countries were selected for funding.

[Statement on faith, if the faith report is finalized]

The G20 Global Land Initiative Steering Committee was kept informed of developments through regular communication. It met in July and continues to provide guidance on program implementation. It received the work plan for 2025-26; an exciting period of action is ahead.

Terms of use