Centre for Development and Environment (CDE)

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CDE/WOCAT activities at the UNCCD Conference in Abidjan

The theme of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Abidjan is “Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity”. It is a call to action to ensure land, the lifeline on this planet, continues to benefit present and future generations. Join WOCAT and CDE at the UNCCD COP15 from 9-20 May, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire!

Together with their partners, CDE researchers with the WOCAT network will contribute to various sessions at the Rio Conventions Pavilion and at side events presenting their latest land degradation and Sustainable Land Management (SLM) tools and methods, findings, milestones, and project achievements.

The “World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT)” encompasses the official UNCCD primary recommended Global SLM Database for best practices and is hosted by CDE.

More information on COP15 
More information on WOCAT
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The UNCCD conference app gives you full access to all official documents, the daily journal and the meeting schedule:
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Rio Conventions Pavilion Events:

Food Day: Thursday 12 May, 16:00 – 17:00

Guardians of our planet – the impact of women and indigenous groups to achieve LDN targets in Food Systems transformation. Organized by WWF. Contribution in session: Nicole Harari

Gender Caucus: Friday 13 May, 13:00 – 15:00

Role of the Gender Caucus in accelerating the implementation of the Gender Action Plan & way forward. Organized by UNCCD. Contribution in session: Nicole Harari

Global Environment Facility (GEF) Half-Day: Friday 13 May, 8:00 – 12:00

Organized by GEF. Contribution in Session 3 “LDN: where we go from there”: Nicole Harari

Science Day: Saturday 14 May, 16:00 – 17:00

Nature-based solutions and drought risk management. Organized by UNCCD Science Policy Interface. Contribution in session 3: Tatenda Lemann

Sand and Dust Storms Day: Monday 16 May, 9:00 – 12:30

Adaptation and Mitigation – UNCCD SDS toolbox. Organized by UNCCD, FAO. Contribution in session: Tatenda Lemann

Land Restoration Day: Tuesday 17 May, 14:15 – 15:45

Cost and benefit data on Sustainable Land Management (SLM) - launch of a new GIZ/ELD-UNCCD-WOCAT tool. Organized by GIZ/ELD. CDE participant: Nicole Harari

Land Restoration Day: Tuesday 17 May, 17:45 – 19:15

Land Degradation Neutrality reporting, target setting and monitoring: Experiences from Ecuador, Turkey and Kazakhstan in co-developing and applying FAO-WOCAT tools at national level for LDN. Organized by Ecuador. CDE participants: Ingrid Teich and Nicole Harari

Africa Pavilion Events:

Grassland Event: Friday 13 May, 11:00 - 12:30

Life-giving lands: a roadmap for land restoration and food security in the grasslands, rangelands, and savannahs. Organized by IUCN. CDE Participant: Nicole Harari.

Side events:

Wednesday 11 May, 18:00 – 20:00, MET-12

FAO: State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW21) – Launching the full report. Organized by FAO. CDE participant: Nicole Harari

Thursday 12 May, 18:00 – 20:00, MET-12

Scaling out Turkey's lessons learnt on combating land degradation: an overview of land degradation neutrality in Europe and Central Asia. Organized byTurkey. CDE participant: Ingrid Teich

Friday 13 May, 13:00 – 15:00, MET-13

Evidence-based decision making for Life on Land - Scenarios for Integrated Land Use Planning. Organized by GIZ. CDE participant: Tatenda Lemann

Saturday 14 May, 11:30 – 13:30, MET-11

Integrated approaches for SLM in Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia. Organized by IFAD. CDE participant: Nicole Harari

Monday 16 May, 13:00 – 15:00, MET-14

Launch of the new UNCCD-WOCAT gender-responsive SLM tool and discussions with its developers and users. Organized by WOCAT. CDE participants: Nicole Harari, Tatenda Lemann

Monday 16 May, 13:00 – 15:00 MET-12

Securing Land Tenure Rights to Achieve Land Degradation Neutrality, Land-based Adaptation, and Responses to Drought. Organized by GIZ. CDE participant: Nicole Harari

Monday 16 May, 13:00 – 15:00, MET-11

Establishing the SLM Progress Calculator as a recognized LDN monitoring tool to measure systemic progress along an SLM trajectory. Organized by South Africa. CDE participant: Ingrid Teich

Wednesday 18 May, 13:00 – 15:00, MET-13

National implementation of the Tools4LDN workflow in Colombia. Organized by Colombia. CDE participants: Tatenda Lemann, Ingrid Teich

Other events:

Thursday 12 May, 16:00 – 17:00, CSFD IRD and CARI Booth

Demo: Ηow to plan towards 2030 Land Degradation Targets? A one-hour hands-on session on the LUP4LDN tool Organized by SCiO. CDE participant: Tatenda Lemann