G20 race to reduce land degradation begins

Saudi Arabia have agreed to implement the G20 Global Initiative on Reducing Land Degradation and Enhancing the Conservation of Terrestrial Habitats. The Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen AlFadley, and the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Ibrahim Thiaw, on Tuesday morning signed a cooperation agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and UNCCD to implement the G20 Global Initiative on Reducing Land Degradation. The agreement commits the Saudi Arabia to provide financial support to implement the Initiative’s aspirations as laid out in annex (I) of the 2020 G20 Environment Ministers' Communique.

The Initiative, adopted during the G20 Saudi Presidency in 2020, aims to realize the G20 leaders’ aspiration to halve degraded land by 2040. The G20’s aim to prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of land on every continent, complement and support existing initiatives and avoid duplicating efforts. To this end, the G20 Global Initiative will work in tandem with existing multilateral initiatives, and add momentum to the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

G20 is made up of the world’s 20 most powerful economies. They account for more than 80 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product, 75 percent of global trade and 60 percent of the population of the planet. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification will house the mechanisms needed for the effective implementation of the Initiative, as laid out in the 2020 G20 Environment Ministers' Communique.  Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary, said “in the Middle East and across the world, land degradation is a substantial and growing problem. The leadership of the G20 countries through this Global Initiative may become a watershed moment in the global turn to good land stewardship and the restoration of balance with nature.”