ZEF at UNFCCC Land Day

Special Report on UNCCD Land Day

On Saturday 6 June, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Secretariat hosted "Land Day" at the Gustav-Stresemann-Institut, Bonn, Germany. The event, attended by 170 participants, aimed to help climate change negotiators and other stakeholders attending the concurrent Bonn climate change talks consider in detail the linkages between climate change and desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD).

The event was opened by Luc Gnacadja, UNCCD Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, and Adolf Kloke-Lesch, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Director-General. Jeffrey Sachs, Earth Institute Director, Columbia University, offered a pre-recorded keynote address.

Participants then attended three panels, entitled: "How does sustainable land management support climate change adaptation?"; "What options can soil carbon sequestration offer for mitigating and adapting to climate change?"; and "Sustainable land management in climate change policy frameworks: what is the way forward?"

Paul Vlek, Center for Development Research (ZEF), Germany, presented research measuring the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index across Africa over the last 25 years. He noted that after accounting for cyclical rainfall patterns, the data show that primary productivity is declining in 10% of agricultural areas, which is most logically explained by land degradation.

This special edition of ENBOTS highlights a selection of the day’s events.

http://www.iisd.ca/climate/sb30/enbots/06.html

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