UNCCD COP17: Key Takeaways on Grasslands and Drought Resilience

Key facts

• The 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
• The summit's key themes included restoring rangelands, investing in drought preparedness, and improving long-term finance for land recovery.
• Rangelands and open natural ecosystems were highlighted as essential for biodiversity, livestock economies, water regulation, and carbon cycling.
• India stressed the importance of community-led restoration of rangelands, involving local herders and pastoralist groups.
• The conference called for replacing reactive drought relief with proactive resilience planning, including early warning systems and landscape management.
• India presented a multi-layered drought governance model combining early warning, mitigation planning, relief measures, and community resilience strategies.
• India released its first guide to grasslands and open natural ecosystems, mapping their diversity across the country and covering pastoralism, fire ecology, and carbon sequestration.
• Countries argued that financing for land restoration should be viewed as an investment, with India calling for diversified and sustained international finance.
• The United Nations designated 2026 as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.
• India reported significant recovery of degraded land over the past decade through planted forests, natural regeneration, agroforestry, silviculture, and mangrove restoration.
• The Bonn Challenge, a global restoration initiative, set goals of 150 million hectares initially, expanded to 350 million by 2030.