In partnership with UNCCD countries, international organizations, and other stakeholders, the initiative will work to deliver a transformative shift in how drought is tackled around the world
Saudi Arabia’s UNCCD COP16 Presidency launched the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership on the first day of COP16 in Riyadh.
This key event – better known as the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – had taken place in Riyadh between December 2 and 13, 2024 with the theme “Our Land and Our Future.”
In partnership with UNCCD countries, international organizations, and other major stakeholders, the initiative will work to deliver a transformative shift in how drought is tackled around the globe.
Harnessing the collective impact of major global institutions will move drought management beyond crisis response, enhancing early warning systems, financing, vulnerability assessments, and drought risk mitigation.
So far, $2.15 billion has been pledged for this initiative, including $150 million from Saudi Arabia alone.
More than $12 billion has been pledged too by major international organizations to combat land degradation, desertification, and drought, with the Arab Coordination Group promising $10 billion.
What does science say about degradation?
A report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), in collaboration with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), mentions:
- 15 million km² land area has degraded, which is more than the size of Antarctica, expanding by 1 million km² annually.
- 46% of global land areas have been classified as drylands, which is home to a third of humanity, similarly 75% of Africa is dryland.
- 1 billion people are facing insecure land rights, fearing loss of home or land.
- 90% share of recent deforestation directly caused by agriculture, dominated by expanding cropland in Africa/Asia.
How do we solve desertification & droughts?
Priyanka Pratap Patil, permaculture educator, designer, and regenerative agronomist, said, “India has more than 65% of dry land. To make a village prosperous, our organization works in seven steps. We work for land, water, agriculture and to fight droughts and desertification.
Patil, who has a master’s degree in Agronomy, said, “Due to deforestation, the desertification and soil erosion is increasing day by day not only in the Arab countries, but nearly all the Asian countries are affected by the same issues in one way or another.
The Founder of Golden Era Eco Services, Patil added, “To preserve the land, we use food forest techniques. We use layers of different seeds. Seed is like a heritage, and we should preserve seeds for future generations.
“In modern era, food is the biggest cause of diseases, because we use different techniques and pesticides, which are not good for our health.”
She further said, “Land, agriculture and environment are the same, because all of them are interconnected to each other. Erosion is not only related to land, but also to our socio-economic state, relationship, connection and cultural as well.”
To overcome food security and enhance climate, Patil stressed the need for kitchen gardening, and growing the native and indigenous plants, which suits the climatic condition of that area.
Land degradation
Degradation impacts two billion hectares of land globally. This is more than the total land area of Russia, the largest country on earth. This affects 3.2 billion people – twice the population of entire Africa.
The degraded land area is also continuously expanding as each year an additional 100 million ha get degraded – mostly due to the impacts of climate change such as a drought and desertification.
With a business-as-usual approach, by 2050, 6 billion hectares of land will degrade, warns UNCCD, which is urging the parties of the COP16 to take urgent action to halt such a scenario.
Degradation in Pakistan
Due to climate change, change in weather patterns, water scarcity, increase in population, degradation and droughts have worsened in South Asian countries such Pakistan, severely affecting infrastructure, food system, lifestyle, and culture of these nations.
The ongoing situation has forced people to turn to climate migration.
Detailing his experience, Saeed Ullah (39) – who is working as a safety officer in Makkah city of KSA – said, “We had no choice but to migrate from Molaino Mandai, a small village in Mohmand tribal District (Ex-FATA) ten years ago.
“We were facing a lot of environmental issues, did not have access to drinking water, and most of our arable land had dried out. The water table sank very deep, and it was difficult for all of us to live there. So, we migrated to Shabqadar in search of a better life and livelihood.”
Saeed is not alone, as a lot of people from this region also had little choice against climate migration. Mohmand District used to have plenty of water, and numerous freshwater springs provided clean drinking water to the local populace.
Ghareb Ullah (75), a retired teacher, said, “There were springs of water in Mohmand District, where the people were used to grow wheat and vegetables, and the water of those springs were so pure and clean that the local people were using this water for drinking purposes as well
“But now the situation has gotten so bad that I have migrated my family to Peshawar and the majority of my relatives have also migrated from Mohmand.”
According to a report issued by the National Drought/Environment Monitoring & Early Warning Centre of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), all the provinces of Pakistan have a history of facing major droughts in the past.
In these reports, the PMD stated that animals are dying, and people are struggling to feed themselves as drought tightens its grip on Pakistan’s largest provinces of Balochistan & Sindh.
According to drought alert situation issued by the PMD, due to deficient summer, monsoon rainfall, moderate drought-like conditions have emerged over Both Provinces Sindh and Balochistan including in Sukkur, Khairpur, Sanghar, Umerkot, Badin, Tharparkar, Kachho & Kohistan areas of Districts Thatta, Jamshoro and Dadu in Sindh and Noshki, Pashin, Kharan, Dalbandin, Gwadar, Jiwani, Panjgur, Pasni, Nokkundi, Ormara, Quetta and Turbat in Balochistan.
In total, Sindh faces moderate to severe drought in eight districts, while Balochistan faces the same in eighteen districts.
Since October 2018, this drought situation has forced thousands of people out of their homes in Sindh & Balochistan.
On January 18, 2019, the National Disaster Management Authority, which is the main coordinating body for disaster response in Pakistan, declared the above-mentioned regions as calamity-hit areas, and urged humanitarian actors to support the government and people in time of need.
Due to no rains over prolonged periods in Pakistan, the areas of Sindh and Balochistan are suffering from drought situation, and estimated people affected in Sindh are 420,946 HHs and in Balochistan 134,115 HHs.
Animals too are dying due to lack of fodder, and the local community will be forced into migration if there are no urgent actions taken to support their lives and livelihoods.
The Pakistani government is providing around 50kg wheat packages that barely covers the need. In addition to government response, some local organizations are providing fodder to smaller communities, which is also not sufficient.
In a National Drought Conference that had taken place back on January 18, 2018, in Islamabad, the Pakistani national disaster response authority had requested UN agencies and other non-governmental organizations to extend their support in time of need.
Keeping the situation in view, the PRCS also deployed teams for rapid need assessment in affected districts of Sindh and Balochistan.
What is the answer?
At the opening ceremony of the COP16 in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Convention Center, UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said, “Every second, somewhere in the world, we lose an equivalent of four football fields to land degradation.
“We must act now to restore our lands. They are the foundation of everything. For the first time, through our UNCCD reporting, we have evidence-based estimates of the alarming state of land degradation. COP16 is about our reliance on lands, but also our resilience.”
Echoing the same at a COP16 event, UNCCD COP16 President and Saudi Arabia Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen Al Fadley said, “Through our Presidency of COP16, we will work to make this COP a Launchpad to strengthen public and private partnerships and create a roadmap to rehabilitate 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030.”
He added, “We had around four hundred events in the blue zone, and two hundred and twenty events in the green zone, which is more than double compared to last year’s COP’s events.
“This COP is about action, how can we translate objectives and ambitions into actions, as actions take place on the ground. That is why more than $12 billion in support was announced to tackle the drought resilience and land degradation issues.”
Speaking at the ending press conference of the COP16, UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw thanked the Saudi government for the great arrangement of the first ever UNCCD COP taking place in a country other than Africa.
He added, “This COP was historic, because more than 35,000 people from the civil society participated in this event.
“We did not have complete information about the effect of land degradation on our health, our people and on our babies, similarly we do not have more information about the quality of the soil and the land we have and the nutrients we have in our food, but this time we have much more information about land degradation.”
Ibrahim continued, “Tomato is not equal to tomato and similarly orange is not equal to orange, but it depends on its nutrients and contents, now we have more science and information about the global treaty.
“I am optimistic that the problem of land ownership will also be addressed by the COP, because only 30% of the agricultural land is owned by women, and yet they produce 80% of the food in developing countries.
Responding to a question of the Climate watch reporter the UNCCD executive secretary said, “Tackling the land degradation issue was an ambition based on the science available at that time and it is still valid.
“If we manage to achieve land degradation neutrality, as it was conceived in 2015, that will be a big step forward. But unfortunately, after looking at more studies and data, we realized that we must restore more land by 2030 as compared to the 2015 decision, instead of 1 billion we must restore 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030.”
He then pointed out, “We must realize how much we depend on that land. We have increased evidence and science that is informing decision makers around the world that business as usual does not work.”
On this issue, UNCCD Chief Thiaw stated, “The Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership is meant to support the 80 least developed and lower middle-income countries, including Asian countries such as Pakistan, and Bangladesh can also benefit from this initiative.”
One of the biggest expectations from the conference were landmark decisions on achieving a complete halt to land degradation by 2030.
Other major expectations were financial support for the third world and most affected countries, as the Saudi government has initiated a special initiative called Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership to combat land degradation and desertification.
Arab countries are investing money to fight the impacts of drought on land in their own countries, but this issue has been spreading all over the world, including in south Asian countries such as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.
So, these countries should launch countermeasures in advance if they want to combat desertification. If they do not get large investments, they can seek support from these international funds, which will be beneficial for their people and their land.
Saudi Arabia’s UNCCD COP16 Presidency launched the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership on the first day of COP16 in Riyadh.
This key event – better known as the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – had taken place in Riyadh between December 2 and 13, 2024 with the theme “Our Land and Our Future.”
In partnership with UNCCD countries, international organizations, and other major stakeholders, the initiative will work to deliver a transformative shift in how drought is tackled around the globe.
Harnessing the collective impact of major global institutions will move drought management beyond crisis response, enhancing early warning systems, financing, vulnerability assessments, and drought risk mitigation.
So far, $2.15 billion has been pledged for this initiative, including $150 million from Saudi Arabia alone.
More than $12 billion has been pledged too by major international organizations to combat land degradation, desertification, and drought, with the Arab Coordination Group promising $10 billion.
What does science say about degradation?
A report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), in collaboration with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), mentions:
- 15 million km² land area has degraded, which is more than the size of Antarctica, expanding by 1 million km² annually.
- 46% of global land areas have been classified as drylands, which is home to a third of humanity, similarly 75% of Africa is dryland.
- 1 billion people are facing insecure land rights, fearing loss of home or land.
- 90% share of recent deforestation directly caused by agriculture, dominated by expanding cropland in Africa/Asia.
How do we solve desertification & droughts?
Priyanka Pratap Patil, permaculture educator, designer, and regenerative agronomist, said, “India has more than 65% of dry land. To make a village prosperous, our organization works in seven steps. We work for land, water, agriculture and to fight droughts and desertification.
Patil, who has a master’s degree in Agronomy, said, “Due to deforestation, the desertification and soil erosion is increasing day by day not only in the Arab countries, but nearly all the Asian countries are affected by the same issues in one way or another.
The Founder of Golden Era Eco Services, Patil added, “To preserve the land, we use food forest techniques. We use layers of different seeds. Seed is like a heritage, and we should preserve seeds for future generations.
“In modern era, food is the biggest cause of diseases, because we use different techniques and pesticides, which are not good for our health.”
She further said, “Land, agriculture and environment are the same, because all of them are interconnected to each other. Erosion is not only related to land, but also to our socio-economic state, relationship, connection and cultural as well.”
To overcome food security and enhance climate, Patil stressed the need for kitchen gardening, and growing the native and indigenous plants, which suits the climatic condition of that area.
Land degradation
Degradation impacts two billion hectares of land globally. This is more than the total land area of Russia, the largest country on earth. This affects 3.2 billion people – twice the population of entire Africa.
The degraded land area is also continuously expanding as each year an additional 100 million ha get degraded – mostly due to the impacts of climate change such as a drought and desertification.
With a business-as-usual approach, by 2050, 6 billion hectares of land will degrade, warns UNCCD, which is urging the parties of the COP16 to take urgent action to halt such a scenario.
Degradation in Pakistan
Due to climate change, change in weather patterns, water scarcity, increase in population, degradation and droughts have worsened in South Asian countries such Pakistan, severely affecting infrastructure, food system, lifestyle, and culture of these nations.
The ongoing situation has forced people to turn to climate migration.
Detailing his experience, Saeed Ullah (39) – who is working as a safety officer in Makkah city of KSA – said, “We had no choice but to migrate from Molaino Mandai, a small village in Mohmand tribal District (Ex-FATA) ten years ago.
“We were facing a lot of environmental issues, did not have access to drinking water, and most of our arable land had dried out. The water table sank very deep, and it was difficult for all of us to live there. So, we migrated to Shabqadar in search of a better life and livelihood.”
Saeed is not alone, as a lot of people from this region also had little choice against climate migration. Mohmand District used to have plenty of water, and numerous freshwater springs provided clean drinking water to the local populace.
Ghareb Ullah (75), a retired teacher, said, “There were springs of water in Mohmand District, where the people were used to grow wheat and vegetables, and the water of those springs were so pure and clean that the local people were using this water for drinking purposes as well
“But now the situation has gotten so bad that I have migrated my family to Peshawar and the majority of my relatives have also migrated from Mohmand.”
According to a report issued by the National Drought/Environment Monitoring & Early Warning Centre of Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), all the provinces of Pakistan have a history of facing major droughts in the past.
In these reports, the PMD stated that animals are dying, and people are struggling to feed themselves as drought tightens its grip on Pakistan’s largest provinces of Balochistan & Sindh.
According to drought alert situation issued by the PMD, due to deficient summer, monsoon rainfall, moderate drought-like conditions have emerged over Both Provinces Sindh and Balochistan including in Sukkur, Khairpur, Sanghar, Umerkot, Badin, Tharparkar, Kachho & Kohistan areas of Districts Thatta, Jamshoro and Dadu in Sindh and Noshki, Pashin, Kharan, Dalbandin, Gwadar, Jiwani, Panjgur, Pasni, Nokkundi, Ormara, Quetta and Turbat in Balochistan.
In total, Sindh faces moderate to severe drought in eight districts, while Balochistan faces the same in eighteen districts.
Since October 2018, this drought situation has forced thousands of people out of their homes in Sindh & Balochistan.
On January 18, 2019, the National Disaster Management Authority, which is the main coordinating body for disaster response in Pakistan, declared the above-mentioned regions as calamity-hit areas, and urged humanitarian actors to support the government and people in time of need.
Due to no rains over prolonged periods in Pakistan, the areas of Sindh and Balochistan are suffering from drought situation, and estimated people affected in Sindh are 420,946 HHs and in Balochistan 134,115 HHs.
Animals too are dying due to lack of fodder, and the local community will be forced into migration if there are no urgent actions taken to support their lives and livelihoods.
The Pakistani government is providing around 50kg wheat packages that barely covers the need. In addition to government response, some local organizations are providing fodder to smaller communities, which is also not sufficient.
In a National Drought Conference that had taken place back on January 18, 2018, in Islamabad, the Pakistani national disaster response authority had requested UN agencies and other non-governmental organizations to extend their support in time of need.
Keeping the situation in view, the PRCS also deployed teams for rapid need assessment in affected districts of Sindh and Balochistan.
What is the answer?
At the opening ceremony of the COP16 in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Convention Center, UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw said, “Every second, somewhere in the world, we lose an equivalent of four football fields to land degradation.
“We must act now to restore our lands. They are the foundation of everything. For the first time, through our UNCCD reporting, we have evidence-based estimates of the alarming state of land degradation. COP16 is about our reliance on lands, but also our resilience.”
Echoing the same at a COP16 event, UNCCD COP16 President and Saudi Arabia Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen Al Fadley said, “Through our Presidency of COP16, we will work to make this COP a Launchpad to strengthen public and private partnerships and create a roadmap to rehabilitate 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030.”
He added, “We had around four hundred events in the blue zone, and two hundred and twenty events in the green zone, which is more than double compared to last year’s COP’s events.
“This COP is about action, how can we translate objectives and ambitions into actions, as actions take place on the ground. That is why more than $12 billion in support was announced to tackle the drought resilience and land degradation issues.”
Speaking at the ending press conference of the COP16, UNCCD Executive Secretary Ibrahim Thiaw thanked the Saudi government for the great arrangement of the first ever UNCCD COP taking place in a country other than Africa.
He added, “This COP was historic, because more than 35,000 people from the civil society participated in this event.
“We did not have complete information about the effect of land degradation on our health, our people and on our babies, similarly we do not have more information about the quality of the soil and the land we have and the nutrients we have in our food, but this time we have much more information about land degradation.”
Ibrahim continued, “Tomato is not equal to tomato and similarly orange is not equal to orange, but it depends on its nutrients and contents, now we have more science and information about the global treaty.
“I am optimistic that the problem of land ownership will also be addressed by the COP, because only 30% of the agricultural land is owned by women, and yet they produce 80% of the food in developing countries.
Responding to a question of the Climate watch reporter the UNCCD executive secretary said, “Tackling the land degradation issue was an ambition based on the science available at that time and it is still valid.
“If we manage to achieve land degradation neutrality, as it was conceived in 2015, that will be a big step forward. But unfortunately, after looking at more studies and data, we realized that we must restore more land by 2030 as compared to the 2015 decision, instead of 1 billion we must restore 1.5 billion hectares of land by 2030.”
He then pointed out, “We must realize how much we depend on that land. We have increased evidence and science that is informing decision makers around the world that business as usual does not work.”
On this issue, UNCCD Chief Thiaw stated, “The Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership is meant to support the 80 least developed and lower middle-income countries, including Asian countries such as Pakistan, and Bangladesh can also benefit from this initiative.”
One of the biggest expectations from the conference were landmark decisions on achieving a complete halt to land degradation by 2030.
Other major expectations were financial support for the third world and most affected countries, as the Saudi government has initiated a special initiative called Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership to combat land degradation and desertification.
Arab countries are investing money to fight the impacts of drought on land in their own countries, but this issue has been spreading all over the world, including in south Asian countries such as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.
So, these countries should launch countermeasures in advance if they want to combat desertification. If they do not get large investments, they can seek support from these international funds, which will be beneficial for their people and their land.
Murad Khan, the author of this article, is Radio Producer and Freelance multimedia Journalist. He can be reached on [email protected], or on X [formerly Twitter] @Muradonline123.
