The Arab Land Initiative at COP16!
The responsible governance of land is crucial for protecting human rights and achieving sustainable development. Inclusive and equitable land governance supports efforts to combat land degradation, which threatens food security, livelihoods, and stability and contributes to forced migration. Secure access to land and its resources is vital for sustainable economic development and environmental protection.
In the Arab region, land degradation is driven by human activities such as overgrazing, deforestation, inadequate agricultural practices, unchecked land use changes, marginalization of rural communities, erosion of communal land rights and unregulated urbanization. These challenges are exacerbated by climate change, leading to the loss of biodiversity, reduced agricultural productivity, strained livelihoods and conflict. However, over the past two decades, Arab countries have implemented various initiatives to address land degradation and promote restoration.
In the occasion of Governance Day and Peoples Day at the sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), that will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2 to 13 December 2024, the Arab Land Initiative of the Global Land Tool Network and UN-Habitat is organizing and co-organizing three sessions, to share the lessons learned, best practices and case studies from the Arab region with leaders from governments, the private sector, civil society, and global stakeholders.
Governance day (6 December 2024)
- (13:00 - 15:00 GMT+3) High level event - Women’s land rights for effective restoration efforts: understanding synergies, taking action. This session will present attendees with a clear overview of the strong standards set by and for UNCCD Parties. It will showcase effective approaches to strengthen land rights for women in all their diversity and offer recommendations for more equitable, coordinated, and participatory actions to achieve gender justice in land and natural resource rights, particularly within land and ecosystem restoration initiatives.
(This event will take place in the Blue Zone, room MET24 or MET33)
(15:30-17:30 GMT+3) High level event - Tenure security as an enabler of land restoration and sustainable agrifood systems: the role of land policy. This event will focus on the policy frameworks linked to the efforts of restoring agricultural lands as a fundamental instrument to build sustainable agrifood systems and achieve land degradation neutrality, and it will highlight ways to advance positively on the inter-relation between secure land tenure and LDN through land policy.
(This event will take place in the Blue Zone, at the Action Dome)
Peoples Day (7 December 2024)
- Side event - Restoring land, restoring peace: addressing the nexus among land degradation, conflict, displacement and migration (11:00-12:30 MET-04). Focusing on land tenure security and good land governance as pathways to prevent displacement and migration and reversing land degradation, the session will enhance understanding of the land degradation, migration and conflict nexus. The session will consist of a panel discussion featuring experts and practitioners who will share lessons learned and best practices from the Arab region, with case studies from Sudan, Jordan and Lebanon.
(This event will take place in MET-04)
Explore the full programme for detailed information: www.unccd.int/cop16/programme