Hope against desertification

COP17 in Ulaanbaatar: Promising Results in the Fight Against Desertification, and Above All, Hope

Last month, Mongolia hosted the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP) on combating desertification. From 17 to 28 August, representatives of the 197 signatories to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) gathered alongside political leaders, civil society actors, youth, Indigenous peoples, private-sector players, scientists, and local farmers and herders to discuss the theme « Restoring land. Restoring hope. »

 

What place for desertification in discussions on global warming?

 

The talks were organized and hosted in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, a choice that is all the more symbolic. The country is among those most affected by the decline, or even total loss, of productivity in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid lands. Caused by wind and water soil erosion, global warming and the gradual disappearance of natural vegetation, this phenomenon is closely linked to human activity. Overgrazing, monoculture, deforestation: these practices have dramatic consequences for ecosystems and people’s livelihoods, and call for us to rethink our traditional models and build a form of resilience. In Mongolia, nearly 77% of land is already degraded. This worrying figure is unlikely to fall, notably because of increased droughts, extreme weather events and massive livestock losses that have weakened the country’s food systems and rural economies for several years.

 

Altogether, the progressive decline in productivity in Mongolia, and more broadly in Central Asia, combined with that of the Sahel-Saharan region and South America, affects 376 million people worldwide. The United Nations also estimates that 135 million people could be displaced as a direct result of desertification by 2045. Meanwhile, 40% of the planet’s soils are subject to this degradation, and 100 million hectares of healthy land are lost each year, the equivalent of Egypt. One sixth of the world’s food resources still depends on rangelands alone. To achieve soil resilience, food security and socio-economic stability (which are closely interlinked), we need to think in terms of global solutions.

 

In a press release announcing the COP17 in February 2026, the UNCCD Executive Secretary, Yasmine Fouad, stated:

 

« Land is our most essential infrastructure: it underpins food security, water, livelihoods and stability. When land degrades, insecurity grows – through the loss of livelihoods, forced displacement and intensifying competition for scarce resources. With UNCCD COP17, Mongolia is sending the world a powerful message: restoring land, restoring hope is not only an environmental agenda, but a development and resilience priority. »

 

Born out of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, this biennial COP has its « biodiversity » and « climate change » counterparts. The latter is better known, as it sits at the crossroads of many issues and is held every year. Yet when it comes to investment in responses to climate change, land and water remain largely underfunded.

 

On the front line, Mongolia thus took the lead in this year’s discussions, which aimed to raise awareness of the importance of these issues and to develop innovative solutions. Over twelve days, numerous workshops and conferences enabled dialogue among stakeholders from diverse backgrounds on possible funding, public policies, technological advances and tools. The program included thematic days on finance, water, land-people interactions, food systems and soil health. The media information kit sets out four main priorities:

 

• Moving beyond awareness toward implementation
• Turning commitments into investments
• Building resilience before crises strike
• Recognizing land degradation as an environmental, economic and social challenge

 

A symbolic edition, chaired by Mongolia

 

The COP17 is taking place alongside a major initiative led by Mongolia: the « International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, » sponsored by the UN, which places a regional and local focus on ecosystems (to learn more: 2026 Home | International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists Initiative). This issue particularly affects the country, where pastoralism plays a major role in the economy and remains the predominant way of life. At the opening of the conference, the Mongolian President stated: « What we most urgently need are resources, financing, technologies and an institutional environment to turn these commitments into concrete results. » Setting the tone for the two weeks ahead, he also led by example. Since 2021, his government has launched a growing number of pioneering projects. Foremost among them is the national campaign called « One Billion Trees, » which, as its name suggests, plans to plant a considerable number of saxauls, trees adapted to sandy deserts, by 2030. Another notable innovation is an early-warning system for anticipating sand and dust storms, developed within the country. The government has also worked with young people and the business community by launching national dialogues such as the « Youth4Land » forum and the « Business4Land Initiative, » which seeks to accelerate private-sector action in favor of sustainable land management.

This 2026 edition also sought to renew spaces for exchange in innovative and inclusive ways. A « green zone » open to the general public was set up to broaden the range of participants and hosted more than 400 events. On the sidelines of the COP17, a forum also brought together the mayors of 30 participating countries. At the end of this meeting, it was agreed to create, within 90 days, a network of cities located in arid zones or extreme climates.

 

A remarkable success in the wake of innovative projects

 

Although the current financial crisis in the humanitarian ecosystem left little hope of mobilizing investment, the COP17 nevertheless ended in success. Participants agreed on 1.3 billion dollars in funding spread across 23 countries and five continents, of which 644.5 million were identified as new. Major structuring projects were also presented, including China’s « Green Great Wall » megaproject, which plans to plant billions of trees over several decades in order to halt the advance of deserts.

 

This project echoes other major initiatives put in place in recent years. One naturally thinks of the Great Green Wall Initiative (GGWI) in the Sahel-Saharan region, launched in 2005 and endorsed two years later by the African Union. At the heart of this project is a kaleidoscope of activities supported and funded by various actors, seeking to restore a target of 100 million hectares of degraded land, sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon and create ten million green jobs by 2030. Stretching 8,000 km, this living wall goes beyond mere reforestation and is innovative in that it takes cross-cutting issues into account. Not only is it founded on a desire to protect the environment and restore the richness of the soil, it also links this effort to food security and job creation across eleven countries.

In the Sahel, the advance of the desert, increased droughts and global warming are putting considerable pressure on resources and ecosystems. This ever-worsening context fuels growing competition among local populations, and more particularly between agro-pastoral communities and herders. Because of limited access to water and arable land, these tensions feed insecurity in the region: made vulnerable, these populations become prime targets for jihadist armed groups, who practice forced recruitment or exploit community ties to rally local populations to their cause. This is notably the case in the W-Arly-Pendjari area on the border between Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin (to learn more, see the article on the subject published in Défis Humanitaires in May: Sahel, extension of the crisis to the south and emergence of new jihadist fronts: a deep dive into the W-Arly-Pendjari complex). Preserving and restoring soils therefore also means curbing conflict situations and preventing additional humanitarian crises.

 

Other innovations driven by various organizations are also noteworthy. As part of its « Action Against Desertification, » the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) designed a new tool suited to degraded Sahelian lands: the Delfino plough. Its particular feature is that it can turn over damaged soil to a depth of more than 50 cm, across 15 to 20 hectares a day. Introduced in Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal, it « digs wide half-moon-shaped furrows in which one can immediately sow and plant. It thus collects ten times more rainwater and makes the soil more permeable than the traditional, backbreaking method of digging by hand. » This initiative is also included in the GGWI megaproject.

 

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the Green Climate Fund (IFAD) and the Brazilian Development Bank have also launched their own initiative. These organizations encourage the practice of agroforestry in the arid Sertão region. This technique has many advantages that optimize yields, reduce costs and limit the use of environmentally harmful products. Orchard meadows, walnut plantations, hedgerows, wood pastures: combining trees, crops and sometimes even animals on the same plot improves the supply of water and minerals through the root system, limits nitrate leaching into deeper layers and thus the pollution of groundwater, and also multiplies soil fertility through the biomass created by leaves falling to the ground. Certain species also supply nitrogen to crops, drastically reducing the need for synthetic inputs.

 

Thus, innovative methods to slow or even reverse soil degradation have been multiplying for years. Pursuing different objectives, funding and forms, they offer solutions to a global problem that keeps worsening and could cause numerous forced displacements, costly humanitarian crises and irreversible damage to the environment. At a time when development aid and public humanitarian funding are becoming scarcer in favor of security priorities, the achievements and promises to emerge from the COP17 in Ulaanbaatar are a glimmer of hope amid the turmoil. States and the private sector are gradually becoming aware of the importance of issues linked to soil and water, and of their own interest in investing in their conservation. For the year ahead, the challenge now is to turn the tide and implement the measures adopted at the summit.

 

Salomée Languille.

 

 

Related documents:

• Press release of 5 February 2026 on the COP17: COP17_theme_PR FR.pdf
• Media kit for the COP17: UNCCD_COP17_Media KIT_Final.pdf