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The COP-15 against desertification was kicked off yesterday (Monday 9th May) in Abidjan in the presence of several African heads of state. The event is organized to focus on taking concrete action against the rapid degradation of land and to respond to the climate emergency
The COP-15 against desertification was kicked off yesterday (Monday 9th May) in Abidjan in the presence of several African heads of state. The event is organized to focus on taking concrete action against the rapid degradation of land and to respond to the climate emergency.
This 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), addresses issues of increasing desertification of land. The UN estimates that 40% of land in the world is degraded. The summit is held in the context of a climate emergency that severely impacted the land management policies, leading to severe drought in some places. Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara spoke at the opening session of the summit and flagged the dangers of large-scale desertification that threatened the world.
Nine African heads of state, including Niger President Mohamed Bazoum, his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi, and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari are attending the summit. They pledged to continue to give the highest priority to the problems of drought and desertification.
Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara presented the “Abidjan Initiative”, a major program to mobilize US$1.5 billion over five years to restore degraded forest ecosystems in Côte d’Ivoire designed to promote sustainable land management approaches. The African Development Bank and the European Union are among the main donors of this project.
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The theme of the summit is “Land. Life. Heritage: from a precarious world to a prosperous future”. The summit will propose other concrete measures to stop the increase of desertification. The African continent is particularly affected by desertification, especially in its Sahelian band. The issue of the Great Green Wall, a pharaonic project that aims to restore one hundred million hectares of dry land in Africa by 2030 on a strip of 8,000 km from Senegal to Djibouti, will be addressed during the Summit. The Summit will conclude on May 20.
