Leaders to Discuss Securing Healthy Soils and Stopping Land Degradation on the World Day to Combat Desertification at Rio+20
(3BL Media) June 12, 2012 - A special day on 17 June is planned during the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (known as Rio+20) to focus high-level political attention on securing healthy soil and stopping land degradation for sustainable development.
The program will focus on the growing demand for resources on the earth’s land and soils, which are expected projected to rise significantly over the next 20 years. About 50% more food will be needed, 40% more energy and 35% more water. Land, the foundation of these goods and services, is not only getting destroyed, but is in many cases outside the radar screen of policy-makers.
Falling on the annual observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification, 17 June, the event will bring together high-level representatives from governments, civil society and the private sector to consider future options. For those unable to be present in Rio, a live webcast will be available.
This event will cover the current status of land and soils, as well as the political will necessary for creating the ‘Future We Want’, including setting commitments to become land-degradation neutral. This commitment would mean a pledge to preserve non-degraded land and soil, as well as restore an equal amount of land in every instance where land becomes degraded.
The day’s program will cover:
• How sustainable land and soil management can help achieve the
Millennium Development Goals
• Setting global targets towards zero net land and soil degradation
• The role of science in achieving zero net land and soil degradation
• The economics of land degradation
• Sustainable development in the drylands
• Announcement of the winners of the UNCCD’s first Land for Life Award
Featured speakers include:
• Her Excellency Izabella Teixeira, Brazilian Minister of Environment
• His Excellency Mr Don Koo Lee, Minister, Korea Forest Service
• Her Excellency Ms Edna Molewa, Minister of Water and Environment,
South Africa
• Mr Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological
Organization
• Mr Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat
Desertification
• Professor Antonio Magalhães, Chair of the UNCCD Committee on Science
and Technology
• Dr Dennis Garrity, Executive Board Member at the World Agroforestry
Centre; and
• Mr Luca Montanarella, SOIL Action Leader, Joint Research Center,
European Commission, among others.
The World Day to Combat Desertification is a United Nations day observed
all over the world every 17 June to honor the contributions of the world’s
drylands people and to draw global attention to the changes taking place in
the world’s most fragile ecosystems.
17 June 2012,
Athletes Park, Rio Pavilion, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
10:30am – 7:00 pm (Including Reception)
More information, including link to the full program and live webcast
http://www.unccd.int/en/programmes/Event-and-campaigns/WDCD/Pages/WDCD-2012-Global-Observance.aspx
Read the UNCCD’s Policy Brief on Zero Net Land Degradation: A Sustainable
Development Goal for Rio+20
http://www.unccd.int/Lists/SiteDocumentLibrary/Rio+20/UNCCD_PolicyBrief_ZeroNetLandDegradation.pdf
The event is open to public. Portuguese-English simultaneous interpretation
service is available.
