FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
08/28/2026 | Press release | Archived content
FAO at UNCCD COP17: Advancing solutions for land degradation, drought and food security
Ulaanbaatar - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) advanced key priorities for land restoration, rangeland management, drought resilience and food security at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17), held under the theme "Restoring Land. Restoring Hope".
As governments and partners gathered to address the interconnected challenges of desertification, land degradation and drought, FAO experts promoted practical solutions to restore productive landscapes and strengthen food security through proactive drought management.
This COP17 took place during the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026, with a strong focus on rangelands as critical ecosystems that support biodiversity, agrifood systems and livelihoods, and on pastoralist communities as essential land stewards.
"Restoration cannot simply mean making degraded land green again. What grows matters. The diversity and quality of grasses, forage and other vegetation matter - for livestock, biodiversity and the long-term productivity and health of these ecosystems," said Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol.
Through the launch of the Rangelands Flagship Initiative, FAO contributed to the mobilization of $1.2 billion in pledges across 45 projects, five of them designed and led by the Organization.
Bechdol emphasized that "how" is as important as "how much" in capital deployment. "We must use available resources more effectively, combining public and concessional finance, mobilizing private capital where it makes sense, and using each investment to leverage more," she said. FAO also emphasized its role in providing the data, standards, technical knowledge and enabling conditions needed to translate growing private-sector interest into responsible investment and action at scale.
FAO's support for an inclusive global consultation process resulted in three declarations that helped ensure the voices of pastoralist communities were reflected in the high-level forum: the Global Pastoralist and Indigenous Pastoralists' Call for Action, the Global Declaration of Young Pastoralists, and a Pastoralist Women Declaration.
Binding the land and food agendas
FAO estimates that 1.66 billion hectares of land are affected by human-induced degradation, with more than 60 percent, or over 1 billion hectares, occurring on agricultural land. Without restoring agricultural land, achieving global goals on land degradation neutrality, biodiversity, climate change and Zero Hunger will be impossible. FAO stressed that preventing further degradation is every bit as important as restoring land once it is lost.
FAO's efforts at COP17 helped Parties recognize that land restoration is not only an environmental imperative, but also an economic and social imperative with measurable consequences for land productivity, livelihoods and, above all, food security.
FAO and UNCCD jointly launched Living Soils, Productive Lands, Resilient Landscapes - Guidance on Avoiding, Reducing and Reversing Agricultural Land and Soil Degradation, which will help countries improve agricultural land and soil management. In addition, FAO's Soilfer work and the release of the Status of the World's Soil Resources 2026 report prompted Parties to call for greater attention to soils and action to restore them. Together, this work underscored the importance of building soil intelligence: the capacity to generate reliable soil data, interpret it and translate it into practical guidance for farmers, pastoralists and policymakers.
A critical result was the deeper integration of food security into the Vision and the implementation elements of UNCCD's Future Strategic Framework discussed at COP17.
Parties also decided that drought will remain a stand-alone agenda item at COP18 and at each ordinary session thereafter. Moreover, the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership advanced a proposed pooled fund of up to $400 million to support around 70 vulnerable countries, while FAO serves as a registered partner, focusing on helping countries access the fund and on knowledge management under the Partnership.
FAO further positioned itself as a potential co-lead for the GEF-9 Integrated Program on Dryland and Drought Management, with a proposed allocation of $126 million.
Strengthening partnership with Mongolia
COP17 also strengthened FAO's partnership with Mongolia, where around 80 percent of the land is rangeland and nearly 77 percent is affected by degradation. During the conference, FAO held high-level discussions with the Government on the country's food and agriculture priorities and reaffirmed its commitment to supporting sustainable rangeland management, pastoral livelihoods and the development of emerging agricultural sectors.
Other activities at COP17
A high-level roundtable for Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) addressed critical land, soil and water management challenges and launched the Asian LLDCs ministerial network, as FAO Director-General QU Dongyu had promised in April. The network was established to address agrifood challenges specific to Afghanistan, Bhutan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia and Nepal.
Deputy Director-General Bechdol highlighted various ways in which FAO is enhancing the effectiveness of the Great Green Wall initiative.
Lifeng Li, Director of FAO's Land and Water Division, emphasized that agriculture can be part of the solution to sand and dust storms, which affect over 150 countries and cost billions annually by damaging crops, trees and livestock and reducing land productivity, thereby threatening food security and disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations.
Other interventions explored making national drought plans investable, strengthening land tenure indicators, combatting desertification in the Near East and North Africa, designing and deploying blended finance solutions, supporting Indigenous Peoples' biocentric restoration efforts across high-value dryland biomes, and leveraging FAO's portfolio of digital for data collection and decision-making. FAO also organized an event with the Government of Italy on accelerating finance for resilient dryland forests and agrifood systems, another with the Government of Egypt to highlight the successful use of collective solar-powered modern irrigation, and one with the Government of the Dominican Republic on what can be learned, beyond compliance, from the project reporting process.
FAO, together with UNEP, also awarded three new World Restoration Flagships to initiatives in Brazil, the Sahel and Saudi Arabia.
FAO convened a side event showcasing practical tools for monitoring ecosystem restoration in drylands. Elias Chnias, a climate specialist in the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa, presented an integrated approach to ecosystem restoration monitoring, demonstrating how climate risk hotspot mapping, land degradation assessments, Collect Earth interpretation, remote sensing, field validation and SHARP+ household resilience assessments can be combined within a single monitoring framework tailored to Yemen's ecological and institutional context.
International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
COP17's host country, Mongolia, also organized a series of events and conferences under the aegis of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026, helping to connect practical experience with global policy discussions.
Thanawat Tiensin, FAO Assistant Director-General and Director of the Animal Production and Health Division, participated in the Global Pastoralist Gathering, opened by President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa of Mongolia, which highlighted rangelands as productive landscapes supporting food production, biodiversity, culture and livelihoods.
NSL Deputy Director Nora Berrahmouni participated in the launch of the Dry Forests, Rangelands and Agrosilvopastoral Systems (DReAMS) Dialogues.
Throughout COP17, FAO's primary messages focused on healthy soils, land restoration, food security, investment, and strengthening partnerships with key stakeholders, including pastoralist communities.
As governments and partners gathered to address the interconnected challenges of desertification, land degradation and drought, FAO experts promoted practical solutions to restore productive landscapes and strengthen food security through proactive drought management.
This COP17 took place during the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026, with a strong focus on rangelands as critical ecosystems that support biodiversity, agrifood systems and livelihoods, and on pastoralist communities as essential land stewards.
"Restoration cannot simply mean making degraded land green again. What grows matters. The diversity and quality of grasses, forage and other vegetation matter - for livestock, biodiversity and the long-term productivity and health of these ecosystems," said Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol.
Through the launch of the Rangelands Flagship Initiative, FAO contributed to the mobilization of $1.2 billion in pledges across 45 projects, five of them designed and led by the Organization.
Bechdol emphasized that "how" is as important as "how much" in capital deployment. "We must use available resources more effectively, combining public and concessional finance, mobilizing private capital where it makes sense, and using each investment to leverage more," she said. FAO also emphasized its role in providing the data, standards, technical knowledge and enabling conditions needed to translate growing private-sector interest into responsible investment and action at scale.
FAO's support for an inclusive global consultation process resulted in three declarations that helped ensure the voices of pastoralist communities were reflected in the high-level forum: the Global Pastoralist and Indigenous Pastoralists' Call for Action, the Global Declaration of Young Pastoralists, and a Pastoralist Women Declaration.
Binding the land and food agendas
FAO estimates that 1.66 billion hectares of land are affected by human-induced degradation, with more than 60 percent, or over 1 billion hectares, occurring on agricultural land. Without restoring agricultural land, achieving global goals on land degradation neutrality, biodiversity, climate change and Zero Hunger will be impossible. FAO stressed that preventing further degradation is every bit as important as restoring land once it is lost.
FAO's efforts at COP17 helped Parties recognize that land restoration is not only an environmental imperative, but also an economic and social imperative with measurable consequences for land productivity, livelihoods and, above all, food security.
FAO and UNCCD jointly launched Living Soils, Productive Lands, Resilient Landscapes - Guidance on Avoiding, Reducing and Reversing Agricultural Land and Soil Degradation, which will help countries improve agricultural land and soil management. In addition, FAO's Soilfer work and the release of the Status of the World's Soil Resources 2026 report prompted Parties to call for greater attention to soils and action to restore them. Together, this work underscored the importance of building soil intelligence: the capacity to generate reliable soil data, interpret it and translate it into practical guidance for farmers, pastoralists and policymakers.
A critical result was the deeper integration of food security into the Vision and the implementation elements of UNCCD's Future Strategic Framework discussed at COP17.
Parties also decided that drought will remain a stand-alone agenda item at COP18 and at each ordinary session thereafter. Moreover, the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership advanced a proposed pooled fund of up to $400 million to support around 70 vulnerable countries, while FAO serves as a registered partner, focusing on helping countries access the fund and on knowledge management under the Partnership.
FAO further positioned itself as a potential co-lead for the GEF-9 Integrated Program on Dryland and Drought Management, with a proposed allocation of $126 million.
Strengthening partnership with Mongolia
COP17 also strengthened FAO's partnership with Mongolia, where around 80 percent of the land is rangeland and nearly 77 percent is affected by degradation. During the conference, FAO held high-level discussions with the Government on the country's food and agriculture priorities and reaffirmed its commitment to supporting sustainable rangeland management, pastoral livelihoods and the development of emerging agricultural sectors.
Other activities at COP17
A high-level roundtable for Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) addressed critical land, soil and water management challenges and launched the Asian LLDCs ministerial network, as FAO Director-General QU Dongyu had promised in April. The network was established to address agrifood challenges specific to Afghanistan, Bhutan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia and Nepal.
Deputy Director-General Bechdol highlighted various ways in which FAO is enhancing the effectiveness of the Great Green Wall initiative.
Lifeng Li, Director of FAO's Land and Water Division, emphasized that agriculture can be part of the solution to sand and dust storms, which affect over 150 countries and cost billions annually by damaging crops, trees and livestock and reducing land productivity, thereby threatening food security and disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations.
Other interventions explored making national drought plans investable, strengthening land tenure indicators, combatting desertification in the Near East and North Africa, designing and deploying blended finance solutions, supporting Indigenous Peoples' biocentric restoration efforts across high-value dryland biomes, and leveraging FAO's portfolio of digital for data collection and decision-making. FAO also organized an event with the Government of Italy on accelerating finance for resilient dryland forests and agrifood systems, another with the Government of Egypt to highlight the successful use of collective solar-powered modern irrigation, and one with the Government of the Dominican Republic on what can be learned, beyond compliance, from the project reporting process.
FAO, together with UNEP, also awarded three new World Restoration Flagships to initiatives in Brazil, the Sahel and Saudi Arabia.
FAO convened a side event showcasing practical tools for monitoring ecosystem restoration in drylands. Elias Chnias, a climate specialist in the Regional Office for the Near East and North Africa, presented an integrated approach to ecosystem restoration monitoring, demonstrating how climate risk hotspot mapping, land degradation assessments, Collect Earth interpretation, remote sensing, field validation and SHARP+ household resilience assessments can be combined within a single monitoring framework tailored to Yemen's ecological and institutional context.
International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
COP17's host country, Mongolia, also organized a series of events and conferences under the aegis of the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026, helping to connect practical experience with global policy discussions.
Thanawat Tiensin, FAO Assistant Director-General and Director of the Animal Production and Health Division, participated in the Global Pastoralist Gathering, opened by President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa of Mongolia, which highlighted rangelands as productive landscapes supporting food production, biodiversity, culture and livelihoods.
NSL Deputy Director Nora Berrahmouni participated in the launch of the Dry Forests, Rangelands and Agrosilvopastoral Systems (DReAMS) Dialogues.
Throughout COP17, FAO's primary messages focused on healthy soils, land restoration, food security, investment, and strengthening partnerships with key stakeholders, including pastoralist communities.
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