News

GM and ILC in global study to unveil commercial pressures on land

30 December, 2009

Land grabbing and the commercialization of land are critical issues in development, and a core reason for social conflict around the world.   Investment in foreign farms is not new, but as The Economist pointed out on 21 May 2009, several...

OECD examines proposals to improve the Rio Markers

29 December, 2009

In 1997, the Secretariats of the three ‘Rio’ Conventions - the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the UN Convention on Biodiversity (UNCBD) - jointly requested that...

GM contributes to the UNCCD global capacity building initiative on reporting

28 December, 2009

Decision 13 of the 9th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP9) set new procedures to improve the quality and format of reports to be submitted to COPs. In response to this decision, the GM is collaborating with the UNCCD secretariat, UNEP/GEF...

Cost of inaction estimated at 137% of Latin America and the Caribbean's current GDP

17 December, 2009

During COP 15 in Copenhagen, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) launched a study on "The Economics of Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean", based on statistics from 15 countries in the...

Rwanda validates UNCCD National Action Programme

16 December, 2009

Rwanda’s agricultural investment plan - presented last week at the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Project (CAADP) meeting in Kigali - sets to overhaul the agricultural sector by supporting food and nutritional security, increasing...

Synergies between land and climate find resonance at UNFCCC COP15

15 December, 2009

The valuation of the social and economic benefits of drylands influences how resources are allocated at the national and international levels. This was emphasized at a side-event on 10 December in Copenhagen, during the UN Climate Change...

Promoting sustainable development through regional decentralized cooperation

14 December, 2009

ARENE Ile-de-France, the Regional Agency for the Environment and New Energies, works under the guidance of the Regional Council to ensure environmental and energy issues are an integral part of Ile-de-France’s local communities’ sustainable...

Protecting sustainable livelihoods from the impacts of climate change: the role of drylands acknowledged at the climate change conference

11 December, 2009

How can the impact of climate change in arid lands and on the poor people living in drylands be minimized and their sustainable livelihoods protected? This was the theme of a UNFCCC COP15 side event organized by the International Fund for...

Tanzania and the GM - a joint call for more sustainability

10 December, 2009

Agriculture continues to be the main engine of Tanzania’s economy, having grown exponentially over the last decade. However, the environmental concerns of land degradation remain rather marginal in national planning and budgeting processes. The...

Progress in EC-ACP MEA Capacity Building in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries

2 December, 2009

The GM is an active partner in the European Commission (EC) Programme “Capacity Building related to Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs) in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries”, and is in charge of the UNCCD component of...