Milo Mitchell / International Food Policy Research Institute
UNCCD COP15 | Healthy soil for a healthy planet
Building resilient food systems for food and nutrition security.
What is UNCCD COP15?
The fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will take place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 9 to 20 May 2022.
The COP15 theme, ‘Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity', is a call to action to ensure land, the lifeline on this planet, continues to benefit present and future generations.
COP15 will bring together leaders from governments, the private sector, civil society and other key stakeholders from around the world to drive progress in the future sustainable management of one of our most precious commodities: land.
Join the first-ever Food Day at a UN Rio Conventions Pavillion.
You can find the pavilion at the Sofitel Abidjan Hôtel Ivoire (Room MET-07).
The pavillion convenes leaders in the fields of biodiversity, climate change and sustainable land management.
It does this by bringing together partners from three distinct but interrelated United Nations conventions on climate change (UNFCCC), combating desertification (UNCCD) and biological diversity (UNCBD).
Speakers
- Leigh Winowiecki, ICRAF-CIFOR and AICCRA Innovation theme
- Erin Tomkinson, Agriculture Counsellor, Australia
- Tano Yao, President, University of Abobo-Adjamé
- Adrian Leitoro, GLF Restoration Steward
- James Smith, World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
- Claudia Schepp, 4p1000
- Sasha Alexander, UNCCD
- Melissa Ho, WWF US
Moderator: Jerome Tondoh, CIFOR-ICRAF
The session showcases the prominent role of soil health in meeting the goals of the three 'Rio Conventions', in particular Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) targets.
Speakers will share their experiences of how they are working to reverse land degradation and restore soil health.
The session highlight experiences from policy, investment, implementation and research.
The session also explores advances of the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH) multi-stakeholder platform launched at the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021. Ways to engage CA4SH will be highlighted.
This session is co-organised by WWF, CGIAR, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), FAO, CIFOR-ICRAF, TMG Think Tank, UN Environment Programme, IICA and the One Planet Network
It is hosted at the Rio Conventions Pavilion.
Leigh Ann Winowiecki of the AICCRA 'Innovation' team will speak at the event. Leigh is also soil and land health global research lead for the union of Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry Centre (CIFOR-ICRAF) which provides solutions to global problems for forests, landscapes, people and the planet.
For AICCRA's Innovation theme, Leigh is set to publish AICCRA policy briefs on how countries integrate soil carbon in nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
Background
Healthy soil is the very foundation of our food system.
Over 90 percent of our food production depends on soil.
Soil is also one of the Earth’s most important carbon sinks.
Yet, it's estimated that over a third of the Earth’s surface is degraded, limiting the ability of the soil to deliver these vital ecosystem services and functions.
To stop this trend, individuals, countries and companies alike must unite in their efforts to bring life back to degraded soils.
One of the most efficient and cost-effective solutions to ensure food and nutrition security, address climate change and biodiversity loss is to restore degraded soils by building healthy soil ecosystems.
In recognition of this, CA4SH brings together actors to mobilise investment and strengthen an enabling environment that scales soil health. Launched at the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, it simultaneously supports the aims of the Paris Climate Agreement, the UN Global Goals as well as UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality targets.
By transforming our food systems from the soil up, and expanding the use of approaches—such as conservation, regenerative agriculture, agroforestry and other integrated systems—we can build healthy and resilient food systems, restore degraded soils, ensure clean water, conserve biodiversity and support better livelihoods.