Combat desertification COP17: ‘Rangelands must be recognised as eligible for climate and adaptation funds’
The 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is being held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, under the theme "Restoring Land, Restoring Hope"
COP17 coincides with the UN's International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
The Global Mechanism of the UNCCD has called for rangelands — which cover over half the Earth's land surface — to be explicitly recognised as an eligible category in national climate and adaptation finance mechanisms
A "Rangelands Flagship Initiative" covering 40 projects worth USD 1.2 billion was launched at COP17 to build an investment pipeline for rangeland restoration
Officials flagged that pastoralism currently receives only about 5% of global climate finance despite rangelands holding roughly one-third of terrestrial carbon reserves
UNCCD — United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (1994)
The UNCCD is one of the three Rio Conventions to emerge from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, alongside the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It was adopted in Paris in 1994 and entered into force in December 1996, making it the youngest of the three Rio Conventions. India ratified the UNCCD in 1996.
Key Details
- Headquartered in Bonn, Germany
- Its flagship target is Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), formally enshrined in Sustainable Development Goal 15.3 (achieve LDN by 2030)
- India hosted COP14 of the UNCCD in New Delhi/Greater Noida in September 2019, where the "Delhi Declaration" was adopted and India pledged to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030
- COP is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention, meeting roughly every two years
COP17 continues the UNCCD's core agenda — land restoration and drought resilience — with rangelands (grasslands, pastures, savannas) now being pushed as a distinct, underfunded category within this broader desertification-control architecture that India is a party to.
Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and Global Land Degradation Statistics
LDN is a state whereby the amount and quality of land resources remain stable or increase, balancing degradation against restoration within specific ecosystems and time frames. It was formally adopted as a UNCCD target after COP12 (2015) and linked to SDG 15.3.
Key Details
- Land degradation is estimated to affect up to 40% of the world's land area
- Rangelands (grasslands, pastures, drylands used for grazing) cover more than half of the Earth's terrestrial surface
- Average annual global economic losses attributable to drought are estimated at around USD 300 billion
- The global financing gap for land restoration and drought resilience is estimated at roughly USD 278 billion annually
Rangeland degradation is a major, often overlooked, contributor to the 40% global land degradation statistic; COP17's push is to size and close part of the associated financing gap by formally including rangelands in adaptation fund eligibility criteria.
Climate Finance Architecture — Adaptation Funds and Blended Finance
International climate finance flows through distinct windows — mitigation finance, the Adaptation Fund (established under the Kyoto Protocol, operationalised 2007), the Green Climate Fund (GCF, established 2010 under the UNFCCC), and increasingly, blended public-private instruments. Whether a land-use category like "rangelands" is explicitly eligible determines whether restoration projects can access these dedicated pools.
Key Details
- The Adaptation Fund was established under the Kyoto Protocol (2001) and made operational in 2007 to finance concrete adaptation projects in developing countries
- The Green Climate Fund (GCF) was set up under the UNFCCC in 2010 as the largest dedicated multilateral climate fund
- At UNCCD COP16 (Riyadh, 2024), a "Riyadh Partnership" mobilised a pledge of USD 12 billion for drought resilience, running through 2030
- Grant-based climate financing has reportedly declined by 23–24% in recent years, increasing reliance on blended and private finance instruments
UNCCD officials argue that unless rangelands are named as an eligible category in instruments like the GCF and Adaptation Fund, restoration projects for grazing lands will keep losing out to forestry and cropland projects that are more easily categorised — a live gap in the global climate finance taxonomy relevant to GS3 environment-finance linkages.
- COP17 (UNCCD) venue: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; 2026 is the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
- Rangelands cover more than 50% of global land area and hold roughly one-third of terrestrial carbon stocks
- Global land degradation affects up to 40% of land; annual drought losses estimated near USD 300 billion
- Annual global financing gap for land restoration/drought resilience: approximately USD 278 billion
- Pastoralism currently receives only about 5% of global climate finance
- Rangelands Flagship Initiative launched at COP17: USD 1.2 billion across 40 projects
- Riyadh Partnership (pledged at COP16, 2024): USD 12 billion for drought resilience through 2030
- UNCCD adopted 1994 (Paris); India ratified 1996; India hosted COP14 in New Delhi (2019)