From December 2 to 13, experts will convene in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to showcase and source solutions to some of the world’s most pressing land-use challenges at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 16). The 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People initiative and partners will be at the center of the conversation through several events and sideline discussions focused on spotlighting the power of large-scale, collaborative action to revitalize drought-stricken and otherwise degraded land.
This year’s theme is “Our Land. Our Future,” is a call to action to propel innovative land management solutions that safeguard land and water resources, support local livelihoods, and preserve biodiversity into the limelight. Landscape partnerships and Integrated Landscape Management can be powerful drivers of meaningful change when implemented in unison.
We’re incredibly excited to debut our documentary short, Hope Springs: Stories of Resilience in the Drylands, as part of 1000L’s landscape-focused events, including during the UNDP Land Day Action Agenda!
Below is a preliminary list of side events organized by 1000L, its partners, and others that feature landscapes as robust solutions.
Are you attending UNCCD COP 16 and Interested in connecting with our team in Riyadh? Contact Tom Miewald (tmiewald@ecoagriculture.org) and Michael Keller (Mkeller@ecoagriculture.org) for more information.
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1000L Event Participation
Side event: Land Restoration: Addressing Land Degradation Neutrality and Scaling up Successes Through Leadership, Action and Finance
Date: 4 December
Local time: 18:20-19:05
Organizers: UNDP, UNEP
Location: Blue Zone, Action Dome
Event Description: The event Land restoration: Addressing Land Degradation Neutrality and Scaling up Successes through Leadership, Action and Finance aims to highlight the role of land restoration in achieving global targets on land, climate and biodiversity by showcasing initiatives and success stories from around the globe to demonstrate how the scaling of restoration ambitions can be achieved.
Side event: Cooperation Is Green Infrastructure: A Whole-of-Society Response to Combat Desertification and Long-Term Drought
Date: 5 December
Local time: 15:30-17:00
Location: MET-8 Blue Zone
Event Description: This panel will explore how landscape partnerships function as an essential component of green infrastructure–advocating for, implementing and supporting water retention, sustainable land use, and ecosystem restoration projects at a scale that is meaningful from the local to international scale.
Side event: Drought Resilience Through an Integrated Landscape Restoration Approach
Date: 6 December
Local time: 14:30-16:00
Location: Blue Zone
Event Description: This event will discuss and raise awareness of the importance of large-scale, holistic landscape restoration as an important part of adapting to climate change, halting biodiversity loss and making agriculture and communities more resilient. Panelists will discuss the barriers and solutions, and the need for long-term integrated planning (e.g. drought and water management) to promote landscape restoration.
Side event: Hope Springs: Landscape Management Boosts Drylands Community Development and Ecosystem Restoration
Date: 7 December
Local time: 12:00-13:00
Location: Pavilion 4, Green Zone
Event Description: The “Hope Springs” side event will spotlight community-led, landscape-scale solutions for restoring and building resilience in drylands. Attendees will engage in a dynamic panel discussion and a short documentary screening that explores how inclusive, multisectoral collaborations can transform the fight against desertification, drought, and wildfires. The panel will feature community leaders and landscape experts sharing their insights on how partnerships among farmers, local governments, NGOs, and private sector actors are successfully conserving natural ecosystems and revitalizing agricultural lands.
Side event: Balancing the Scales: Unleashing Landscape Finance and Policy to Empower Locally Led Desertification Solutions
Date: 7 December
Local time: 15:00-16:30
Location: UNDP Pavilion, Blue Zone
Event Description: This event aims to demonstrate the power of locally led partnerships and innovative financing in building resilient communities through integrated landscape management. Through compelling stories from Kenya, Niger, Spain, Australia, and South Africa, the panel and documentary will illustrate how ILM can restore water supplies, support sustainable development, and foster ecosystem recovery.
Side event: Agricultural Innovations and Technologies for the Integration of the Three Rio Conventions at Landscape Scales
Date: 9 December
Local time: 9:00-10:30
Event Description: The side event will showcase agricultural innovations and technologies available to address the triple challenges, provided appropriate partnerships of landscape actors to co-develop bundles of integrated solutions that concomitantly deliver the 3 Rio conventions. It is particularly relevant to agenda item 3 (i.e., Promotion and strengthening of relationships with the other relevant conventions and international organizations, institutions and agencies) and agenda item 4 (i.e., Policy frameworks and thematic issues, including new emerging issues: grassland and rangeland) of the UNCCD sixteenth conference of parties.
Side event: Operationalizing Integrated Landscape Approaches Towards Socio-ecological Resilience
Date: 10 December
Local time: 11:00-12:30
Location: MET-07
Event Description: The event aims to advocate and raise awareness about the utility of embedding socio-ecological systems approach in decision making at different scales of policy implementation that requires reimagining landscape governance regimes towards resilient futures. It will also seek collaborators in our efforts to support the effective implementation of the Convention’s objectives. Findings from the UNU-EHS-led policy report on “The contribution of land and water management approaches to Sustainable Land Management and achieving Land Degradation Neutrality” will also be discussed.
Side event: Commonland The 4 Returns Framework in Practice: A Guidebook for Holistic Landscape Restoration
Date: 11 December
Local time: 13:00-14:30
Location: MET-04
Event Description: This event will spotlight a decade of field work to restore large landscapes, delivering inspirational, social, natural, and financial returns.
