Hey, world changers! 🌎 Big news from Riyadh: the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) just kicked off this Monday, and it's a game-changer! 🎮
Under the inspiring theme \"Our Land. Our Future.\" 🌱✨, this isn't just any conference—it's the largest UN land-focused gathering ever, and guess what? It's the first time it's happening in the Middle East and North Africa region! 🎉🌍
At the opening ceremony, Ibrahim Thiaw, the executive secretary of the UNCCD, dropped some truth bombs. 💥 He called land restoration \"one of the most effective tools to address some of the greatest challenges of our time—climate change, food insecurity, economic inequality, forced migration, and even global instability.\" That's a mic drop moment if we've ever heard one! 🎤🔥
Get this: by 2050, up to 7.5 billion people could feel the impact of drought. 😱 That's almost everyone! So, Thiaw's message is clear: we need to act now. ⏰
\"Together, we can reverse the trends of land degradation and build a more resilient world to drought,\" he emphasized. 🤝🌵
Adding to that, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen AlFadley, highlighted that over 3 billion people are impacted by land degradation each year due to the loss of 100 million hectares of land, forests, and grasslands. That's massive! 🌳❌
\"This will increase levels of migration, stability, and security among many communities,\" he pointed out. 🌐🔄
Throughout the conference—which also marks the 30th anniversary of the UNCCD 🥳—delegates are expected to make some big moves. They're set to decide on actions to speed up land restoration, boost resilience to droughts and sandstorms, heal our soils, and ramp up nature-positive food production by 2030 and beyond. 🌾🌟
So, why should you care? Because this is about our future, amigos! 💪 The land we live on, the food we eat, and the world we're shaping for tomorrow. Let's stay tuned and see how global leaders plan to tackle these challenges. And who knows, maybe we can find ways to get involved too! 🌎❤️
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
