Online Reporter
Sifelani Tsiko
Fact Check Editor
ZIMBABWE has made a compelling case for Africa and other countries across the world to prioritise sustainable land management as a vital vehicle for achieving food security and preventing drought at the UN desertification summit underway in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife, Permanent Secretary Mr Simon Masanga said sustainable land management was critical in addressing the overlapping crises of climate, biodiversity and land degradation.
“Our presence here is strategic and multi-faceted.
“We are here to ensure that global policy decisions align directly with Zimbabwe’s national development imperatives while positioning our country as a proactive leader in sustainable land management across the SADC region and the African continent,” he said.
“Land is Zimbabwe’s economic bedrock. Over 50 percent of Zimbabweans reside in rural areas where land is the primary safety net and economic backbone. Sustainable land management (SLM) is therefore not merely an environmental obligation; but a direct driver of national economic transformation.”
Zimbabwe is participating at the 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which began on Monday and will run until August 28 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
This summit, held under the global theme: “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope,” brings together delegates from 197 Parties to deliberate on the interconnected challenges of land degradation, desertification and climate-induced drought.
The Zimbabwean delegation at the conference is made up of Government ministries, state-owned enterprises, members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment, climate, wildlife and civil society organisations.
The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17 summit is engaged in discussion to help deploy over US$12 billion to vulnerable nations to combat severe land degradation and drought.
Mr Masanga said efforts to protect soil health could help optimise scarce water resources, and boost long-term crop productivity.
“SLM forms a crucial operational pillar under the National Development Strategy 2, explicitly supporting its core thematic priorities, environmental management, climate resilience, and sustainable agriculture,” he said.
“Through prevention of soil erosion, restoration of degraded river catchments, and protection of communal ecosystems, we preserve the vital natural capital required to build an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.”
Achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), he said, directly secures rural livelihoods, sustainable food systems, and national climate-proofing.
Up to 40 percent of the world’s land is degraded, threatening food, water and livelihoods.
Zimbabwe and most other African countries are facing particular pressure, with more land becoming degraded.
Negotiations at CoP17 are focusing on land restoration, drought resilience and financing, alongside food and water security.
Land restoration also connects all the Sustainable Development Goals, the 17 objectives adopted by all UN member states in 2015 with the aim of ending poverty, protecting the planet and improving lives by 2030.
Initiatives to restore land and prevent drought have up to now been poorly funded and badly managed and Zimbabwe is among countries calling for increased funding to restore land and enhance soil productivity to ensure food security.
Zimbabwe strongly believes that increased funding in land restoration will help poor countries to tackle the growing impact of drought.
Restoring healthy land is not only essential for affected communities and food production, but also for achieving the shared objectives across all three conventions – the UNCCD, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The UNCCD was signed in 1992, one of a trio of environmental treaties launched at the Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro, alongside the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is parent treaty to the Paris agreement of 2015 and the Convention on Biological Diversity, which includes targets on protecting species.
Experts say over a quarter of all land is degraded and billions of tonnes of soil are lost each year because of unsustainable agriculture practices.
