There is a widespread consensus that the pressing issues of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD) are not yet properly included and addressed in today's political and private sector agendas on global, national and local levels. It is therefore of vital importance to raise awareness of the negative impacts that decisions regarding land management and ecosystem services can have, but also the opportunities they create to improve current land management practices towards more sustainability and increased resilience.
The specific thematic focus of the UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference is put on the "Economic assessment of desertification, sustainable land management and resilience of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas", requiring the evaluation and analysis of current state-of-the-art knowledge on this topic and translating available scientific findings into recommendations for the use by policy and decision makers.
In order to achieve these goals two Working Groups have been formed to elaborate White Papers on the identified conference theme. These papers will serve as scientific input to be discussed during the conference and they will also build the foundation of the State of the Art Report, one of the main conference outcomes.
The conference shall be structured around the two key- topics of the White Papers:
- Economic and social impacts of desertification, land degradation and drought
- Costs and benefits of policies and practices addressing desertification, land degradation and drought
The overall goal of the UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference is to produce sound scientific outputs and policy-oriented recommendations on the conference topic that inform policy formulation and dialogue, based on the analysis and compilation of peer reviewed and published literature. These recommendations shall be submitted to the COP11 for its consideration. The expected outputs are:
- White Papers on the "Economic and social impacts of desertification, land degradation and drought" and "Costs and benefits of policies and practices addressing desertification, land degradation and drought"
- Background Document on Economic assessment of desertification, sustainable land management and resilience of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas
- Short Abstract Booklet and Extended Abstract CD of all oral and poster presentations
- Policy Booklet for Decision Makers for COP11
- 2013 Science Recommendation for CST11
- Special issue of a peer reviewed journal
- Scientific papers in additional peer reviewed journals
- Rapid publication of papers by conference contributors, including those by younger researchers, in the GRF Davos e-Journal Planet@Risk
The programme is available online: https://www.conftool.pro/2sc-unccd/sessions.php
