India to take COP presidency
India will be hosting the 14th session of Conference of Parties (COP14) from 29 August–14 September 2019, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar announced on 17 June 2019 in Delhi, stressing on India’s role in combating desertification.
He highlighted that with about 30% of country’s total geographical area being affected by land degradation, India has high stakes and stands strongly committed to the Convention.
Javadekar said that various schemes have been launched by the Government of India such as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Soil Health Card Scheme, Soil Health Management Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna (PKSY) and Per Drop More Crop. These are helping to reduce land degradation, said the Minister who also unveiled the logo of COP-14 on the occasion.
Speaking at the event, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant the World Day to combat desertification is a unique occasion to remind global community that desertification can be effectively tackled.
He pointed out that solutions are possible and that key tools to this aim lay in strengthened community participation and cooperation at all levels.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Secretary C.K. Mishra added that The World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD) in 2019 will retrospect and celebrate the past years of progress made by India on sustainable land management.
The Minister also launched a flagship project on enhancing capacity on forest landscape restoration (FLR) and Bonn Challenge in India, through a pilot phase of 3.5 years implemented in the States of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Karnataka.
The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.
At the UNFCC Conference of the Parties (COP) 2015 in Paris, India also joined the voluntary Bonn Challenge pledge to bring into restoration 13 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by the year 2020 and additional 8 million hectares by 2030.
India’s pledge is one of the largest in Asia, said the Ministry.
United Nations has 3 Rio Conventions namely, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the only legally binding international agreement linking environment and development issues to the land agenda.
In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared 17 June the “World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought” to promote public awareness and the implementation of the UNCCD in the desertification affected countries.
India will take-over the COP presidency from China for two years until the next COP is hosted in 2021.
More than 5,000 representatives from over 197 countries drawn from national, regional and local governments, science and research communities, the private sector, international and non-governmental organizations and all forms media will address the issue of combating desertification, land degradation and drought during the two-week COP14 event. fiinews.com
