16 May 2011: The South-South Cooperation programme of the Global Mechanism (GM) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has launched the new website www.scopeacp.net, which seeks to provide tools to enhance the use of existing resources as well as to increase access to new and innovative financial resources for sustainable land management (SLM).
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is convening a Workshop on "Forests and Water in Drylands: A Virtuous Cycle," which will offer an information exchange from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. The workshop will bring together countries and stakeholders from the whole Mediterranean and Central Asia to discuss the nexus forests and water and drylands, with the aim to: discuss the functions of the forests in drylands, their specific relationship to water management, as well as challenges; identify possible solutions, such as trade-offs between water use by trees in drylands, with decreased run-off and water availability for other land uses, and the environmental services and goods provided by forests and other wooded lands; exchange experience on forest and water management tools and policies that enhance both forests and water, including on management and adaptation measures under climate change; discuss case studies of integrated management of forests and water in drylands; explore the potential and challenges of existing or future use of payments for ecosystems services in this area; and identify areas of gaps and future work on forests and water in drylands. The workshop is organized by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment and the UNECE Water Convention secretariat, in close cooperation with the Forestry and Timber Section of UNECE and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the FAO Forest Conservation Team and the secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
16 May 2011: The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has published its Monthly Bulletin of Activities for April 2011, which indicates that the Joint Liaison Group of the Rio Conventions has formalized the terms of reference of modus operandi of the group, identified joint high-level activities for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) as well as the 20th anniversary of the Conventions in 2012, and agreed on new and revised joint publications on climate change adaptation, forests and gender.
May 2011: The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has called for parties to provide input on draft advocacy policy frameworks on gender and on the integration of land and soil issues into the intergovernmental process on climate change. Comments are also requested on the draft version of "Global Drylands: A United Nations System-wide Response," which was was developed by the Environment Management Group (EMG).
11 May 2011: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has published instructions for countries to access directly - without intermediary agencies - funding for desertification projects to align their National Action Programmes (NAPs) with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) 10-Year Strategy, as well as to submit national reports to the UNCCD.
3 May 2011: The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has published the latest issue of its UNCCD News publication. Issue 3.1 reviews the outcomes of the second special session of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST S-2) and the ninth session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC 9), which took place in February 2011, in Bonn, Germany, and reviews China's anti-drought measures, among other topics.
March 2011: The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is currently undertaking a knowledge needs assessment to identify the current state of tools and practices, along with appropriate options for, knowledge management and sharing pertaining to desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD).
31 March 2011: The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has invited stakeholders to provide comments on the "white paper" for the refinement of the UNCCD set of impact indicators.
31 March 2011: The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has announced that the Bureau of the Convention's Committee on Science and Technology (CST) has selected Global Risk Forum, Davos, Switzerland (GRF Davos) as the lead institution to organize the 2nd UNCCD Scientific Conference.
The 2011 celebration of this annual observance will be organized under the theme "Forests Keep Drylands Working."
| Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) |
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| Conference Reporting Services (CRS) |
