World Day to Combat Desertification: Public conference

Land degradation and desertification are one of the biggest challenges our world is facing. When coupled with climate change, desertification jeopardizes humanity’s capacity to feed itself. Tackling desertification requires both local and global solutions. The World Day to Combat Desertification has been observed since 1995 to promote public awareness relating to international cooperation to combat desertification and the effects of drought. The theme of this year is “ecosystem based adaptation to climate change”.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and Initiatives of Change International are organising a public event in collaboration with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) and the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern. Through an evening of talks and discussions, the different panelists will expose the issue, introduce the concept of ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change and its applications around in different contexts, and present the work of the UNCCD and its partners. A projection, a conference and a debate will take place at the Maison de la Paix (Graduate Institute) in Geneva, from 18.30 to 20.30.The event will be followed by a buffet/aperitif.

Programme

Rainer Gude (Moderator): Land Belongs to the Future - Let’s Climate Proof it!

Film Screening: Greening Ethiopia’s Highlands

Edmund Barrow, Director, Global Ecosystem Management Programme, International Union for Conservation of Nature: Learning from practice: the importance of local and indigenous knowledge and institutions

Hanspeter Liniger, Senior Research Scientist and director of WOCAT, Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern: Adapting to climate change and disaster risk reduction through sustainable land management

Martin Frick, Chair, Initiative for Land, Lives, Peace: Land and Human Security

Yves Guinand, Focal Point UNCCD, Global Programme Food Security, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation: Switzerland’s commitment to combat desertification

Massimo Candelori, Head of the Implementation Unit at the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification: UNCCD and ecosystem-based adaptation