15 October 2012: The Rio Conventions Pavilion at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, India, convened for Land Day, the sixth such day-long event focused on sustainable development and land issues.

The 15 October 2012 event included an opening session and keynote speech by Vandana Shiva, Founder, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and panel sessions on: playing a win-win game – the implications of drylands restoration for meeting the Aichi Biodiversity Targets; measuring the true economic value of land; and biodiversity as an enabler of sustainable agriculture – alternative production models to bridge the gap between agriculture, food and land policies.

During the opening session, UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja noted that 50% of the 2020 Aichi Biodiversity Targets involve land degradation and underscored the need to restore land for ecosystems and communities. Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), noted that biodiversity conservation is the way to start combating land degradation. [IISD RS Coverage of Rio Conventions Pavilion]