19 October 2017
UNCCD and GSP Unveil Global Campaigns Highlighting Land-Climate Links
Photo by IISD | Lynn Wagner
story highlights

The #LoveLand4Climate campaign highlights the close linkages between sustainable land management (SLM) and achieving climate targets.

World Soil Day 2017 will address the theme, “Caring for the planet starts from the ground," and will include the launch the first-ever Global Soil Organic Carbon map (GSOCmap).

14 October 2017: The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has launched the #LoveLand4Climate campaign to highlight the close linkages between sustainable land management (SLM) and achieving climate targets. The Global Soil Partnership (GSP), meanwhile, kicked off preparations for World Soil Day, which is annually celebrated on 5 December, with a campaign highlighting the importance of soils for food security, essential eco-system services, such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, and sustainable development.

The UNCCD campaign, which is part of preparations for the 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) to the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), aims to mobilize a broad range of stakeholders to “take responsibility for how we manage the land – our home, our future.” It explains how SLM practices, such as low-emissions agriculture, agro-forestry, sustainable urbanization and the adoption of renewable energy, can “help close the remaining emissions gap by up to 25%,” and build resilience to climate change.

The UNCCD estimates the total annual mitigation potential of SLM, by 2030, to be as much as 10.6 billion tons.

Various posters and infographics, in concert with the campaign, demonstrate the importance of adopting and implementing SLM for climate change mitigation and adaptation. They include data highlighting the role of SLM in: increasing and recovering soil carbon storage by up to 3 billion tons per year; sequestering up to 440 billion tons of CO2 through reforestation; and reducing CO2 and other GHG emissions produced by agricultural activities by up to 6.4 billion tons per year. The UNCCD estimates the total annual mitigation potential of SLM, by 2030, to be as much as 10.6 billion tons. [UNCCD #LoveLand4Climate Webpage]

The GSP campaign for World Soil Day 2017 addresses the theme, “Caring for the planet starts from the ground,” and will include the launch the first-ever Global Soil Organic Carbon map (GSOCmap). The soil map is designed to support countries in building their national soil information systems, enabling them to, inter alia, identify land that can be rehabilitated to increase food production and climate change mitigation through increased storage of soil organic carbon. [Global Soil Partnership Press Release on Campaign launch for WSD2017]


related events