Business4Land: Closing the Land Financing Gap in the Triple COP Year - Action Dome, UNCCD COP17 Conferences Date: 23 August 2026 Language: English Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/en/asset/k15/k15aldogf9 Transcripts available through this tool are created by using automatic speech recognition and are not official records nor official documents of the United Nations. Official records and official documents are available on the Official Document System of the United Nations. --- Moderator · Charlotte Kan [0:02]: Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to Finance Day here at COP17 and to the opening ceremony of the Business for Land Forum. I'm Charlotte Kan and I'm delighted to be with you today. So we start the day with a challenge. We know that restoring land makes environmental sense. We know it makes social sense. And increasingly, we know that it also makes economic and business sense. And yet, we face an annual financing gap for land restoration and drought resilience. It's estimated at 278 billion US dollars. So the question for us today is on the historic triple COP year, how do we close it? And that is what Business for Land is about, bringing governments, business and finance together to move from commitment to implementation, to move from ambition to actual investments. And throughout this opening session, We also want to hear from you. We'll be asking several questions through Mentimeter, so please have your mobile phones ready to take part in our polls. But first, to start this session, we begin with a significant transition. It's my pleasure to welcome to the stage His Excellency Dr. Osama Fakiha, Deputy Minister for Environment at the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture of Saudi Arabia, representing the outgoing UNCCD COP16 Presidency. Your Excellency, welcome. Saudi Arabia · Deputy Minister for Environment · Dr. Osama Fakiha [2:04]: Thank you very much. Thank you for the Mongolian government for the excellent organization and working toward really bringing us all together here in the beautiful city of Ulaanbaatar. I thank UNCCD Secretariat and all those who worked to organize this important event, and thanks to the private sector representatives who came from all countries, various sectors, to really work with us to restore our land and restore the hope for us and future generations. You heard it all, I think, the story of land, how it is very important for water security, food security, biodiversity and climate resilience and social welfare of billions of people around the world. But also you hear the other side of the story that we are degrading land at unprecedented rate, almost 100 million hectares per year or four football, you know, courts per second. Out of that around 10 million hectares of forest and many million hectares of croplands and rangelands. And the losses are staggering. Around $1 trillion are lost from agricultural land every year only. $6 trillion of ecosystem services are lost annually due to these losses. And also, land is not only important for our basic life, but also for our businesses. According to S&P, around 60% of the global GDP coming now from land, from nature, natural capital. 40% of that is directly associated with land. The agricultural industry, the food industry, the mining industry, the fashion industry, the construction industry, and the list can go on and on how much we depend on land. So it is very important for the communities, for nature, and for the businesses. But you hear also the statistics that the gap we have in restoring land. We need to restore around 1.5 billion hectares to reach land degradation neutrality. That sounds big. And we need $278 billion to bridge the gap. But let's take it one step back and go back to what said that we spend $7 trillion every year in harmful subsidies, in subsidy that harm nature. And out of that, $1.9 trillion per year are spent to destroy land. So we cannot talk about restoring land while we are degrading it. We cannot restore a hectare on one side and degrade 10 hectares on the other side. So we need to start really changing the way we do business. What the business community can do, the business community is central to all of that. We cannot do it without the businesses because they are really at the forefront of interacting with land and nature. I think the first thing We need to put land, climate, and nature agenda all together in one integrated agenda because we cannot achieve it in a partial way. Nature is interconnected and cannot be dealt in piecemeals. We have to have integrated nature agenda where climate, land, and biodiversity are integrated into our strategy, into our implementation plans. We need to also look back to our practices. and make sure that it's really nature positive. And we need to also look to the investments. We need to work with governments to give us the regulations or incentive to risk, do risk investment. And we need to deploy capital in scale so that we can restore the land and restore the hope because there is nothing more than the land where we see that many priorities interact. Climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, land sustainability, food security, water security, and community, uh, uh, community stability, because many, many conflicts are related to loss of natural resources, drought. And they need to migrate. Many people actually find that because of land degradation and drought, they need to migrate. Actually, in 2022, out of almost 33 million people who were forced to leave their homes and migrate, 98% were due to drought, flood or storms. So these are statistics that we need to keep in mind. through the business of for land, we need to integrate efforts, we need to forge partnership, and we need to change the business as usual to business unusual, because we cannot do it if we continue to really do the business as usual. That will not sustain us for the future. With you, we can prevail, with the business community, we can make a difference for future generation. Thank you very much. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [7:59]: Excellency, next I'd like to invite His Excellency Mukhtamir Batbayar, who's Deputy Minister for Environment and Climate Change in Mongolia. Thank you and welcome. Mongolia · Deputy Minister for Environment and Climate Change · Mukhtamir Batbayar [8:13]: Thank you. So, Excellencies, distinguished ministers, and ladies and gentlemen, it is great pleasure to welcome you to the Business for Land Forum convened as a part of Finance Day. So, first of all, I would like to express the apologies on behalf of his excellency Mr. Sandagovjortzint, Minister of the Environment, as he initially had keynote speech on the agenda, but he couldn't make it due to the president's opening as it has been delayed, here I am here. So, we made an important moment for a global action on land, land degradation, drought, biodiversity loss, climate change, are deeply interconnected challenges. Addressing them requires a strong cooperation among governments, businesses, and financial institutions. This is why Business for Land is so important. It provides platform to bring the private sector fully into land agenda, not only as a source of finance, but as a partner in developing solutions, managing risks, and scaling investment. It focuses on transforming business strategies, de-risking investment and scaling finance, provides a pathway from the commitments to implementation. For Mongolia, this approach is closely aligned with the Step Action Agenda, the policy legacy of COP17. The Step Action Agenda is built around a simple principle. We must translate international commitments into coordinated, practical and investable action. It seeks to strengthen synergies across land, climate change and biodiversity. This is where triple COP year prevents a unique opportunity. The agendas of the three Rio conventions are connected and our response should be connected as well. We have an opportunity to align the priorities, policies and importantly financial flows across land, climate and biodiversity. Resource mobilization must therefore be at the center of our collective efforts. We need to move beyond traditional sources of finance and make greater use of innovative financing instruments, blended finance, guarantees, risk sharing mechanisms, and public-private partnerships to unlock investment at scale. As Mongolia receives a leadership of the Business for Land Champions Council, we do not see as a ceremonial handover, but with a deep sense of responsibility. Saudi Arabia built the platform, but Mongolia now brings the experience of one of the world's most degraded major economies to help lead it. We are grateful to Saudi Arabia for building this important platform. We are ready to carry this work forward. Our landscapes and rangelands are central to our future. but they also represent significant opportunities for sustainable investment, innovation, and new partnerships. We see a business for land as a bridge between policy and investment, bringing governments, businesses, and financial institutions together to turn ideas into investable projects. Mongolia is ready to work with the governments, financial institutions, businesses, and development partners to advance shared agenda. We must ensure that momentum of the triple COP year translates into investment and measurable outcomes on the ground. Thank you and I wish you product business for land forum a successful UNCCD COP17. Thank you very much. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [12:10]: Many thanks, Your Excellency. So of course, throughout the day, we are going to welcome many decision makers here on stage and a lot of expertise. But really, everyone is part of this conversation. So I don't think it's too early to make you interact with us and answer our very first poll. So please get your mobile phones ready and scan. the QR code, which should appear on the screen very shortly. Here you go. I'm going to ask you the following question. Where do you think the private sector can contribute most to closing the $278 billion gap? So please share your answers with us. I will give you a minute and we will then check the results together. Where do you think the private sector can contribute most to closing the 278 billion US dollar gap? Some very interesting answers here. Well, we expected finance and investment to be a clear winner. It is, but you are also hoping that technology and innovation will help provide some of the answer. as well as supply chains and logistics, of course, we need a holistic view and collective effort, and then infrastructure, of course, jobs and skills. Many thanks for taking part in this poll. Thank you. Now, before we talk about, well, finance and investment capital, we need to talk about the asset underneath so much of the global economy. And that's the soil, of course. And we begin with a short film. It's called An African Dream, and it looks at the Southern African Great Green Wall Initiative and the ambition to restore land across the region. So let's take a look. Speaker 6 [14:22]: Southern Africa, a land of exceptional biodiversity. A unique natural heritage, globally significant, rich with species found nowhere else on Earth. This is our precious natural capital, the foundation of our wealth, our communities, our future. But this vital fabric of life faces unprecedented challenges. Land degradation, climate change, habitat loss, and unsustainable practices, threatening ecosystems, economies, and our well-being. Now imagine a transformed Southern Africa. Degraded land restored, abundant water flowing for every need, Renewable energy powering vibrant cities. Climate smart infrastructure and advanced technology driving sustainable prosperity for the 21st century and beyond. This is the Southern African Great Green Wall Initiative, a bold regional effort to restore nature, build resilience and unlock prosperity for all. We have six pillars of action. Water for all, provisioning reliable water for people, nature and industry. Renewable energy, powering rural communities and green businesses. Resilient ecosystems, combining productive land with thriving nature. Green infrastructure, climate smart and future ready. sustainable agriculture generating food security in our regional bread basket. And inclusive growth creating jobs, innovation, and shared prosperity. The potential of Southern Africa's ecotourism sector is attracting investment from both development financial institutions and the private sector. Opportunities exist across multiple sectors, from sustainable tourism and renewable energy to responsible resource extraction and value addition, and the infrastructure and logistics that support them. Investing in the Southern African Great Green Wall initiative will ensure the restoration of natural capital, strengthen our climate resilience, and secure a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive future for the region. We are growing a true African marvel, rooted in our land, led by our people, and open to the world. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [17:54]: What a wonderful initiative. Let's have a round of applause, please, for this Southern African Green Wall project. And now, ladies and gentlemen, our first keynote speaker brings the voice of African business to this stage. So please welcome Khulekani Mate, Chairperson of the SADC Business Council and CEO of Business Unity South Africa, speaking on an evident proposition, soil matters for business. Welcome. SADC Business Council · Chairperson of the SADC Business Council; CEO of Business Unity South Africa · Khulekani Mate [18:27]: Thank you. Your Excellencies, distinguished ministers, ladies and gentlemen, what we have just seen is more than a vision for Southern Africa. It is an investment proposition for our region. The Southern Africa, the Southern African Green, Great Green Wall Initiative coordinated through the global mechanism of the UNCCD connects land restoration directly to economic resilience. We already know what is possible. Across the Sahel, the original Great Green Wall has restored about 20 million hectares of degraded land and created more than 350,000 jobs. That is what soil matters for business means in practice. It means jobs, productive farms, stronger value chains, viable enterprises and more resilient economies. And this speaks directly to the COP17 theme of restoring land, restoring hope. For Southern Africa, restoring hope also means restoring livelihoods, creating businesses and jobs, strengthening regional value chains and building economies that can withstand climate shocks. But ambition must now be matched by implementation. As Ms. Bernice Swartz, Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment of the Republic of South Africa said in the video we just watched, she challenged us that we must move from commitment to capital, from plans to projects, and from ambition to implementation. That is where the private sector comes in. and the SADC Business Council is ready to play its part. As the regional apex body of the private sector, we can help reach the ambition and delivery by mobilizing businesses, identifying investable opportunities, strengthening SME participation, and connecting projects, project pipelines with investors, development finance institutions, technology partners and markets. So to the partners gathered here today, our message is simple. Let us build that pipeline together. Let Southern African business help shape investable opportunities, stand alongside partners as co-investors and bring our technology, expertise and innovation into joint delivery. We are not passive recipients of projects designed elsewhere. We are co-creators of the solutions, finance and partnerships needed to make restoration work at scale. Let us make the Great Green Wall not only in hectares restored, but in businesses created, SMEs scaled, value chains strengthened, capital mobilized and technologies deployed as well as jobs created. After the devastating 2023-24 El Nino drought, restoring Southern Africa's productive landscape is not environmental goodwill. It is economic self-preservation. For Southern African business, the time to invest in resilience is now. I wish you a fruitful deliberations throughout the Business for Land Forum, and I thank you very much. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [22:25]: Many thanks, Khudai Kani, for your wonderful call to action. It's time now for our first panel discussion, and we are going to be joined by three leaders who are approaching the challenge we're discussing today from very different parts of the system, business, finance, and global value chains. So please join me in welcoming Delsamira Vigliotti, who's vice president of the European Investment Bank. Thank you. Khalid Al-Othman, who's president of Emaar Engineering Consultants and champion of the Business for Land Saudi Arabia Hub, welcome. Natasha Santos Eastwood, who's vice president and head of sustainability and strategic engagement at Bayer, under a warm round of applause, ladies and gentlemen, please. As well as Kim Hui Neo, who's managing director and member of the managing board at the World Economic Forum. Please come and join us. Welcome. So, Giuseppina, I'm gonna start with you to bring in the finance angle. As Vice President of the European Investment Bank, what is your call to action for multilateral development banks to finance land, soil, and water restoration? EIB · Vice President · Gelsomina Vigliotti [23:41]: First of all, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to this very important opening discussion. To the question on what should the multilateral development banks do to finance land, soil and water restoration, my answer is simple. MDBs must help move land restoration from ambition to investment. We need to make restoration visible as an economic infrastructure. structure it into bankable programs and bring private capital into projects that protect soils, water, food systems and rural livelihoods. This is not an abstract issue for the European Investment Bank. Between 2021 and 2025, the EIB Group provided approximately 30 billion euro of financing to agriculture and bioeconomy operation. This support spans a wide range of sectors relevant to land restoration, including agriculture, forestry, water management, climate adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and wider bioeconomy. Concretely, this financing supports the businesses, infrastructure, and value chains that make sustainable land management economically viable. recent 110 million USD loan with the ETG supports for instance processing plants, storage and transport infrastructure across Mozambique, Malawi, Benin, Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda, while also financing farmer extension services that train smallholder farmers directly. This is important because land restoration will not scale through isolated environmental project alone, it will scale when resilient landscapes are connected to productive value chains, better infrastructure, stronger farmer services and more reliable markets. We are also supporting rural development and food security through 500 million euro loan to IFAD across more than 70 countries. And we have recently signed a 200 million facility with an important European bank to support sustainable agriculture. SMEs and midcaps in Europe. These examples point to the same lesson. The instruments exist, MDBs can provide long-term finance, work with partners, support aggregation, and create platform that allow private investors to come in. So my call for action for MDBs has three parts. First, we must build stronger pipeline. Investors do not invest in concept. They invest in well-prepared projects, credible promoters, measurable income, outcomes, and predictable cash flows. Second, we must de-risk investment. Land, soil, and water restoration often generates large public benefits, but the private revenues can be uncertain or long-term. Third, we must connect restoration to business models, sustainable agriculture, forestry, food value chains, carbon in setting, water resilience, and ecosystem services. My message to the business for land champions and private investor is therefore very practical, do not wait for perfect new vehicles to be created. co-invest with us where platform instruments and value chain models already exist. The European Investment Bank and other MDBs can help structure the risk and scale this investment, but closing the land financing gap will require private capital to plug in much more systemically. So to conclude, the EIB stands ready. to work with the UNCCD governments, MDBs, investors and businesses to turn land, soil and water restoration into concrete investment on the ground. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [28:00]: Thank you. Thank you very much, Jasmina. So did you hear that? Do not wait, the EIB is ready. Thank you so very much. Khalid, now, let me turn to you as you embody the voice of the Saudi private sector. So what is your call to action to really engage the business sector? Emaar Engineering Consultants · President of Emaar Engineering Consultants; Champion of the Business for Land Saudi Arabia Hub · Khalid Al-Othman [28:17]: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me here. And actually, he said everything, but I will try to put it in the Saudi context. And, well, coming from the Saudi perspective, I believe everybody heard about the Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative, which has been launched in Saudi Arabia in 2021, and that puts us all in Saudi Arabia in the perspective and the center of attention and responsibility for leading this momentum. From the private sector perspective, and what we're doing currently in Saudi Arabia, maybe a few calls if you allow me. Well, first, we have been seeing that the Middle East Green Initiative, Saudi Green Initiative is not a dream, it's a reality. Please see on ground that we have achieved so far 150, 161 million trees out of the 10 million trees target, which is going to be achieved in the case. 1 million hectares already restored. So the call is for the private sector to believe that this is not a dream, it's reality, it's a real opportunity. And we at the Federation of Chambers are actually leading this momentum to bring the private sector attention to the viability of the opportunities that is coming with this initiative. However, on the other hand, the other call is for governments also to enable the private sector to engage by improving the regulatory tools, the regulatory frameworks, the incentives to put these tools in place for that the private sector can actually cross the borders and knock down the walls and move into, uh, actual action. Third call is for the private sector and government and everybody in the ecosystem, be innovative. We need out the box approaches. Innovation is a changer, project development is a game changer, as Dr. Issama says, we don't need business as usual, we need business unusual, so we need to be proactive and creative and innovative in our approaches, system changes, even funding tools, mechanisms that can actually bring and build economic viability to projects to then attract the private sector. Economic viability is the key word that will bring the private sector to the table. Thank you. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [30:29]: Thank you so very much. Viability indeed is not just about yes, let's have a round of applause please for Khalid. But viability, it's a topic we're going to be touching upon all day here, of course. It's not just about having the right amount of capital, but making sure that it comes to fruition, of course. Thank you very much. Natasha now. Agriculture, an interesting sector because it sits right at the intersection of land, water, food security and business also. So from Bayer's perspective, what is your call to action for global enterprises and agribusinesses and the value chain of land, soil and water? Bayer · Vice President and Head of Sustainability and Strategic Engagement · Natasha Santos Eastwood [31:09]: Thank you. Thank you for the organizers as well to bring us in here. What a beautiful place this dome is. I've been in many cops, but I want to congratulate. It's very cozy, very good, very beautiful. And it's nice to do this standing as well, if you wake up really early. So really nice. But let me answer your question. So from my perspective and working in the beautiful sector of agriculture for more than 20 years now, What we have been searing as a company, but as well with partners where we operate and we invest on is the following. I believe that from a business perspective, we really need to change how we value nature, right? We've been talking about this a lot, but particularly, I think the shift needs should be, we need to look at it, if you think about land, soil and water, less from externality perspective, obviously really important. We need to price, we need to measure, but more as an asset that we need to invest. If you think this is a productive asset, those three topics, productive asset in agriculture, we need to look from the lens of investment. And what does that mean from a framework perspective, from our perspective, is number one, if you think about healthy soils, this is productive capital. If you think about water efficiency, this is management, right, purely risk management and agriculture value chains. If you think about land, resilient lands, this is supply chain reliability, right? So with that framework in mind, we have been looking at not only our research and development engine of more than 2.5 billion euros, but as well the investments that we are doing, which is what excites me, my Brazilian heart the most, is the investment that we do on cropping system transformation around the more than 22 crops I'll give you one example because I have one minute I see on the back, uh, which is so you can feel how that means in practice is the investment that we have been doing in rice, which is relevant maybe in this part of the world. Uh, we look at rice, how can we maintain productivity, yields and increase, and how can we make sure that we keep that system resilient? So we look at the data very high dependent on water, uh, dependent on labor vol- vulnerability, which are those two elements that are so important for farmers, right? Because farmers will take on, on the change if it works with the economics, um, number one of yields, but as well cost reduction. So looking at that scenario, we decided to invest on the transformation to the rice, super efficient on water, 40% reduction, but more important from an economic perspective, it really, really reduce the cost on management for that system. So this is one of examples of the investments, but for me, what we need to do as business is change the lens, um, and look at those three elements, land, health, uh, uh, soil and water from an investment perspective and put that in a framework that you can measure. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [34:15]: Thank you, Natasha. Thank you very much. You've raised an important question here is how do we redefine value for business? Gim, now the World Economic Forum has launched a white paper recently in partnership with UNCCD for business leaders and it's about soil health. So can you tell us a little bit more about it? What is it all about? WEF · Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board · Kim Hui Neo [34:37]: Thank you. I want to start by just sharing a statistic. $2 trillion have gone into investing into artificial intelligence. We also have about $2 trillion that's gone into climate finance. Not bad. If you do a double click on that $2 trillion that went into climate finance, about 75% has gone into renewable energies, has gone into electric vehicles, low carbon transport. Less than 3% is invested in land and water, which means nature is still not quite viewed as an infrastructure that is really, and nature should be viewed as infrastructure, that is the first line of our defense, of our resilience, as is the foundation of all life on earth. Right, so the reason why we launched this white paper, and I've got a copy here, is really to highlight the economic case for healthy soils, help clean waters, Right, $900 billion is lost every year due to water stress and drought regions, 900 billion. So that's way more than the financing required. And for every dollar that's invested in regenerating our earth, you get four to $30 in returns. Right, so we really want to empower and bring that awareness to all businesses, all governments, that it's time to actually look at nature Alongside with AI and digital economies, twin engines of growth and development for our future. So on that note, uh, I want to hand this back to you and please watch out for this paper, it will be launched on Thursday, uh, and then, uh, share it with all your friends and all businesses, uh, so that we can move forward together, uh, to, uh, to… achieve the ambitions that's being laid out at this meeting. Thank you. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [36:39]: Kim, thank you so much. And yet again, a very important point here. We view energy and digital networks as infrastructure. We view transport as infrastructure. What about nature? Nature is the core infrastructure. Everything relies on it. Thank you so very much to all our speakers. Let's have a round of applause, please, for all the speakers who are with us here on stage. Khalid, Natasha, and Kim, thank you so much. And we are going to transition straight away because we're running out of time to our next keynote. And from agriculture, engineering and finance, we're going to move to luxury and craftsmanship because land runs through every value chain. Ladies and gentlemen, it's now my pleasure to welcome Frederic Arnaud, who's CEO of Lauro Piana, part of the LVMH group. Frederic, welcome. Loro Piana · CEO · Frederic Arnaud [37:42]: Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It's a pleasure for me to be here in Mongolia for this year's UNCCD COP17. The theme, restoring land, restoring hope, speaks powerfully to the reality of this extraordinary country where the health of the land is inseparable from the well-being of animals, communities. and future generations. Loro Piana is part of the LVMH group, one of the signatories of the UNCCD Business for Land Initiative. The brand's commitment is fully aligned with LVMH environmental strategy, whose biodiversity pillar aims to achieve zero deforestation by 2030, reduce water withdrawal by 30% in its operation and value chain, and to protect and regenerate 5 million hectares of ecosystems by 2030. LVMH also renewed in 2025 its partnership with UNESCO. This agreement, entitled For the Beauty of Living, strengthens and expands the cooperation first initiated in 2019 and is dedicated to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. These partnerships further reflect the group's long-term commitment to biodiversity. For Loro Piana, being here today is very meaningful. Our brand was founded in Italy in 1924 by the Loro Piana family on the passion for the finest raw materials, and cashmere has always stood at the heart of our pursuit of excellence. For generations, Loro Piana has believed that true luxury begins with nature, with exceptional fibers, with the people and places that make them possible. That conviction guided Sergio and Pierluigi Loro Piana in Mongolia when in the 80s they came here in search of the world's finest cashmere. They understood something fundamental, excellence is not achieved only to selection and craftsmanship. It is built through long-term relationships built over the years with herders, with cooperatives, with local authorities, and with all those who safeguard the quality, heritage, and future of this remarkable fiber and whose role is essential not only to preserve the future of Kashmir, but also the stewardship of these landscapes. This is why Mongolia has such a special place in our DNA. For more than 40 years, Loro Piana has been committed to sourcing precious Mongolian cashmere, becoming a long-standing advocate for its quality and excellence on the international stage. In Ulaanbaatar, where we operate our only mill outside of Italy, it's a sign of importance of this country to Loro Piana and our enduring commitment to its cashmere ecosystem. We've been investing continuously over the past 30 years, recently on the building to make sure it's state-of-the-art, on the water treatments, on the machinery for all the hearing, um, operations that we have here. We also invest on new technologies, on traceability, where we innovated with the new, uh, small bales where we can now, uh, trace back to the herder each bale of cashmere. And today, our presence here, the strong commitment continues through the resilient thread project, which is a project initiated by Loro Piana, financed by Loro Piana and the AV Image Group, a multi-year program launched in 25 with several partners, UNCCD, the Sustainable Fiber Alliance, and the OCT Odyssey Conservation Trust. On two years of preparatory work and co-design with governments, local partners, herder cooperatives, the program supports livelihood across five soum in the Shuubdar province with the aim to strengthen the cashmere supply chain through different activities addressing the wellbeing of herders, animal and ecosystems. Its purpose is clear, to strengthen resilience in the face of climate related risk by applying the one health approach that recognizes the deep connection between people, animals, and nature. To mention only a few, the program has already delivered concrete actions, including the pilots of the first mobile one health hub reaching remote locations in Mongolia and delivering preventive animal and human healthcare and training. In 25, the Zud impact assessments marked for the first time an extreme climate event has been deeply analyzed through a One Health lens in Mongolia and its findings and recommendations have already been incorporated into regional and national climate risk policy. Let me also mention the projects for the conservation of the red goats contributing to rehabilitate its breeding in close collaboration with local universities and governments. We must be proud of these first results and continue to work with passion and dedication. As it is my first time here in Mongolia, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all the stakeholders and people who every day make all this possible, the governments, the herders, the researchers and health specialists and many more. This with the promise to be back more often as we will continue strengthening our ties with Mongolia because Mongolia, as this UNCCD COP17 reminds us, restoring land is truly about restoring hope. And to end this keynote, we have a video showing all the projects we've been working on. Thank you very much. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [45:33]: What a wonderful initiative. Thank you very much. Next, we are delighted to welcome Dr. Deborah Barasa, who's Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry in Kenya. Welcome, Doctor. Kenya · Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry · Dr. Deborah Barasa [45:50]: Thank you. Distinguished co-chairs, excellencies, leaders of business and finance, development partners, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I thank the Government of Mongolia and the UNCCD Secretariat for convening this timely session under the theme Restoring land, restoring hope', and for inviting me. Kenya is honoured to contribute to the Business for Land Dialogue at a moment when the world urgently needs to convert restoration ambition into investment at scale. The proposition before us is straightforward. Healthy land is not merely an environmental asset. It is the foundation of food production, water security, resilient infrastructure, jobs, enterprise and social stability. When land is degraded, economies absorb the costs through low productivity, disrupted supply chains, greater disaster losses and deepening vulnerability. For Kenya, therefore, Restoration is not a peripheral conservation activity. It is an economic and development priority. We know firsthand the cost of land degradation and drought. More than four-fifths of our territory is arid or semi-arid, and millions of livelihoods depend directly on the health of soils, rangelands, forests, wetlands, and watersheds. Recurrent droughts and floods have made the connection between ecological security and economic security impossible to ignore. This is why Kenya has placed landscape and ecosystem restoration at the centre of national policy. Through the National Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Program, Kenya has committed to growing 15 billion trees by 2032, restoring more than 10.6 million hectares of degraded land, and increasing national tree coverage to 30%. Significant progress has already been recorded. As of April 2026, more than 1.43 billion trees, actually at the moment we've planted more than 1.8 billion trees. representing more than 9.5 of the national target. The national tree cover has also increased to approximately 12.13 supported by coordinated action involving government institutions, county government, communities, schools, farmers, civil society and private sector. Our next priority is to strengthen monitoring of tree survival and ensure that planting translates into lasting ecological restoration. Success must be measured not only by the number of seedlings planted, but also by survival rates, restored ecosystem functions, improved livelihood, and strengthened community resilience. This national restoration agenda reinforces Kenya's voluntary land degradation neutrality targets, climate commitments, biodiversity goals, and broader development priorities. Our approach extends beyond tree planting to the restoration and sustainable management of forests, rangelands, agricultural lands, wetlands, river basins, mangroves and other coastal ecosystems. It is founded on long term stewardship and seeks to improve ecosystem integrity while strengthening food and water security, climate resilience, livelihood and green economic opportunities. We are pursuing an inclusive restoration model that places communities, women, youth, indigenous people, and local producers at the center. The model draws on science, technology, and local knowledge while ensuring that those who manage and protect our landscapes receive tangible and equitable benefits. These achievements demonstrate both the scale of Kenya's ambition and our growing capacity to deliver restoration through partnership. The task before us now is to convert this momentum into investable programs capable of attracting finance at scale. The question is no longer whether restoration creates value. The question is how to structure that value so that it can attract capital, reward responsible stewardship, and deliver durable public benefits. For business, investing in healthy land can secure agricultural and natural resource supply chains, reduce exposure to drought, flooding, soil erosion, and water scarcity, create markets in sustainable forestry, regenerative agriculture, nature-based tourism, and ecosystem services, generate decent green jobs, particularly for young people and women, and support credible climate biodiversity and sustainability commitments. Kenya offers diverse investment opportunities across forestry, rangeland management, regenerative agriculture, watershed production, mangrove and coastal restoration, sustainable value chains, and green enterprises. Our ambition is to move these opportunities from isolated projects to investable programs that can be aggregated, replicated, and financed at scale. We must, however, acknowledge the barriers restoration projects frequently face high initial costs, long investment horizons, fragmented project pipelines, and uncertain revenue streams. Communities and small enterprises may carry the greatest implementation burden while having the least access to affordable finance. Addressing these barriers requires action to build investment ready pipelines. Public and concession finance must be used strategically, strengthen the enabling environment, protect environmental and social integrity, and investment decisions must recognize the full value of restoration. Kenya is ready to work with investors, financial institutions, multilateral development banks, philanthropic organizations, technology providers, and responsible businesses to develop scalable, Restoration partnership. Our offer is a partnership founded on government leadership and policy alignment across land, climate, biodiversity and development priorities, a growing pipeline of landscape-based investment opportunities and a commitment to inclusion, transparency, environmental integrity and benefits that reach communities on the ground. In return, we call upon the private sector and financial communities to move beyond short funding cycles and isolated corporate initiatives, bring patient capital, bring innovation, help us design financial instruments suited to restoration timelines, partner with local institutions and enterprises, share risks and returns fairly, above all, commit to long term stewardship rather than short term claims. We stand ready to serve as a partner and a platform for this transition, and we invite you to work with us to demonstrate that restored landscape can feed communities, strengthen enterprises, protect nature, create jobs and generate sustainable returns. Let this finance day be remembered as a moment we stopped treating restoration merely as a cost and began financing it as essential productive infrastructure for a resilient future. Together, let us restore land, restore opportunity, Thank you. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [53:33]: Many thanks, Minister Barasa. Thank you for joining us. So, wise we set the stage for our final conversation of this opening sequence, I'd like to bring you all in to address a question, please, on Mentimeter. There you go, the QR code that you need to scan on your phones to answer the question I'm going to ask you. In fact, it's not really a question. I'm going to ask you to maybe share one word to have your views on what healthy land means for business. According to you, what does healthy land mean for business? So please get your phones ready to answer our poll. And that will help create a word cloud which is currently appearing on the screen here. Resilience, no surprise here, of course. Resilience is a key word. We discussed value earlier with Natasha of Bayer. Value indeed is important. We have growth, predictable future. We're talking about resilience, stability, regenerative development, fertility, good conditions, structure, livelihoods, continuity. There you go. But the key words here, what does healthy land mean for business? sustainability, resilience, value, growth, and of course, if we get all that, then we get prosperity. So many thanks to all of you. And it's now time for our closing panel. And I'd like to lead this conversation on the triple COP perspective, a triple COP year this year, bringing the three Rio conventions and the private sector on climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation because they are not separate crises. So let's bring those worlds together. Please join me in welcoming our speakers here on stage. from the Ministry of Environment of Mongolia. We've got Batbayar Shurenchukhum, who's State Secretary. Please come and join us here on stage. We also welcome Simon Still, who's Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Welcome. Astrid Schumacher, who's Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Thank you, Astrid, for joining us. Sahmed Ayabash, who's COP31 climate high level champion for Turkey. And Bayan Jargal Bayanba Saikhan, who's vice chairman of the Business Council of Mongolia. So welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being with us. I'd like to starts with you, State Secretary, if possible, since you are literally hosting all of us here at COP in Ulaanbaatar. You're hosting us also politically. So what is your call to action for governments and for businesses on this triple COP year? Mongolia · State Secretary · Batbayar Shurenchukhum [57:23]: Thank you for your question. For Mongolia, the triple COP is a good opportunity to connect land, climate, biodiversity and water and turn global commitments into practical action. This is very important for us. More than 70% of Mongolia is rangeland and around 82% of our land is degraded to different levels. We are already seeing the combined impacts of land degradation, drought, water shortages, and biodiversity loss. Let me give two examples. First, building trees national movement aims to plant and restore one billion trees by 2030 and increase national forest cover to 9%. This is not only about planting trees. It is also about restoring degraded land, protecting water and biodiversity, and building climate resilience. Second, here at COP17, Mongolia is launching regional sand and dust storm initiative with UN ESCAP and the trilateral cooperation secretariat involving China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. We want to improve science, data, early warning and regional cooperation because this problem doesn't stop the national borders. So our message is simple. We need to move from commitments to action and from action to investment. Thank you. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [59:04]: Many thanks. State Secretary, thank you so much. Simon, now let's take this conversation into the climate conversation, of course. Land restoration still struggles to get the attention it deserves in climate finance discussions, despite its potential for both carbon removal and resilience. So you understand we're very action oriented here. So what is your call to action for putting land higher on the climate finance agenda on this triple COP year? UNFCCC · Executive Secretary · Simon Stiell [59:41]: Hello. Yep. You mentioned it in your opening that we need to convert ambition commitments into action. This year we have the three Rio conventions all holding their COPs. We left Brazil last year, COP30, with a very clear call to action. which was we have now moved into the era of implementation. We must leave Mongolia, we must leave Armenia with that clear focus on implementation. And this is not about merging mandates, but aligning actions where those actions intersect across the three conventions. Each convention has its action plan, whether it's our NDCs within climate, whether it is LDNs, whether it's NDSAPs. It is about finding those common overlaps and working smartly on those intersections. So whether that is forests, whether it's soils, whether it is food systems, water, ecosystem restoration, resilience building, adaptation, and critically, critically on finance, on capacity building, on technology. So, you know, with conventions were established 34 years ago, this is no longer the time to be discussing how, where these intersects exist. It is absolutely clear. It's how do we work smartly and how do we address those common areas. And at the heart of it is finance and means of implementation and how we work smartly in applying the very limited resources. How do we work smartly? How do we work with the private sector, other actors in terms of innovative financing, and then translating that into implementation that means something for ordinary people on the ground? Moderator · Charlotte Kan [1:02:00]: Many thanks, Simon. Smartly, that means working collectively, working efficiently, but importantly, working collectively. Many thanks for that. We're now going to focus on biodiversity with you, Astrid. What is your call to action on this triple COP here? And what does business need to start doing differently on biodiversity right now? CBD · Executive Secretary · Astrid Schomaker [1:02:22]: Thank you so much. So first of all, I would say do as Simon says. So we come from two different conventions. We look at the same crisis from different perspectives and we come to the same solutions. I think that is very meaningful. My call to action for business is really… First of all, don't stand on the brakes, but then certainly also don't sit on the sidelines in all these crops. So it is really important that business becomes an actor in this global transition that we're all working towards. And by that, I mean, first of all, is use a triple cop here as an opportunity for integrated business strategies that don't look at land, don't have a land strategy, a biodiversity strategy, a climate strategy, but try and have an integrated strategy for resilience, for long-term value creation and for competitiveness. And of course, it's always easier said than done, but when I say business shouldn't be sitting on the sidelines, but engaging in negotiations, what I mean by that is really come to these COPs not just to network and to do side events, but to engage in the actual negotiations and bring to the table what you need in terms of enabling conditions to make the right investments. And the elephant in the room that we have to address, particularly in nature finance, is the overwhelming nature negative spending, which I quote wherever I go, this unfortunate 30 to one ratio of nature negative spending versus nature positive spending. Now that has to be addressed. Business plays a role in that because the majority of these 7.3 trillion that were spent annually on nature negative activity are actually business investments, but they are propped up by government subsidies to the order of 2.4 trillion. So let's engage as business with government to make sure that we have subsidy reform that is not putting business out of business, but that changes the way business engages and makes business more nature positive, more resilient, but also more engaged in this global debate on how to preserve biodiversity and thereby also fight climate change. And I think that's my main call. So be active, be engaged, and do more than side events. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [1:04:33]: Keep going, in other words. Many thanks Astrid for that. Samit, now, you are carrying the baton from this triple COP year towards COP31 in Turkey, of course. So from that vantage point, what is your call to action for keeping land and biodiversity connected to the climate finance agenda as we move from COP17 to COP31? Türkiye · COP31 climate high level champion · Sahmed Ayabash [1:04:55]: First of all, thank you for your great question. My call to action is to people who are not in the negotiation rooms because that is who I work for. In the climate process, we learned something 10 years ago that this convention maybe or is learning now, governments alone cannot deliver the targets governments sets. So at Paris, we created the champions. And around them, the Marrakesh Partnership and the Global Climate Action Agenda. Today, more than 480 initiatives run by cities, companies, investors, communities connected to formal process rather than it from outside. Here is what we discovered. Non-state actors do not fail to act because they lack ambitions. They fail because nobody tells them what counts and nobody gives them a way back into the systems with what they have done. So my call to action for this triple COP year is this, every city's company and investor in this room is already working on land. Whatever they call it that or not, a supply chain is land, a watershed is land, a city's food system is land. name it, measure it and report it once into a process that will recognise it three times and to my colleagues from the three conventions, let us not build three separate ways for them to do that. We have all years to agree on once. Thank you again. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [1:06:44]: Thank you very much, Zanet. Thank you. I have another round of questions for our distinguished panelists here, but we're running out of time sadly, so let's do it very, very quickly if you allow me. Starting with the State Secretary here, I'd like to ask you what Business for Land can actually do, maybe in one sentence only. Mongolia · State Secretary · Batbayar Shurenchukhum [1:07:08]: I think Business for Land can play a very practical role. If you want real cooperation between Rio Conventions, We need to see through real projects, investment, and results on the ground. Mongolia already has concrete opportunities. As I said before, the Billion Tree National Movement can attract investment in land restoration. And our new Sand and Dust Storm Initiative also creates opportunities in early warning systems, in environmental data, and resilient infrastructure. But both initiatives need more private investment to grow. So my message to Business for Land and the companies here today is simple. Come and work with us. We can develop practical and bankable projects together, bring in public and private finance, and show that investing in land, climate, and biodiversity can also create long-term economic value. Congolese with the project and partnerships, now we need two partners to help us take to the scale, thank you. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [1:08:26]: Thank you very much. Piyamba, I'm very much aware we've not heard from you yet, but I was saving you last because we heard from government and I'd like to hear the voice of business, the business sector here in Mongolia. So from your perspective, what is your call to action for your peers on this triple COP year? And there again, can you tell us a bit more about what the Business for Land Forum can do? Business Council of Mongolia · Vice Chairman · Bayan Jargal Bayanba Saikhan [1:08:50]: Thank you, Charlotte. So I'll take your note. You reminded me time, time, time this morning. So again, ministers, ambassadors, ladies and gentlemen, very happy to be here. And the reason why COPs are important for Mongolia, I'll tell you one stat. We talked about a lot of numbers this morning. 2.2 degrees since 1940. the dry lands in Mongolia, and State Secretary mentioned how much of the land is degraded, right? So we are getting -- warming up almost twice as the global average in this country, which directly impacts business, right? And this impacts the business I do, which is energy transition, right? This impacts the business that is very important for this country, which is mining. So what we are trying to do with our partnership with UNCCD and Business for Land and the Business Council of Mongolia is to bring in this important sector, which is called mining, into the platform. And we all talked about this morning that this is a platform to bring people and then business unusual, how do we make it smarter? And Executive Secretary was mentioning SMART. So I think that's really what we are trying to achieve, bring the people together. And we already had a number of events, as you may know, in the last really two years heading up to this COP, gathering business people. And our champions are here today, fellow champions. So I'm very happy that those of you who are here, you were able to travel and come to Mongolia to, again, share your experiences. We all understand finance investment is necessary, right, we all understand technology is important, but how do you basically get that into, into the actions that we are trying to, uh, gather around, so again, uh, very thankful and honored to be with the two executive secretaries of the other two cops. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [1:10:51]: And very, very quickly, what does the private sector actually need from Business for Land to move from statements to actual capital? Business Council of Mongolia · Vice Chairman · Bayan Jargal Bayanba Saikhan [1:10:58]: Yeah, so we have three pillars, right, at Business for Land. That's business transformation and finance and advocacy. So we, I've been focusing a lot on the advocacy side of things heading up to the COP17 and at Riyadh we started, now we are taking it for the next two years. So I think gathering our messages, is very important because business knows what to do, right? We all know what to do, but gathering our messages is important because that's where I think we get more awareness from not only the governments, but also as we saw Laura Piana's very excellent work in Mongolia, right? And that awareness needs to be built. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [1:11:43]: Many thanks for that, Simon, very briefly, what can Business for Land actually do to connect climate capital to land and biodiversity? UNFCCC · Executive Secretary · Simon Stiell [1:11:53]: So I think there are two things, um, first is translate, translate what's taking place in these negotiating rooms, uh, convention negotiating language speak. is very abstract to the business community and the private sector. So it's that translation and that translation needs to speak to risks, but importantly, most importantly, opportunities. The second is a bridge, and that's a bridge between government and the private sector. Again, providing that trans not just that translation, component, but being able to mobilize, being able to network, being able to join up policy to business opportunities, to all of those project pipelines that we keep talking about. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [1:12:50]: Many thanks, Simon, so translating, making the language that we hear so much at COP accessible to the business community so they can take action and make it meaningful indeed. Astrid, what can the business for land community can actually do? CBD · Executive Secretary · Astrid Schomaker [1:13:08]: Thank you so much. So I think it would be good if Business for Land, the Marrakech Partnership, and then the Global Partnership for Business and Biodiversity could find a common voice and interact as one with the three Rio Conventions. Now, specifically, after the triple COP year, I think the three Rio Conventions need to take stock of all the decisions that have been taken, and maybe we can move forward to things such as common investment platforms and common resource mobilization strategies so that it makes it easier for business to engage. And one very concrete Under our framework, we have a target on business disclosure with associated indicators. Let's see how we can bring in land acquisition neutrality into that framework so that business does not do separate reporting and separate accounting to different indicators and different standards. Thank you. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [1:13:55]: Thank you, Astrid. Samit, as we look ahead to COP31, what can Business for Land do right now to prepare? Türkiye · COP31 climate high level champion · Sahmed Ayabash [1:14:03]: Thank you. I will answer this from experience. Business for Land is building what the climate process spent a decade developing and three are two important lessons. First, the interface must be connected to process business for land. already has that advantage, thought it's mandate from 197 parties. Second, it must work both ways. Companies bring action, investment, and innovation that should gain recognition, partnership, and clearly pathways to finance. Thank you again. I hope we will meet in Antalya with all our listeners. Thank you again. Moderator · Charlotte Kan [1:14:50]: And many thanks to all our speakers for this conversation. Let's have a round of applause, please, for all the panelists who joined us on stage. And you are going to be staying with me because it's now time for a group picture. Can I please invite all the speakers who are on stage here with us this morning to come and join us here in order to take a last group picture. Thank you. and that includes of course Arjuna Dorjseren from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change in Mongolia. Okay. Once again, many thanks to all our wonderful panelists, speakers. Thank you so much for being with us here this morning. And many thanks to you in the audience for taking part in the poll and for your attention. With that transition, We are moving to a very important conversation moderated by Sarah Toomey here on land as an asset class. Sarah, welcome.