(1st Meeting) Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention - UNCCD COP17

Please take your seats. I call to order the first meeting.

Of the 24th session of the Committee on the Implementation of the Convention. Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to begin by saying a few words in my native language, French. Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, ministers, Madam Executive Secretary, esteemed delegates, esteemed colleagues, it is a great honor for me to be present once again at this committee session. by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. I would like to begin by expressing my great appreciation to the Government and people of Mongolia for their warm hospitality. I remember Mongolia's presentation.

Okay. Inspired by the slogan, restoring. land restoring hope. I hope that in turn we will be following their advice by restoring hope with COP 17 kicking things off this year of the triple COP in Panama during CRIC 23 we became aware of how severe the situation was. 40% of lands around the world are degraded. 3.2 billion humans have seen their living conditions affected by this phenomenon. Well, $878 billion are lost every year as a result of desertification, land degradation, and droughts. The resilience of our societies to climate change, to loss of biodiversity, to desertification, and to droughts requires preservation and restoration of our soils. Given this challenge that affects all of us today, although to different degrees, I continue to say that what we need more than ever is to think together about inclusive science-based policies and to encourage synergies since this is the most economical solution, the most effective to combat desertification and drought. This year, The CRIC again will be rich. We will be continuing our efforts as part of on reporting this year with the first stage in November 2026 and a second in February 27. I'd like to recall the importance of this data, especially when it comes to gauging the impact of the decisions we take here and the decisions that we'll be taking at a national and local level. Also, I'd like to recall that that data informs the stocktake of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 15.3.1 on land degradation neutrality, LDN. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, this is the last time that I'll be opening a session of the CRIC as chair. So let's make sure that CRIC 24 is a success. And let's do it together to set the tone for the environmental agenda for this year. I thank you for your trust and I wish you all fruitful debates. Thank you.

I will now switch back to English to give the floor to the executive secretary of the UNCCD, Ms. Yasmine Fouad, please.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome you all to the 24th session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention. I'm very glad that we are all gathered here in Ulaanbaatar. We had a wonderful opening of the COP with the presence of the Prime Minister who had laid the priorities for our host country and how can we move forward. But we heard also the regional groups today that most of them talked about implementation. That's the common ground that we are moving through. And I'm glad that the CRIC also has that large number of attendees. And thank you, Frans, for leading on that. And we continue to support. that process very much with less than five years to 2030. This is a decisive moment for the world implementation. I'd like really to set three important priorities for you to think of as we're moving forward in the next two years and how can we make what the parties had called for today and implementation happen. First of all, mobilizing resources at scale in order to deliver on the convention and the SDGs 15.3. We cannot continue to solve the same problems that we're having with the same rigid resources as the past, especially that the scale is intensifying and the urgency is coming and it's more frequent and a drought is a very good example of that. So we need to move when we're talking about the resources to close the financial gap from the business as usual to the integrated programmatic and investment ready approaches. Within the decisions that you will see within this COP in the private sector engagement, the Secretariat has made some effort to put in some innovative financial mechanism. I think that part of that is to scale also the public and private partnership and improve coordination and the enabling conditions at the national level. I do think that land is bankable and there are some stories that we can show into that. And a very important part of that land is bankable is that we can see the private sector and the business for land hubs that's being open around the world. We started with Mongolia, France also has launched is some of the African countries, China did the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These are the ones that I can recall right now. So It can happen and we can achieve it and we can double or triple the finance, just we need to think outside the box and how can we make that happen. The second thing is building the capacity and building the capacity would need to invest in different human resources and here I'm not talking only about the parties to the convention about the women, the youth, the children, the indigenous people, the local community, all those are part of our process that we need to expand. Even in this stop, I have something very interesting to say on building the capacity, the parliamentarian, the Change Maker Academy that was part of the UNCCD. This is for us is a game changer because now we're mainstreaming the land degradation and issues related to the drought into the national legislation of those countries through those parliamentarian. But when building the capacity, we cannot in 2026 forget digital transformation. where we will need to use Earth observation, geospatial data. We aim at the secretariat to integrate heavily the artificial intelligence in our work because we need not only to be accurate, but we need to be quick because the world will not wait for us until more land would be degraded. Last that I would like to deliver is monitoring and reporting. The 2026 reporting process is a strategic milestone like Madam Chair has mentioned. And it's one of the last comprehensive opportunities before 2030 to assess the collective progress. We will continue to improve through the Paris and the related tools in order to try to reduce the burden of the reporting, improve transparency, as well as the quality of data. And we urge countries to really start their own internal national coordination mechanism to verify the data and to understand how the linkage is happening. We cannot continue treating land and soil in an abstract form without looking at the other set of entities that still has part to do with that. I would like to encourage all parties to submit their report in a timely manner. And the last message, We can always do that if we expand our partnerships, whether at the level of the monitoring or the financial resources or building the capacity. And here we will continue at the level of the convention to support the hubs and the technical advisor to bring more expertise. We've started a very lengthy process at the science level to collect a peer reviewer for all of our report and to have an diversified, inclusive list of scientists that can add to our process and enhance that. And I see this as part of the partnership that could last forever for this convention. My closing message, CRIC 24 is an opportunity to look back and to accelerate our action and to challenge ourselves that those bottlenecks we will be able to overcome and that collectively we will able to bring the knowledge of our local community, of our indigenous people, up front to the decision maker and we will be able to change those reports and those data together into action on the ground for better restoration of land and by doing so we're restoring hope that we will be able to return back and repair the 40% of the land that has been degraded. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Madam Executive Secretary. I will now open the floor for statements. Thank you. My representative of regional and interest groups. So delegation are requested to keep their statements concise and limited to five minutes, please. So I invite delegations wishing to take the floor to press the button on the microphone and I will start by giving the floor to the representative of Angola speaking on behalf of the regional implementation annex for Africa annexed one please Angola you have the floor.

Madam chair Madam executive secretary of the United Nation convention to combat certification Distinguished representatives of international institutions, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the African Group, I would like to extend our appreciation to the Government and the people of Mongolia for the warm hospitality and reception extended to our delegates since our arrival in this beautiful city of Ulaanbaatar. Madam President, please be assured of the Group's support and cooperation. Madam Chair, we are encouraged by the progress made by the IWG on the future strategic framework and they will look forward to review and provide inputs to their report. It is our expectation that the LDN commitments, targets and the drought resilience as well as capacity building will be stronger and encouraged in the new strategy as a pillar to proper implementation of the UNCCD. The new strategy should give a central focus to announcing underground action to reverse desertification, land degradation and mitigate impacts of drought. Financial resources available for the implementation of the convention remain inadequate and increasingly misaligned with the scale and urgency of land degradation, desertification and the drought challenge. While some multilateral financing windows such as under Jeff have increased their allocations, these increases have not kept pace with the required investments of 355 billion to achieve the land degradation neutrality. This has resulted in a persistent and widening financing gap to implement the convention at all levels. While parts have pledged to restore more than one billion hectares, however, verified implementation reaches little more than 10% of the pledged area. Therefore, we recommend the establishing of dedicated and predictable financing windows for land and drought focal areas to support integrated land restoration, drought resilience, sustainable land management, climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods. As pointed out in the Kirk 23 report, capacity building continues to face enduring structural challenges, including fragmented institutional arrangements, limited coordination, inadequate staffing and persistent shortfalls in predictable longer term and consistent financing, with therefore call for the design of a dynamic adaptive process that includes a capacity building needs assessment at a national level and a capacity building strategy for the convention. It is equally important to support the parts and the technology needs assessments to implement the national drought plans, sustainable land management frameworks and other units related strategy in order to strengthen transfer transferring the acquisition of technology for implementation of the convention, particularly in developing countries. Lastly, we note that decision 11/COP9 on additional procedures or institutional mechanisms to assist the Conference of the Parties in regularly reviewing the implementation of the convention established the current terms of reference and the working arrangements of the CRIC. including that intercessional CRIC session should not exceed one week, five working days. We therefore recommend that regional consultations should not occupy two of the five working days allocated to the CRIC, as occurred during CRIC 23 in Panama, and request the Secretariat to initiate the process of reviewing the terms of reference of the CRIC not later than 19th session to ensure its alignment with the post-2030 strategic framework. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank the representative of Angola for his speech. And I will now give the floor to the representative of China speaking on behalf of the regional implementation annex for Asia. Please, China, you have the floor.

Madam Chair, Ladies and gentlemen, China is pleased to be delivering this opening statement on behalf of the Asia Pacific Group. at this CRIC 14 sessions. At the outset, the world once again express our sincere appreciation to the government of Mongolia for its warm hospitality and to the executive secretary, the secretariat, the global mechanism and all partners whose dedication have enabled us to convening this important session. Madam Chair, the strength of the Convention is ultimately measured not by the decisions we adopt, but by the results we deliver. For the Asia-Pacific Group, Break 24 provides an opportunity to assess our collective progress, identify implementation gaps and strengthen the support that the parties need to translate global commitment into tangible improvements for people, ecosystems and livelihoods. The Asia Pacific region has constantly demonstrated its commitment to implementing the convention across an extraordinary diversity of ecological and social economic conditions. Our experience reinforces our convictions that effective implementation must remain nationally driven. scientifically informed and supported by strong international cooperation. As the Convention looks beyond 2030, implementation should remain the top priority of its future work. The Asia-Pacific Group therefore welcomes the opportunity to review progress towards land degradation neutrality recognizing it as one of the Convention's most important achievements and an essential pathway for restoring ecosystems, strengthening food and water security, enhancing climate resilience, and supporting sustainable development. We encourage continued efforts to accelerate implementation through integrated land use planning and cross-sectional coordination while recognizing the different capacities, resources, rules and regulations and the circumstances of affected countries. Countries wishing to establish, review or raise Voluntary targets should have enhanced access and facilitation to financial resources, technology, data and capacity, taking into account the particular needs and the circumstance of vulnerable developing countries, including small island developing states. Madam Chair, effective implementation depends upon reliable knowledge, accessible tools and strong national institutions. The Asia Pacific Group therefore attached particular importance to continued improvements in the Convention's reporting system. Reporting should serve as a practical instrument for better planning, informed decision making and improved implementation. We therefore support a streamlined, efficient and well-resourced reporting system with clear methodology, improved data availability and resolution, improved interoperability with complementary tools and responsive user support. We thank the Secretariat for the regional training so that all parties can engage meaningfully with revised systems such as the PRAIS portal, expanding collaboration with regional support hubs, which strengthens national capacity, improving both the timelines and quality of reporting. Data requirements must be scientifically sound, proportionate and flexible enough to capture the realities of mountains, islands, drylands, forests, agricultural landscape, wetlands including peatlands and mangroves, coastal and deltaic ecosystems and hyper-arid zones. At the same time, many parties continue to require sustained technical assistance, timely institutionalized regional training and improved access to high quality default datasets freely, particularly for small islands developing states, arid and hyper arid regions and countries facing unique environmental challenges to ensure accurate and meaningful reporting. The Asia Pacific Group views capacity building as a long-term action by strengthening national institutions, technical expertise, and regional support mechanisms, which is essential for sustaining progress over time. We encourage continued support to regional centers of excellence. regional support hubs, peer learning, digital technologies and emerging analytical tools and enable countries to monitor land degradation, assess restoration outcomes and make evidence-based policy decisions. Furthermore, it is reiterated that formal certification courses on land degradation, desertification and drought may be initiated under G20 Global Land Initiative with support of the UN, university and similar institutions. Capacity building should increase strengthening institutional resilience and facilitate exchange of best practices among parties. It also requires stronger and more diversified means of implementation. The Asia Pacific Group recognize the important role of global mechanism in supporting developing countries to mobilize finance and connect national priorities and the long term national plans with funding opportunities. Predictable, timely, adequate, and easily accessible resources remain a priority. Application procedures should be made more accessible, support should reach countries with limited institutional capacity, and the finance should be aligned with national priorities rather than fragmented across short project cycles. We believe that greater ambition requires broader partnership. We therefore support continued efforts to mobilize public and private investment to consider potential innovative financing approaches as appropriate. and to promote initiatives such as business for land to achieve global land degradation targets, neutrality targets. International and regional cooperation remains one of the Asia Pacific group's greatest strengths. Collaboration among governments, research institutions, technical networks and development partners have enabled countries across our region to exchange experience strengthening implementation and adapt successful approaches to the diverse national context. We believe that enhanced international cooperation, stronger regional knowledge exchange networks, joint research and continued peer learning should become increasingly important components of implementation support under the Convention, particularly where challenges are transboundary. Madam Chair, as parties continue to the development of the post 2030 future strategic framework, the Asia Pacific group believes that the experience gained through implementation and the middle term evaluation of the current strategic framework should help shape the convention's future direction. The future strategic objectives should be building upon practical lessons learned, preserve flexibility for diverse national circumstances, strengthen means of implementation and ensure that the Convention remains responsive to the evolving needs of affected parties. The Asian Pacific Group remains commitment to working constructively with all the parties, the secretariat, the global mechanism and our partners to strengthen implementation, improve cooperation and deliver measurable results for present and future generation. We are confident that CRIC 24 can make a significant contribution to building a stronger convention for a better future by ensuring that our collective ambition is matched by practical action and sustained support for implementation. Thank you for your kind attention. Thank you, Chair.

I thank the representative of China. I now give the floor to the representative of Brazil speaking on behalf of the regional implementation annex for Latin America and the Caribbean. Please, Brazil.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Brazil is making this speech on behalf of the GRULAC. Madam Chair, GRULAC thanks you, the Bureau and the Secretary for the preparation of this session. We also thank the Mongolia presidency for the excellent hosting of this meeting. As we begin our work, the GRULAC would like to emphasize that effective implementation of the Convention requires ambition, not only in our objectives, but also in the means of implementation available to developing countries. First, on resource mobilization. We are concerned that the current document does not yet reflect the magnitude of the financial challenge. The financial needs assessments estimate that approximately 355 billion per year will be required during 2025 to 2030, with a financial gap of approximately 278 billion annually. These figures must guide our discussions. We therefore need additional, adequate, predictable, accessible financial resources, including grants and concessional finance. We should also reaffirm the commitments of developed countries under the convention, including Article 6 and 20. Private and philanthropic finance should complement, not substitute for international public financial commitments. We also attach great importance to strengthening the global mechanisms as an effective instrument for mobilizing and facilitating access to the resources for developing countries in line with its mandate under Article 21. Second, on capacity building, we believe it must be understood as a fundamental means of implementation going beyond training activities to encompass institutional, technical, scientific, and technological technological capacities. It should be demand driven and sustained and support for cooperation, technology transfer and knowledge exchange. Third, on reporting, we support improving the quality and usefulness of information while ensuring that report requirements reflect the different national capacities and circumstances. Reports should contribute to implementation and national decision making rather than create additional burdens. Adequate financial and technical support, access to data and technologies, and national ownership must therefore remain central. Finally, we believe that the CRIC should remain focused on implementation, identifying gaps, needs, and practical solutions, while giving due consideration to the outcomes of the regional meetings. Madam Chair, we stand ready to engage constructively. We believe that the ambition of our decisions must be commensurate with the scale of the challenges we face with the means required to address them. Thank you.

I thank the representative of Brazil. I will now give the floor to the representative of Montenegro. speaking on behalf of the regional implementation annex for Central and Eastern Europe. Please, you have the floor, Montenegro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, On behalf of the original implementation annex for Central and Eastern Europe, I'm pleased to address the opening of the 24th session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention. At the outset, allow me to express our sincere appreciation to the government and people of Mongolia for their warm hospitality and for hosting this important session in Ulaanbaatar. as well as the UNCCD Secretariat for the organization of COP17. CRIC-24 provides an important opportunity to take stock of progress in the implementation of the Convention, identify remaining gaps and, most importantly, agree on practical measures to accelerate implementation during the decisive period leading to 2030. We appreciate the work of the Secretariat, the Global Mechanism and all relevant institutions in preparing the documents in advance. We believe that the discussion at CRIC-24 should contribute to translating the objectives of the Convention and the 2018-2030 Strategic Framework into concrete and measurable action at national, regional and global levels. Effective implementation requires adequate means of implementation. For the Annex V region, ensuring access to predictable, adequate and diversified financial resources remains a key priority. We welcome the report of the Global Mechanism on progress in the mobilization of resources and financial flows matters related to sustainable development goal 15.3 and the facilitation of private sector involvement. We encourage the global mechanism to further strengthen efforts to mobilize diverse sources to finance to support the scaling up of the LDN target setting program 2.0, including for countries currently on the waiting list. and to facilitate the development and implementation of investment-ready land degradation neutrality transformative projects and programmes. Drought is an increasingly important challenge for land management and resilience, including in Central and Eastern Europe. We welcome the attention given to drought-related partnerships and capacity building, and encourage further efforts to strengthen cooperation and access to finance for effective drought preparedness and management. In this context, we consider it's essential to move from individual projects toward larger scale programmatic and investment ready approaches. Greater alignment between national priorities, development finance, climate finance, and private investment can significantly increase the scale and durability of RAND illustration efforts. We also recognize the important role of the private sector. Creating appropriate conditions for reasonable private sector engagement can help mobilize additional resources, technologies, and innovation. At the same time, Such engagement should support nationally determined priorities and contribute to measurable environmental and socioeconomic outcomes. We take note the information provided by the Global Environment Facility on the financing programs and projects concerning desertification, land degradation and drought, and encourage continued efforts to facilitate effective access to available financial mechanisms. At the same time, we note with concern the decrease in available resources compared to the previous GEF replenishment cycle and call for increased financial support in order to better respond to the growing needs and challenges related to land degradation, drought and sustainable land management. We welcome the agenda item dedicated to the promotion of capacity building and emphasize the need for sustained and demand-driven support to developing and vulnerable countries. Capacity building should address not only institutional and technical capacities, but also technical expertise, access to data and technologies, project development, investment planning, monitoring and reporting. Strengthening national institutions is essential for ensuring that international commitments are effectively translated into national action. In this context, Annex V underlines the importance of peer learning, e-learning, the UNCCD communities of learning and practice, and regional and sub-regional exchanges as practical tools for strengthening capacities and sharing knowledge and experience among Parties. We support continued efforts to enhance the community of learning practice as demand-driven platforms for knowledge exchange, capacity development, including on drought management. Annex five also encourages the secretariat, financial institutions and relevant partners to identify and mobilize dedicated resources to ensure the sustainability, effectiveness and wider uptake of these platforms across regions. We attach particular importance to the national reporting process. Reliable, consistent and comparable data are fundamental for assessing progress, identifying implementation gaps and supporting evidence-based decision-making. We believe that geo-information technologies and artificial intelligence open new age in monitoring, analysing and planning, and we encourage deepened collaboration with GEO-LDN and regional support hubs to strengthen capacities at national level. We welcome the work on improving procedures for the communication of information and the quality and formats of reports submitted to the Conference of the Parties. At the same time, Reporting requirements should remain practical, transparent and proportionate to national capacities. Adequate financial and technical support should be timely available to eligible parties to strengthen national data systems, monitoring capacities and institutional arrangements necessary for effective reporting. We particularly welcome the joint work between CRIC and CST on improving reporting procedures. Stronger interaction between implementation review and the scientific community can help ensure that reporting methodologies remain scientifically sound, consistent and useful for policymaking. The implementation of SDG indicator 15.3.1 and the achievement of land degradation neutrality targets remains an important component of the Convention's implementation architecture. We encourage continued support to parties in strengthening national data, baselines, monitoring systems and the practical implementation of LDN targets. In this context, we also recognise the importance of reviewing and, where necessary, updating national action plans and drought plans to ensure that they remain aligned with current environmental, climate and socio-economic challenges. as well as with national development priorities and the objectives of the Convention. Such processes should help translate national priorities into concrete, adequately financed and implementable measures. For the Annex V, this is particularly relevant in view of increasing pressures on agricultural land forests, water resources, and ecosystems resulting from climate change, drought, and changing land use patterns. We believe that implementation efforts should therefore promote an integrated approach to sustainable land management, drought resilience, soil conservation, ecosystem restoration, and land use planning, including the sustainable management and restoration of rangelands and grasslands. We also recognize the importance of strengthening regional and international cooperation. Sharing experience, technologies and good practices between countries and regions can significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of implementation. In this regard, Annex V stands ready to contribute to the exchange of experience in areas including drought management, land restoration, sustainable agriculture and forestry, soil conservation, monitoring and assessment, and innovative approaches to mobilizing resources. Distinguished delegates, the remaining years until 2030 are limited. The success of the Convention will increasingly depend not only on the quality of our commitments, but on our ability to deliver measurable results on the ground. CRIC-24 should therefore help strengthen three mutually reinforcing dimensions of implementation: strong national capacities, effective access to finance, and robust systems for monitoring and reporting progress. We encourage all parties and relevant institutions to use this session to strengthen cooperation and identify practical solutions to existing implementation gaps, particularly for those most affected by land degradation and drought. The Annex V region remains fully committed to the implementation of the Convention and to achievement of land degradation neutrality and SDG 15.3. We stand ready to engage constructively in the deliberations and to contribute to outcomes that strengthen the effectiveness and impact of the Convention. We wish all participants of CRIC 24 successful, productive and fruitful deliberations. Thank you for your attention.

I thank you, dear representative of Montenegro. I now give the floor to the representative of Kyrgyzstan, speaking on behalf of the Interregional Group Central Asia Russia. You have the floor, Kyrgyzstan.

Thank you, distinguished Craig Chair, distinguished delegates, colleagues. On behalf of the inter-regional group, which brings together five Central Asian countries and the Russian Federation, we very much appreciate CRIC's role as a key progress assessment mechanism in implementing the Convention, and we're grateful to the Secretariat for organizing this forum for dialogue. The group's countries have made significant progress in developing their accounting monitoring system as part of preparations for the fourth PRA cycle. We conduct and did an inventory of hotspots of degradation. We clarified our voluntary LDN targets and we introduced the Trends Earth platform. to calculate and factor in SDG indicator 15.3.1, our recent regional analytical review on desertification, land degradation and droughts prepared with the support of the Secretariat and financial assistance from Russia, for the first time consolidated the data from all our countries showing that 57% of the territory in the region remains stable, 16.8% we've observed improvements. We've also completed development of a methodological guide to assess LDN for the Central Asia countries. We would note that the reporting process highlighted not only merits and advantages, but also systemic problems which require joint solutions. For example, The first problem is the discrepancy between the global indicators and the national land-based data. We saw that trends earth or other global products did not distinguish, between secondary salination of lands. They didn't reflect, they didn't distinguish between healthy pasture land from degraded, where valuable cereals are replaced with wormwood or non-palatable species. This so-called green desertification, where the green color on satellite images seems to show that everything's okay, but in fact, it means that that's not by any means the case. Therefore, what logically what we need is a blended approach, global remote data as a basis, but with pre-training for the model using ground-based observation, countries in the region are ready to provide their many years of soil, geo-botanical and agrochemical surveys, we call on the secretariat, FAO, UNDP and UNEP to create a regional verification hub where such national data can be fine-tuned and integrated into global reporting. Now the second problem is fragmentation of departmental data. Now, this is probably a problem in many countries and our country is no exception. We have the land cadastre, the agrochemical service, the forest registry, water management department. Often there are parallel information systems and it leads to duplications, contradictions and multiple manual entry and re-entry of the same indicators into PRACE 4. Now, our proposal is to develop a national single platform for data on land degradation with integration of all specialized agencies. Kazakhstan, for example, has already created its own digital land resource platform. Uzbekistan is establishing its own national forest and pasture monitoring system. Kyrgyzstan land map of resources and so there have been good examples also in Turkmenistan, in Tajikistan also. In Russia, powerful scientific basis exists to develop such data and coordinating such data. Now a third problem is a lack of qualified specialists and the complexity of the price for interface. Now many specialists on the ground aren't that familiar with GIS and with remote sounding. The price for interface notwithstanding all its merits is still difficult to use. And so we're calling the secretariat and donors to maybe organize a series of regional workshops in the local languages on how to work with PRAIS4, Trends Earth and ground-based verification systems. We also support introduction of a easy user friendly mobile interface to collect data. in situ. A fourth problem is a limited reflection of national indicators. The global methodology doesn't always reflect our own specific processes when it comes to salination, wind erosion, shifting sands or mountain pasture degradation. So we propose supplementing the mandatory three global indicators with optional national indicators, for example, using spectrum analysis of salination, grass species composition, and also fixed sands, surface area of fixed sands. countries in the region are ready to present their methodology and pilot results we call on the convention secretariat to include in the reporting manual a section on using national indicators as baselines. Colleagues, reporting should be an important practical guidance instrument that is why we call to introduce a multi-level system of oversight verification of data with the participation of states, but also independent experts and local communities. We urge the CRIC to recommend to COP17 the following solutions. First of all, consolidate a combined approach using global and national data as the standard. to direct the secretariat together with its partners to develop a technical assistance program on creating national integrated data platforms for the Central Asia countries. Thirdly, organize regional workshops on price for GIS and remote monitoring with translation of materials into Russian and in the national languages. Fourth, encourage use of additional national indicators, creating a repository for them within the CCD website. And here at our COP 17, this has already been raised, the use of AI. Since we are in the business of land, water, making ecosystems more healthy, we should point out that using AI might not be such a bad thing. It's, it's so, you know, it might affect farmers. So when it comes to using AI, we need to know the risks and we, and sufficiently upstream properly regulate AI for using artificial intelligence. Thank you.

I think the representative of Kyrgyzstan. I now open the floor for representative of parties and observers who wish to make a statement. Please press the microphone button if you wish to make a statement. Delegations are requested to keep their statement concise and limited to five minutes. I now give the floor to the Dominican Republic.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, distinguished delegates, excellencies. Dominican Republic is honored to participate in CRIC 24 implementation of the convention. And this is the first time that we're taking the floor at COP17. We express our sincere gratitude to the government of Mongolia for its great hospitality and thanks also to the secretariat for their dedication in organizing this session. Being a island nation highly vulnerable to climate change, desertification, land degradation and recurring droughts, The Dominican Republic reaffirms firmly its commitment to effective implementation of the Convention. We would stress that we've made progress with establishing our national, our LDN targets. Nevertheless, desertification land degradation and droughts continue to exercise growing pressure on our ecosystems and productive sectors. Therefore, effective implementation of the convention is essential. My delegation would like to express its support for the intervention made on behalf of GRULAC. We stress the urgent need to have access to adequate financing to enable us, the parties, especially the most vulnerable, like SIDS, to be able to implement transformative, effective action on the field. Therefore, we call for mobilization of resources and facilitating access thereto as part of our responsibility as a party to the convention and to the national reporting system. Dominican Republic submitted for review its sub indicators one, two, and three corresponding to strategic objective one, which is a goal, an opportunity to strengthen our information system, improve understanding of land degradation dynamics, and guide more effectively our national action. The Dominican Republic reaffirms its firm commitment to strengthening international and regional work. We support the continuation of dialogue between the parties and efforts to strengthen follow-up processes, reporting, implementation of the convention to respond to the realities and national capacities and needs. We reiterate our willingness to contribute constructively to this process. with a shared vision of moving towards healthy, productive and resilient lands for present and future generations. Thank you.

I thank the Dominican Republic. And I now give the floor to the representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Microphone to IGO please.

Thank you Madam Chair and congratulations on the opening of this session. IUCN thanks the government and people of Mongolia for their hospitality and the Secretariat for the preparations that brought us here. IUCN's partnership with the UNCC has deepened considerably in recent years with the renewal of our MOU between the two organizations that was formalized during UNEA in December 2025. IUCN welcomes the multi-year work plan for the conventions institutions, which sets out four years of work against a results-based budget and makes it considerably easier for partners to see where programming reinforces the secretariats rather than duplicating it. We hope parties will treat it as a planning instrument and not only as a reporting one. We welcome in particular the commitment to scale up land degradation neutrality target setting and to promote integrated land use planning as the means of embedding those targets in national planning. IUCN is implementing the GEF project on integrated land use planning that the global mechanism executes directly supporting 18 countries and we are committed to bringing what we learn from it back to this committee. We welcome the conclusion of this committee's last session that a forward-looking capacity building strategy should align with the framework that follows 2030. IUCN offers the expertise of our commissions and our secretariat to this work, particularly on ecosystem assessment and on restoration monitoring that the current reporting cycle will ask of parties. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, IUCN. I think we have heard the last speaker as part of the opening segment. So I now invite the Committee to turn its attention to the adoption of the agenda and organization of work as contained in document ICCD/CIC/24/1/Rev.1. Are there any comments? May I take it that the Committee wishes to adopt the provisional agenda? I hear no objection. It is so decided. We now turn to the tentative schedule of work as contained in the annex of document ICCD/CRC/24/1/Rev.1. I now give the floor to the representative of UNCCD.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. distinguished delegates I would like to inform the committee that at its meeting on 15 August 2026 the Creek Bureau agreed to propose an amendment to the schedule of work following the adoption of the agenda the committee is invited to first consider sub item 2A review of the report of the CRIC at its 23rd session before proceeding to sub-item 2b, multi-year work plan of the Convention institutions and subsidiary bodies, and sub-item 2c, performance of the Convention's institutions and subsidiary bodies. This adjustment is proposed to avoid overlap with the consideration of the same item on the CAU agenda. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank the representative of the UN City. So may I take it that the committee wishes to approve the tentative schedule of work as orally revised on the understanding that the schedule of work may be further revised by the Bureau as necessary? I hear no objection. It is so decided. May I take it that the committee wishes to conclude its consideration of agenda item 1a? I hear no objection. It is so decided. I now invite the committee under agenda item 1 entitled organizational matters to turn to the establishment of the contact group and the appointment of its facilitator. The Bureau of the Conference of Parties has proposed the establishment of the contact group on matters related to the committee. It is my understanding that Mr. Charles Lang of Kenya has been proposed as facilitator of this contact group. May I take it that the committee wishes to establish the contact group and to appoint Mr. Lang as facilitator? I hear no objection. It is so decided. Please be advised that the first meeting of the contact group will take place tomorrow 00 p.m. in the room MET-12. The Committee has thus concluded this stage of its consideration of item 1. I invite now the Committee to begin its consideration of agenda item 2 entitled Effective implementation of the Convention at national, subregional and regional levels, and its sub-items A to C. The documents before the Committee are listed in today's journal and in the app. We will first consider sub-item A, entitled Review of the report of the Committee for the review of the implementation of the Convention at its twenty-third session. I now give the floor to I now open the floor for representatives of parties and observers who wish to make a statement. Please press the microphone button if you wish to make a statement. I see no request for the floor. We are, there's a request from the floor. I guess it's from the civil society organization. Oh yes, I see your flag now. Thank you, sorry. I give the floor to the nameplate 309 for the microphone, but please state your name before delivering your speech. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. My name is Fauzia Noor. I'll be delivering the statement on behalf of civil societies. Distinguished delegates, we appreciate the GRIIC's effort to strengthen accountability, monitor progress, and support UNCCD implementation. However, success must be measured not only by policies, reports, and strategies, but by results on the ground, like restored ecosystem, resilient livelihoods, empowered communities, fulfilled human rights and improved living conditions. We call on parties on six key priorities. First is to strengthen community-centered implementation. National action programs and land degradation neutrality targets must ensure meaningful, structured, and inclusive participation through planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Communities are partners, knowledge holders, land stewards, innovators, and implementers, and therefore they should be included in decision making. Second, transform capacity building into long-term empowerment. Investment must support local leadership and governance systems. It also must integrate indigenous traditional knowledge, youth innovation, and gender transformative action. Capacity building must also recognize and elevate knowledge generated and handled by communities themselves. Third, We also call upon the improve of local access to implementation resources. We urge parties and relevant institutions to create more inclusive financing pathways while realizing the rights of communities to pursue their own self-determined economies. Fourth, strengthen regional cooperation and knowledge exchange. Land degradation and droughts cross borders. Regional platforms should promote cooperation, knowledge exchange and partnerships on agroecology, restoration, scientific and indigenous practices, local solution, ensuring vulnerable regions shape global implementation. Fifth, strengthen accountability and transparency. Monitoring must ensure social outcomes alongside quantitative indicators, including resilience, equality, participation. Lastly, we call for more funding to reach local communities. We are concerned that environmental funding is declining. Parties must commit at the highest level to increase funding and make it directly accessible to local communities and also organizations. Excellencies, our message is clear, restore the land, but also restore the voices of the people who protect the land. Let COP17 put communities and local solutions at the heart of implementation. Thank you.

I think the representative of the civil society organizations. I do not see any requests for the floor, so we have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of sub-item A. We will now turn to sub-items B, entitled Multi-year work plan of the Convention's institutions and subsidiary bodies, and C entitled Performance of the Convention's Institutions and Subsidiary Bodies. I will give the floor to the Secretariat to introduce the related reports.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and good afternoon, distinguished delegates. I am very pleased to present to you some key points of the UNCCD work plan for the next year. and the document on the performance of the Secretariat and the Global Mechanism in the biennium 2025-2026. But before going to the content, let me present some matters concerning the documentation and the organization of work. The Secretariat has, for the first time, submitted to this COP an integrated programme budget. In other words, the budget document now contains also the main content of the work plan, including an indication of the cost of the achievement of the expected results. Unlike in earlier years, we have not prepared a separate document for the work plan to avoid duplication. Nevertheless, in line with the terms of reference of the CRIC, We continue informing the CRIC of the work plan and performance of the Secretariat and the GM as has been done earlier. They are an important component to the consideration of the overall performance of the UNCCD, which is the main task of the CRIC. As usual, the results presented by the Secretariat would be considered at the Budget Contact Group, which is convened under the Committee of the Whole. Now, I would like to move to the content. So let's start with the performance highlights as presented in document ICCD COP 17 INF 4. That document shows that in the 2025-2026 biennium, the Secretariat and the GM managed to achieve important results in terms of advancing cooperation and partnerships for implementation, involving new stakeholders and gaining media attention among other things. To mention just a few examples, LDN is advancing. 116 countries, which is basically two thirds of countries of the world, have completed their national voluntary land degradation neutrality targets. 22 projects to implement action toward those targets, which were prepared with support from the GM, were approved for implementation. The total financing of these projects is approximately $1.48 billion. Another example, the ecological, economic, and social value of rangelands is increasingly recognized. One major contributor for that has been the Silk Road Caravan that has reached at least 200 million people online. Partnerships that will provide effective means to implement proactive measures for drought resilience building are starting to be in place, including the International Drought Resilience Alliance, the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership, the International Drought Resilience Observatory, and most recently, the Drought Resilience Investment Facility. We are witnessing a massive rise in the involvement of non-governmental stakeholders. Over 300 private sector entities are registered to the Business for Land process, including some major global companies. The lodging of the caucus of indigenous peoples, the caucus for local communities, is well underway. The number of non-state actor applications that applied for accreditation to the COP is growing fast. For COP16, we received 437 applications, while for COP17, we had already in June more than 890 applications. These were just a few examples of the concrete achievements that we have delivered jointly in the last years. The 2025-2026 biennium has not been marked only by many major achievements. The Secretariat and the GM have also had to deal with an increasing uncertainty of the ability to continue delivering important achievements due to the unexpected shortfall of core budget contributions and the resulting decline in some key human resources. Out of the 45 staff that we have under the core budget, the Secretariat and the GM have had to freeze five to avoid overspending their resources. This has taken a heavy toll on the UNCCD staff that has remained. many of whom have assumed duties that go far beyond their job description and exceed any normal working hours. This is not a sustainable approach. Now, let's have a look at what we are planning for the coming years. The Secretariat and the GM propose a work program for 2027-2028 that combines targeted action with enhanced efficiency. Priorities remain focused on the interlinked agendas of land and drought, brought forward through expanding stakeholder involvement and increased organizational effectiveness. Securing soil health for the production of adequate and affordable food and for a variety of industries is a defining priority that shapes efforts for protecting and restoring land. We hope to further advance measures and collaboration to protect and restore rangelands and to maintain and improve the productivity of agricultural lands. LDN remains the key tool for the implementation of the Convention and integrated land use planning in refining and preparing the LDN targets will support the use of various measures within a comprehensive coordinated framework. No lives should be lost to drought in the 21st century and the UNCCD is the prime tool for advancing that aim. We plan to continue bringing forth the partnerships and other forms of support that will enable countries to implement effective, proactive measures for addressing drought. Meeting the UNCCD aims for land and drought mitigation cannot be done via public funding and government actions only. Other stakeholders will need to take an active role as well. For 2027, 2028, the Secretariat and the GM are proposing measures and collaboration to strengthen private sector engagement from two perspectives. First, making it easier for private companies to invest in protecting land and mitigating drought impact by reducing investment risks, and two, advancing policies that prevent or reduce unsustainable approaches. The involvement of other key stakeholders, including women, youth, civil society organizations, local communities, and indigenous peoples will be facilitated. And lastly, we will continue enhancing the efficiency of our own institutional performance in 2027, 2028, recognizing that the global economic situation is likely to hinder the availability of additional resources. Particular attention will be placed on exploring the potential of further digitalization of our key processes and using artificial intelligence. Thank you for your attention.

I thank the representative of the UNCTAD Secretariat. I now open the floor for representatives of parties and observers who wish to make a statement. Please remain, please press the microphone button if you wish to make a statement. I see no request for the floor. We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of sub-items B and C of agenda item 2. Before adjourning this meeting, I wish to remind participants that the next meeting will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 18th of November of August rather at 10 a.m. in the plenary hall. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you.