UNCCD CSO Panel: Civil Society Reflections on COP17 - Press Conference, UNCCD COP17

Now, good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. My name is Ana Dipan Gracio from Fundacion Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, an NGO accredited to the convention based in Argentina, a member of the DryNet network. It is my pleasure to moderate this press conference organized by the UNCCD CSO panel. We call this press conference No Hope Without a Voice. As COP17 approaches its conclusion, we want to reflect on what has advanced, but also on what has been left unresolved till now. Well, this very moment. This COP has given us reasons for hope, but also reasons for serious concern, given objections by individual parties preventing key issues from being included in the adopted agenda, including gender, civil society participation and synergies with other conventions. These are not peripheral issues, they go to the heart of who participates, whose knowledge counts and whose rights are recognized. Negotiation requires us to address differences, not avoid them. Multilateralism requires parties to sit together, listen, engage and seek common ground. Today, we will hear perspectives from indigenous peoples, local communities, women, youth, pastoralists, and science across different regions, because there can be no effective convention when those most affected remain at the margins of decision making. So let us begin with indigenous peoples whose rights, territories, and knowledge are fundamental to the implementation of this convention. And it's my pleasure to introduce to you Deborah Sanchez from the Rights and Resources Initiative in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Deborah, why must indigenous peoples have a meaningful seat at the decision-making table and what is lost when they.

Do not? Please go ahead.

Greetings in the language of the Miskito people, my people. My name is Deborah Sanchez and I'm from the Miskito communities in the eastern coast of Honduras. And I'm the director of the Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative, a global funding mechanisms of the Rights and Resource Initiative coalitions of indigenous peoples, local community and Afro descendants. We must have a seat in the table, but having at seat on the table needs to be meaningful, effective participation in actual decision making. We demand this because we belong to the land and we know what is needed to restore both land and hope. Above all for the people who are calling those lands home, mother, sister, spirit and wisdom. This must include the recognitions of Afro-descendant peoples as collective right holders under the convention, something already done in CBD and UNFCCC, as well as the strengthening and formalization of the indigenous peoples, local communities, genders, and youth caucuses. What is urgently need is clear, establishing secure and flexible tenure and mobility rights, Again, for indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant peoples, local community pastoralists, mobile peoples, and community women and youth. Establishing land and customary governance rights for all communities as a formal standing agenda item within the UNCCD. Recognize that customary institution as implementer actors of the land degradation neutrality commitment and direct recipients of implementation funding. Mandate free, prior and informed consent as a meaningful consultation as non-negotiable precondition for all the projects or practice on traditional communal lands. Require due process and compensation mechanisms for indigenous peoples under any of the systems of the convention. And establish flexible, direct and fit for funding mechanism. again for indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant peoples, local community, pastoralists, herders, mobile peoples through the whole system. And I'm repeating myself a lot, the constitutions, because if we are not being set, we don't exist. So we need to mention all the groups that we are belonging to. During the high level event segment on the finance, we heard about the finance gap. 278Billion for addressing the certification land degradation and drought within this gap. The level of finding that is reaching the communities directly the direct stores of the line is even broader. The secretary should work with the parties. to ensure all financial measures respect the rights of communities and establish funding targets for direct access to funding, again, for indigenous peoples, local communities, pastoralists, Afro-descendant peoples, women and youth. We keep hearing this is the COP of implementation, but real implementation requires direct funding, political will, and secure tenure rights for the very people who have been implementing solution in the ground from millennials. Through Clarify, we are working along with 101 indigenous, local community, Afro-descendant, pastoralist, women and youth-led partner organizations across 29 countries. And we have already advanced tenure across 1.81 million hectares, formally secured tenure rights in 950,000 hectares, positively impacted 1.6 million people, and restored roughly 15,800 hectares of degraded land. We have achieved all this with our formal seat on the table, relying on the tiny fraction of climate finance that actually reaches. Imagine what we could do if the funding goes directly, if we have a genuine dedicated funding for us. We cannot achieve land degradation neutrality without indigenous peoples, without local communities, without youth, without women, without herders. And let me conclude with a testimony. In the Seppe, a small coastal village in Cameroon, where women are been working the land, working to get food in the table, they were never able to really secure the land rights. But now we have revitalized and restored all the indigenous knowledge. And 35 women actually received 100 hectares through a concept that is called Legale. In the Basa language, Legale translates to give her the field. Legale means a public declaration before the ancestors. A father or husband spoke that and no one can undo it. No one can even undo it after death. That's for us, our present in court. 17 is the legally is the public declaration that we are here and we are going to remain present until we take a rightful seat on the table. Thank you.

Thank you, Deborah, for your remarks. Let me now move to Gansham Panday from Green Foundation in Nepal, Asia. Asia and let me take the opportunity to extend our solidarity to the people of Nepal and China during this difficult time due to the avalanche and landslides and to the loved ones of all those who lost their lives from different countries. Local communities are also living with and responding to land degradation and drought every day. Why is excluding or ignoring local communities dangerous, not only for the communities themselves, but also for the legitimacy and quality of the decisions taken by this convention?

Thank you very much for this opportunity and also the solidarity to overcome our painful situation that we are having in Nepal. Actually, we have lost the hundreds of the peoples in Nepal and China because of this, the cause of the glacier, the melting and the flood. And in this situation, I would like to thank all the civil society organizations UN agencies and all the government, all our friends here who express the solidarity to us. The second point that I would like to thank the government of Mongolia and the UNCCD Secretariat for inviting local communities along with other right holders here to put our voice to be heard. I really would like to thank you for that. I'm Ghanashyam Pandey. I'm chairperson of the Green Foundation Nepal. I represent the local community also from the Global Forum of Local Community and Climate Change and many other alliances related to the local communities. So, I think regarding to your concern, why the voice of local community need to be heard, because, you know, local community, indigenous people, and other forest right holders, have already contributed and have great contribution on the restoration, on the conservation of their ancestral land, their forest since long time. For example, in Nepal, we have restored our mountain during 1970, our mountain was grey, there was no more tree, our land was so degraded and there was hue and cry that Nepal is going to lose many things because of that. But once the government of Nepal has recognized the role of the local community in participation in the conservation, in the restoration in the mountain, through the community forestry initiative in Nepal, we have been able to restore 2.2 million hectares of forest. Now our land changed from gray to green. Our mountains are no more gray. Now we converted our land in green. So that's why we have already shown the important role of the local communities, indigenous people, youth, women, farmers, pastoralists that have already contributed on the conservation, on the restoration land. Then our question is, why you are not hearing our voice though we have already contributed to the conservation restoration and now you have to reward us recognize us and bring us together in table and to hear not only voice but you have to agree on our choice we want to have our own choice we do not want to have the only hearing not doing any action but we need to be together to be heard and also consider what we want to really in our ground. So that's the first point. Then the second point is all about the I would like to express the thanks to the UN Secretariat, especially the co-presidency, for recognizing us as a group under local community caucus here. So that has also encouraged us and give the platform to put our voice to be heard in the coming days. Then third is some call for actions, that the five key point I would like to call for action on behalf of local community. I agree with Deborah's points here. The far most important thing for us, farmers, pastoralists, local community, indigenous people, You need to recognize our rights over lands, the land tenure rights. Without securing land tenure rights, we cannot protect our land, we cannot protect our forests. So there need to have the legal binding instrument from global to the national and local level to secure the rights of these peoples, that indigenous people, local community, pastoralists, farmers, along with women and youth. The second is they need to have the support, dedicated finance to strengthen the alliance of the right holders peoples, the farmers, women, youth, local community to build their capacity, to build their advocacy capacity to raise their voice and also put together, thus building the alliances of these right holders, we need to have the dedicated finance to support that. Not only that, we need to have the dedicated finance. We have been hearing not very good way that the synergy between the Rio conferences, Rio conventions. For example, we have lost many things in Nepal this time because of the climate change that has impact on loss of biodiversity, that has impact on the loss of the land degradation, and finally the loss of the people's hope. That's why they need to have the synergy between these three conventions together, climate change, biodiversity and desertification together. And that has the, for the local community, we do not have only one hand and other hand. We need to have the integrated approach that belongs land, water, forest or life, culture, everything together there. I would like to call upon all the parties here in COP17 to recognize the importance of the synergy and that can help us to fight the problem that we are facing at the global level. Then last point is, if you recognize us, then we will be together as and the future will be happy. If you don't recognize us, then we will not be happy, then the future will not be happy also. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Kanchung, for your words. Let me now go to our colleague, Yes, Weigel from TMT Think Tank for Sustainability in Germany. Yes, gender was one of the issues prevented from being considered as an agenda item at this COP despite years of work under the convention. Why are equal land tenure rights for women fundamental to addressing land degradation and what is at stake when gender is pushed out of the negotiation agenda? Thank you.

Thank you, Anna, for the question and thank you all for attending this press conference. I think there's two parts, two answers to your question. I think the why has been aptly answered by Deborah and Gancham. Without secure land tenure, inclusive, sustainable, and gender just land management or land transformation will not be possible. I think this is clear, and I think there have been various side events throughout the COP that have clearly shown the evidence that exists to make this case. And I think what is very important to remind parties at this stage of the negotiation is that since COP 14, parties to the UNCCD have adopted far reaching decisions on land tenure that place specific emphasis on the needs of women and girls. Decisions at COP 15 and 16 have further substantiated and further detailed this initial decision. Now COP17 suddenly shows the fragility of this progress. There are two days left to negotiate, give and take, and I checked this morning, and as far as I know, not a single decision has been adopted so far. The current draft of the land tenure decision, for those of you who have access to it, you can see that all the specific reference to women and girls is currently bracketed by one party. And it's somewhat absurd that this cop makes me emphasize that it is crucial that parties to the UNCCD proactively address the specific capacities of needs of women and girls in all its decisions. Now, with two ways left to negotiate, there are two points that I want to make and come to your second question, Anna, on what needs to be done. With regard to the land tenure decision, I think it's key that the current reference to women and girls, both under the national plans to combat land degradation, desertification, and drought are being maintained, brackets being removed. And the same applies to the process that was begun by the UNCCD and FAO on the national consultations to inform on land tenure to inform these national plans. Most importantly though, and speaking more specifically about one party that objected to the agenda items on gender, civil society and synergies, I think It is the obligation of parties to make sure that these agenda items are included in the program of work for COP18. And the way to do so is to secure an explicit COP17 decision that names these agenda items on gender, civil society, and synergies in the program of work for COP18. In case a single party should object to this inclusion, we call on parties to call for a vote. We understand that this is a precedence, but a vote is the only way to ensure that the majority's position of parties is recognized in this COP. And we believe as much as this is a precedence, it is the only way to respond to the unprecedented behavior of one party to undermine consensus driven process that characterizes the UNCCD so far. Further, with regard to the presidency, we call on the presidency to work with the parties to ensure that this is a procedural vote, which establishes a single majority and not a vote on the substantive matter. To conclude, 2026 is the triple COP year, and I think it's important that I would like to conclude on a more general note. This COP has shown that we have not been prepared to respond to the destructive behavior of one party. And I think as civil society throughout these two weeks, we have shown that we are capable and willing to work with parties to secure this precious multilateral space. And I think I can speak on behalf of all of us if I extend the invitation to seek the discussion with us because we are here to work with parties to secure the space. Thank you very much.

Thank you, yes, for your intervention. And now let me introduce Batnrel from Breathe Mongolia NGO. We are meeting in Mongolia, but the decisions made here will extend far beyond this COP and far into the future, Batnrel. Why does meaningful youth participation matter now? And what should this convention do differently to ensure young people can actually shape its future? Please go ahead.

Thank you, Anna, for the wonderful question. Also, thank you for all of you here coming here and then listening us over the panel. I just wanted to add a bit of reflection about COP17 here, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. We had a bit of, this is our relatively new process to us for as a Mongolian civil society organization, as well as Mongolian youth. I can tell that as from the youth, we are fully engaged in the process of COP17 here. We are not, we're seeing different sides of different negotiation, different dialogues, different discussions. We have this high expectations for all these platforms as much as here, as UNCCD. But we are seeing all those different problems or miscellaneous that we are hearing here. And let me tell you what youth, especially from Mongolian youth, is actually doing here or engaging in the process. As we're doing a translation, for example, as much as local community caucuses, indigenous people caucuses, gender caucuses, all of these beautiful people are coming together and have trying to solve this one problem, trying to solve on one agreement here. We're trying to give out our own resolution to the people, the parties. However, because of our language barrier, because of our differences, we have seen that some of our parties or some of our participants are not able to voice their like statements, the voice, what they're actually thinking are more expressive. So in those instances, for example, we are doing our translations. We're making sure everything is making on point. Everything is, we're on the same point. We're on the same page. And those are the facilitative processes we're doing. And another thing we're doing is also the CSO network here. As much as I mentioned about the language barrier here, we're doing like more coordination between the CUSO panel to the UNCCD, also the Mongolian CUSO network here. We're making sure every, when the information are the same page, we're delivering all of the information, we're delivering all the statements, we're making sure our voices are not left behind. And also another point is that if you look around this press conference room, you see all of the young young people youth here volunteering with us making sure this conference of parts of 17 are making sure it's running smoothly that we all can have this one dialogue. We can all have this one resolutions with the one who are making sure. Things are running crew. Those people are volunteers could be studying right now, but however, we chose to be here. We are here to not sit down. We show our love. We should be care. We care about this environment. We are not here to sit down and just, you know, not participate at all. We're that's how we are engaging as much as we doing for next. Two years, for example, I don't think, um, Mongolian, for example, Mongolian, you just not gonna sit down and not going to, um, just, I think we're all going to show what we can do as you and much as much as much as more, uh, meaningful participation here. I'm just like telling that. I just wanted all of the round of applause for all the volunteers out there. It's a new academic year to the Mongolia happening now, but however they're here, they could be preparing for their own study, but they're here because we are showing that we care about the earth, we care about our land, we care about our future here. So I just want to say that we are here with you, we want to take care of this earth, we want to take care of, we're not just don't, regard us just because we're youth. Just, you know, we're just showing, we're being here, we're existing or being present here, showing that we're ready to engage, we're ready to negotiate, we're ready to participate. Thank you.

Thank you, colleague. Let's now move to Marijana Kapovic Solomun. from CSO Mother Nature from the Central and Eastern Europe region. Science is fundamental to this convention, but science does not exist in isolation from other knowledge systems. So Mariana, why must policy be grounded in science and how can scientific evidence work together with indigenous tradition and local knowledge to produce better decisions? Thank you.

Thank you for this opportunity to talk today. It's great pleasure to be here in Mongolia and I'm going to speak as a scientist who is following the UNCCD convention for more than let's say 15 years. I was serving as a UNCCD SPI for four years, so let's say back to that time and even today my personal opinion is that science is not the cloud that serves for itself. So science and scientific let's say achievement must touch the ground. So in that regard, I will give my personal reflection on this COP because we have faced for the first time that many important parts of the society, of global society has been removed from the agenda, including CSO, gender, strategic future framework, et cetera. So somehow I think Yes, science is very important, but science serves to people and science needs to engage local people, communities to help them to restore land and restore hope. So if we don't have CSOs and people on board as equal partners to help us how to transfer our, let's say, researching results and our knowledge to the ground, then who will do it? who will restore the land. Somehow, I think that we need more and stronger connection between scientists, even science policy interface and CSO and local people, because we need you, we need us to work together. I will give just one personal example how we became consumers from year to year. We are consuming more than we need. Back to the tradition and back to the indigenous, let's say, practices and traditional knowledge. My grandmother, my mother, my father, they're living in countryside and they're producing 10 times less, let's say, waste than my family in the city. So, and somehow we are trying to be modern, we are trying to do different things that our ancestors did 100 years ago. So my personal opinion, even though I'm a scientist, I'm traveling, I'm working on the research, I have some scientific results, but if we forget traditional knowledge, if we forget our people who lives on the countryside, and if we don't actively engage them through the CSOs, we cannot hope that we will restore land and restore our hope. So I would like to leave more space and room for the questions. That would be, let's say, the brief what I have to say in this occasion, but I'm open to all questions you have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mariana. And now our last but certainly not least speaker. Naseryan Kirokor from the Nomad Child Foundation in the African region. COP17 takes place during the International Year of Rations and Pastoralists and has brought unprecedented attention to rangelands and pastoral communities. Naseryan, why has this COP been particularly important for pastoral women and indigenous peoples and why do you hope parties will carry forward from Mongolia into future COPs? Please go ahead.

Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. I would like to start by saying thank you to the government of Mongolia firstly for hosting us, the pastoralists from all over the globe. That was really important. And coming to this COP, this COP is particularly very important to the pastoralist community because it brought the perspectives of the indigenous and pastoralist communities into the global policy discussions. So that is really important to us because the world is getting a better understanding of pastoralism, not just as a kind of a practice, but it is learning the pastoralism as livelihood and how these people relate to or how these people helping to restore land degradation, droughts, and indigenous knowledge that has been sustaining them for years. So yeah, this is very important to us. And We didn't just come here just as pastoralists. We came here because we have solutions. My hope when I was coming all the way from Kenya is that I'll move out of this coop with solutions back to my community. So yeah, we came here not just to participate, not just as delegates, but we came here to represent millions of communities and we expected to move out of here with solutions with not recognition because pastoralists also have concrete solutions. They know how to restore land. They have been dealing with droughts for years, since time immemorial. The indigenous knowledge has been guiding them on how to live with nature, with land. And also, when it comes to land, I expected this COP to bring solutions to land rights, land tenure, and how these people can be included in this conversation because they also have they have they have solutions to all the questions we're asking in this cop. Yeah. So yeah it was such an important turning point for us and we are all hopeful. You see our faces here. We've been doing a lot of declarations protest. It's because we expected solution in this cop. And so my hope is still, I still have hope that I'll move out of here in the next few days remaining, that I'll move out of here with all of us coming into a conclusion. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Sayeed. Thank you very much to our speakers, to the journalists here today and everyone following this press conference. I would like to close by recalling some of the central messages from CSOs and several networks here. The foundations built through this convention must be protected and strengthened, not weakened. What happened at COP17 so far should therefore concern us. Beyond the fate of individual agenda items, it raises a broader question about the kind of multilateralism we want to defend. Disagreements is part of multilateralism, but negotiation means addressing differences, not avoiding them. Removing difficult issues from discussions cannot become a substitute for negotiation. The UNCCD is a vital social contract between governments and the people whose lives and livelihoods depend on healthy land. And that social contract requires dialogue, trust, rights, and meaningful participation. So let's, COP17 be a reminder that progress cannot be taken for granted. What has collectively been built must always be collectively defended. And now we would like to open the floor and see if there is any question. Please introduce yourself and your media outlet and let us know who you would like to address your question to or if it is a general question for speakers to take. Thank you.

I thought he was ahead of me. Okay, good afternoon. My name is Mohamed Yusuf from Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Watch, an NGO based in Kenya. and a member of a coalition or alliance, but an alliance. Okay, first thank you for giving me this opportunity just to echo our voice and concern as far as civil societies is concerned. When we are here as civil societies, we are not here for just be at the periphery, but we are here also to provide solutions, technical, sustainable, managerial solutions. I was not happy when we were told that the agendas or the voice of the indigenous or CSOs were not captured in the discussions. I thought and I believe this COP17 was meant for the pastoralists and indigenous community to showcase how they manage, they conserve, they protect the range line and they restore. So it was necessary to consider also their agenda or their demand. So, I'm saying now in summary, let us continue from there and become organized, constituent or civil society organization. However, we have been at the mind, let us not just wait and things will happen. We need to come up with a concerted collective voice we don't want just to leave it we are not here just to come and show no this is an international this is an opportunity and this is places are there because of us we are part and parcel of this cop 17 we are not just people who are dictated our terms our demand must be considered thank you very much.

Thank you colleague for your remarks Yes, there is another one here. At the back.

Hello, good afternoon. My condolences goes out to the Nepalese delegate and what has happened in Nepal. My question, I have two questions. The first is, have you spoken with the party that has objected to the agenda item? And have you also gotten any reasons why objections for their Have you gotten a reason for for their objections? Yes.

Yes, colleagues. And you?

Oh, excuse me, sorry. My name is Anon Tumorto. Uh I'm from the Mongolian National News Agency, Montsamma, yes.

We can take another question and then go to our speakers. Please. represent yourself and question briefly.

Good afternoon. And thank you for our panelists for that informative discussion. My name is James Ore from Kenya. I represent an organization called Rebuilding Pastoral Livelihoods. My question is as much as we have been keenly listening to all our discussions about indigenous people, pastoralists, but I don't know where where we have placed fisher folks, communities which are fisher communities because I have not had in this discourse about fisher community and sometimes things are lost if they are not mentioned also in that but I don't know whether they are within the indigenous community but you know you need also to segregate indigenous communities according to their So that's the question I wanted to ask. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any of the speakers I would like to take the first question? Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you for your question. I have not personally, but members of the network have. and it was very clear that there were clear orders from unspecified higher authorities within the administration to adopt the stance. And most importantly, I think this is relevant for the presidency, that also additional terms such as gender or climate change will be objected in all other decisions. And this is, I think, where our call for the presidency comes in to adopt a clear stance with other parties to adopt this decision. Thank you.

Any other speaker that would like to speak on the Mongolian question? No. Okay, so we go to the second question.

Yeah, maybe in the first questions, we have been spoken to many of the parties and we are being having many high level events for local community and also for indigenous peoples where we have heard very clear voices from the secretariat, from the country host, from everyone expressing that they, their concern and expressing how is not So I will say not acceptable for only one party to block all the agenda on this item. So yes, our call is the same, right, to call for the secretary to really make actions in this and we can leave the COP with some decisions and the agenda items move to COP18 at least. So that's the solution that we have been talking to the parties.

I think, um, thank you. Uh, the first part has already responded that we have talked to many, uh, the, uh, uh, forums through caucus, high level dialogue, and also the… individually with the parties, but some are more supportive, some have reservation, so still they need to have more dialogue and I would say they need to officially recognize that our voice should be together. Our choice should be hard, and that makes more sense why we are here. So second, I would like to thank for your solidarity in this Nepal painful situation, and I would like to call all the colleagues. civil society, government, UN agencies to support us in this crisis, not only the immediate support, but from what happened in Nepal, because it's not isolation, it has combined together the climate change, desertification, biodiversity, livelihood, all goes together, so there need to have an integrated approach and whatever happened that has direct impact in the people's life. So therefore, we call all the parties on behalf of Nepal, on behalf of local community across the world to synergize all the treaties. Only the agreement not in the paper. Now agreement should be in the action, action that need to strengthen local communities, indigenous people, pastoralists, farmers, fisher folks, women, young, scientists and that need to be together. And then the second question about the local community, we have the local community caucus through the global forum of local communities and climate change and that has the self identification process and that has to be based on the land, forest, fisheries, the dependent local community, forest users groups, pastoralists along that, and also it needs to have a strengthen together. And the final point that I would like to put here, the multilateralism or the multistakeholder process needs to be strengthened. not only among the civil society and forest right holders, but among all the parties, all the researchers, civil society, media, together to fight the challenge that currently we are facing, the crisis of climate, crisis of justice, and the crisis of the loss of biodiversity, desertification. So if we want to have the good future, there is no way to go together. So they need to have a greater alliance, stronger solidarity among all the right holders, stakeholders, including parties. Thank you again.

I would like to add a comment on what my brother Yusuf mentioned, is that Recognition for the pastoralists and indigenous people is no longer enough. We need implementation. The demands from pastoralists and indigenous peoples are clear. We need meaningful participation in decisions, protection of our collective land rights, and direct access to climate finance that actually reaches to our communities. I specifically want to highlight the pastoralist women because I come from the Masai community. We are pastoralist indigenous. The intergenerational knowledge that we carry about water, livestock, and landscape management is in the folklore. It is a living science, and it belongs in policy design. Looking ahead, the next few days, the momentum from International Year of Rangelands cannot just end when this year ends. We need to stop treating pastoralists merely as vulnerable victims of climate change and start recognizing them as leaders who already hold solutions. Thank you so much.

Thank you, colleague. Any other question from the media? If not, we thank you all for joining us today. Let's continue working together to keep our voices at the center of global land policy. Thank you very much.