A Knowledgebase of UN and Intergovernmental
Activities Addressing Global Climate Change Policy

13 August 2008: The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has launched a new webpage on the

interrelationship between land and climate. The webpage highlights that soil

can make a difference in addressing climate change issues, and presents

information on land and climate change, land degradation and poverty, energy

security, food security, and UNCCD processes to address climate change and

soil.

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21 July 2008: The Global Mechanism (GM) of the UN Convention

to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has announced that it has been invited by the

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to join an advisory

group assisting with the development of a Carbon Fund/Facility.

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22 July 2008: The Bureau of the Committee on Science

and Technology (CST) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has

selected the ‘Drylands Science for Development’ consortium as its partner to

jointly organize a scientific conference for the CST’s 2009 session.

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21

July 2008: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has announced the

development of a new database on the world’s soils. This database seeks to

improve knowledge of current and future land productivity, as well as the

carbon storage and carbon sequestration potential of the world’s soils. Using

the database, the FAO has also produced a global Carbon Gap Map, which allows

for the identification of areas where soil carbon storage is greatest and the

physical potential for billions of tons of additional carbon to be sequestrated

in degraded soils.

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14 July 2008: On the occasion of the

Technical Workshop on Protected Areas in the Amazon, which took place from 14-16 July 2008 in Amacayacú National Park,

Colombia, the

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Ahmed Djoghlaf, outlined the benefits of reducing emissions from

deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) initiatives.

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17 June 2008: On the occasion of 2008 World Day to Combat

Desertification and Drought, celebrated on 17 June, the Global Mechanism (GM)

of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) emphasized that “the

current strategy and policy debates around climate resilience, sustainable

agriculture and food security point to the conclusion that none of these global

challenges and threats to human well-being should be tackled in isolation, but

as part and

parcel of development programming at country level, supported

by effective

international policy making processes.”

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17

June 2008: In a message on the occasion of UN World Day to Combat

Desertification, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

highlighted the role of poor farmers and herders in stopping or reversing land

degradation in areas affected by desertification.

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17 June 2008: The UN

Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) selected “Combating land

degradation for sustainable agriculture” as the theme for 2008 World Day to

Combat Desertification and Drought, celebrated on 17 June. On the occasion,

UNCCD Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja highlighted that the conversion of land

to “unsustainable uses can exacerbate the vicious circle of land degradation,

loss of biodiversity and climate change.”

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10 June 2008: A new Atlas, comprised of photographs,

satellite imagery and narrative, illustrates changes to Africa’s environment

over the past 36 years. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) launched Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment

in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 10 June 2008, at the twelfth Session of the

African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), which convened from

7-12 June 2008.

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