Saudi Arabia and UNEP start World Surroundings Day strategies to combat desertification and restore degraded lands

Riyadh, 28 April 2024 – World Ecosystem Working day (WED) 2024 host, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Nations Ecosystem Programme, (UNEP) have introduced campaigns to overcome desertification, restore land and develop drought resilience ahead of world wide WED celebrations on 5 June in the country’s funds Riyadh.   

”Now is the time to act on commitments to avert, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation” said Elizabeth Mrema, Deputy Executive Director of UNEP, launching the world campaign at a Saudi Natural environment 7 days occasion in Riyadh. 

”We are the 1st technology to now totally fully grasp the huge threats to the land – and could possibly be the last one particular with a probability to reverse the program of destruction. Our precedence now have to be on restoring ecosystems – on replanting our forests, on rewetting our marshes, on reviving our soils,” she extra. 

Both of those campaigns will winner leadership in restoring land and place the highlight on the Kingdom’s commitments at property and across the region to combat local climate adjust by regreening and rewilding huge swathes of arid and semi-arid lands. Saudi Arabia is top the G20 World-wide Land Initiative launched through its G20 Presidency in 2020 and will also host the biggest-ever UN conference on land and drought in Riyadh from 2-13 December 2024 – the 16th session of the Convention’s Convention of the Events (COP16). 

In March 2019, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring 2021–2030 the UN 10 years on Ecosystem Restoration. This Entire world Surroundings Working day aims to guidance accelerated progress on these commitments, with Saudi Arabia’s campaign connecting with the theme of COP-16, ‘Our Land, Our Upcoming’, and the ‘We are #GenerationRestoration’ slogan of the UN Ten years on Ecosystem Restoration. 

Globally, countries have pledged to restore just one billion hectares of land – an place larger sized than China – by shielding 30% of land and sea for character and restoring 30% of the planet’s degraded ecosystems. Championing the 2030 Agenda of shifting the planet on to a sustainable and resilient path and signing up for forces to guard men and women and world, Entire world Surroundings Day 2024 will contribute to setting up momentum for weather action by rallying help for vital ecosystems restoration operate.  

World Natural environment Day, marked on a yearly basis on 5 June, was proven by the United Nations Normal Assembly in 1972. In excess of the earlier five decades, it has developed to be a person of the most significant worldwide platforms for environmental outreach, with tens of millions of individuals collaborating on the internet and through in-human being things to do, events and actions around the earth. 

NOTES TO EDITORS  

About the UN Surroundings Programme (UNEP) 
UNEP is the major world-wide voice on the surroundings. It offers leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to boost their high quality of life without the need of compromising that of future generations. 

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