This year's theme of the International Day Against Desertification, and Drought is "Rising up from drought together". It emphasises the need of an early action to avoid disastrous consequences for humanity and the planetary ecosystems.

Rainwater Harvesting is considered a valuable water source, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas across the world. This webinars series organized by FAO/WEPS-NENA project & Water Scarcity Initiative aims to provide an overview of rainwater harvesting applications and illustrates, with country examples, the diversity of approaches. 

On May 31, Rima Mekdaschi Studer (WOCAT SLM Expert) will represent WOCAT in the 1st session of the series (M1/S1: Setting the Scene) and present the WOCAT Water Harvesting Book.  

An intensive and successful two weeks for WOCAT at the UNCCD COP15 with the theme  “Land. Life. Legacy: From scarcity to prosperity”.  Click on the link below to read about the events WOCAT participated in.  

The Sri Lanka Conservation Approaches and Technologies (SRICAT) is organizing a workshop with the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on "Documentation of sustainable land management approaches and technologies" to develop a platform among relevant government agencies, private organizations and individuals to share their SLM experience in Sri Lanka. Visit our channels for more information.  

WOCAT, ELD Initiative and UNCCD jointly co-published a policy brief on the ECON-WOCAT dataset. This new dataset on costs and benefits of sustainable land management (SLM) technologies is being launched at a time of heightened interest in public and private investments into land restoration, for example, by the United Nations (UN) Decade for Ecosystem Restoration. The ECON-WOCAT dataset consists of detailed information on the costs and benefits of more than 500 SLM technologies from the WOCAT Global SLM database. This policy brief presents the key characteristics of the SLM technologies in this ECON-WOCAT dataset and discusses the opportunities for the use of the dataset from global and national perspectives.

In line with the UNCCD Gender Action Plan (GAP) and guided by the idea to build back better, UNCCD, WOCAT and partners have developed a new gender tool to help assess how gender-responsive SLM technologies are and what needs to be done to enhance their adoption by female and male farmers and identify technology group specific profiles to show the need for action. 

This work on gender-responsive SLM is very well received at UNCCD COP15 currently taking place in Abidjan and interest is high. 

If you missed the live launch of the tool at the WOCAT side event on Monday 16 May 2022, you can still watch it by following this link.

Tenure security and responsible governance are crucial to help achieve Land Degradation Neutrality.

The technical guide as launched by FAO and UNCCD Secretariat at UNCCD COP15 and is now available!

La publication Gestion durable des parcours en Afrique subsaharienne est désormais disponible en français.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the popular perception of rangelands and their management is that these vast areas have major problems without solutions: the common narrative focuses on overgrazing, herds of undernourished livestock, erosion and desertification, drought, famine, and conflict. However, evidence compiled and analysed in this book show that such a view of rangelands – as being unproductive and mismanaged systems – does not reflect reality. It needs reconsideration and revision. The overall goal of the guidelines is to demonstrate – through a unique set of convincing case studies and their analysis as well as the development of guiding principles – the value and potential of investment in rangelands.