Join WOCAT at the UNCCD COP14 from 2-13 September, New Delhi, India in one of the 7 side events, the presentation "A global overview on sand and dust storms" or the additional "Carbon Benefits Project (CBP)/WOCAT Training: Estimating theimpact of Land Management Projects on climate change mitigation"

This new publication will be launched at UNCCD COP14 in India, September 2019 (side event: ‘LDN -restoring balance in our natural and working landscapes’, 4th September from 13:00 to 15:00hrs).

The WOCAT Symposium and WOCAT Network Meeting 2019 that was hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia and jointly co-organized with CIAT Ethiopia, WLRC and WOCAT, was a success thanks to all participants, contributors and co-organizers. At the WOCAT Symposium participants shared their knowledge and discussed about up- and out-scaling SLM and achieving LDN. The following day participants visited the Jema watershed north of Addis Ababa to experience successful SLM implementation. At the WOCAT Network Meeting invited WOCAT experts jointly reflected on the achievements and experiences in applying WOCAT in different countries, institutions and projects, and on how the future of WOCAT should look like. More information will be shared soon here on the WOCAT website.

The training on the use of WOCAT tools on 7-10 October 2019 was attended by about 23 participants from various institutions, including experts in land, agriculture, forests, rangelands and soils. The purpose of the training was to equip participants with the knowledge of evaluation and documentation of  land management practices, identifying good practices for wider scale implementation of SLM practices, making information and data available to planners and decision makers, and enhance the exchange of experiences and lessons among land users, researches and policy makers.

More than 60 delegates from five Central Asian countries gathered in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on 27 September 2019 to discuss land degradation, climate change impacts and mitigation issues of the region. The event was a joint collaboration of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the dry Areas (ICARDA) and the Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program for Aral Sea Basin (CAMP4ASB), led by the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC). WOCAT presented its engagement in evidence-based decision support for SLM and emphasized what it can offer to the ‘Central Asia Climate Information Platform’ (CACIP).

The side event focused on Transitions of shifting cultivation in South and South-East Asia - Challenges and opportunities to achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN). Policy-makers, development practitioners and farmers shared their views on how shifting cultivation can contribute to LDN and agreed on the need to establish a community of practise on the topic.

In joint collaboration with Conservation International, CONICET, Both ENDS, ISRIC, Sustainable Land Management Associates, CIAP and FAO, WOCAT has contributed to four different papers on Land Degradation Neutrality.The papers highlight the relevance of SLM for achieving LDN, the use of standardized global methods and tools and using their synergies for assessing and monitoring LDN, and the enabling conditions and environment to further the implementation of LDN.