20 February 2012: The Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Convention) has announced that, following the approval by the Standing Committee of the draft resolutions for consideration by the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP 11), the Secretariat is finalizing and translating the draft resolutions into the three Convention languages (English, French and Spanish).
17 February 2012: The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has announced the theme for the 2012 celebration of World Day to Combat Desertification. The annual event, which is celebrated on 17 June, will focus on "Healthy soil sustains your life: LET'S GO LAND-DEGRADATION NEUTRAL."
The 2012 celebration of World Day to Combat Desertification, an annual event on 17 June, will focus on the theme "Healthy soil sustains your life: LET'S GO LAND-DEGRADATION NEUTRAL". In 2012, World Day to Combat Desertification falls three days before the start of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), and the global observance is planned to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
23 January 2012: The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has reported that many innovations have been introduced in the performance review and assessment of implementation system (PRAIS) based on decisions taken at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10).
20 January 2012: In an address to the 18th session of African Forestry and Wildlife Commission and the second African Forestry and Wildlife Week, Luc Gnacadja, the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), said "Sustainable forest management and sustainable land management are the two sides of the same coin. These two requirements must be jointly implemented within policies, strategies and action programmes if we want them to be successful."
19 January 2012: The report from the Multi-National Final Workshop of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) pilot impact indicator tracking, which convened on 6-7 October 2011, in Changwon, Republic of Korea, has been released.
January 2012: The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) has issued the first fact sheet in a series titled "Building MEA Capacity for Pacific Island Countries." The document is part of an EU project on “Capacity Building Related to Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries”.
January 2012: The latest issue of UNCCD News reviews the outcomes from the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
The Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) and the Global Mechanism (GM) of the UNCCD are jointly organizing an international workshop on technology transfer between Sahel and Maghreb countries and local stakeholders, in the context of the GM's South-to-South Cooperation programme, SolArid, from 25-26 January in Tunis, Tunisia. The workshop will seek to capitalize on existing initiatives and lessons learned at sub-regional and national levels, in order to upscale potential technology transfer initiatives to combat desertification between North and West Africa, and within the sub-regions themselves. The workshop will cover: the strategic thrusts and priority actions for combating desertification and enhancing natural resource management and rural development; opportunities for sub-regional collaboration based on an analysis of the stakeholders' strengths and requirements in terms of knowledge and/or technical skills; capacity-building on resource mobilization for technology transfer; and identification of potential partners to support the identified initiatives. The event will bring together representatives of sub-regional institutions including the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), specialized organizations such as the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control (CILSS), and representatives from national ministries and development agencies.
13 January 2012: The Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has invited representatives of civil society organizations (CSOs) accredited to the UNCCD to nominate a representative to serve on the Intersessional Working Group (IWG) for the mid-term evaluation of the Strategy.
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