17 june 2019: World day to combat desertification
17 June 2019 is the World Day to Combat Desertification, launched by UN to celebrate the adoption Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Paris in 1994. This year it marks the 25th anniversary of the Convention. The theme chosen is "Let's grow the future together”.
The celebration is an occasion to celebrate the 25 years of progress made by countries on sustainable land management, and, at the same time, to look at the broad picture of the next 25 years where to achieve land degradation neutrality.
Italy ratified the UNCCD in 1997 (Law 170, 4 June 1997) with the dual role of donor country and country affected by desertification. Our country is participating to the programme launched by UNCCD to target setting and adoption of Land Degradation Neutrality – LDN, adopting the methodology and the standards proposed by the UNCCD and required by the United Nations indicators for the target 15.3.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals - SDG. This methodology is based on the analysis and evaluation of three indicators:
- Land cover and land use / land use change
- Status and trends in soil productivity
- State and trends of organic carbon content in soil (SOC)
In the framework of the activities promoted by the Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea, ISPRA has developed and analyzed these indicators, in collaboration with CNR and CREA. More activities concerning the updating of land degradation status in Italy, are in progress, according to these methodologies and utilizing more detailed data available at national level, and with the integration of specific assessments for our territorial context elaborated by ISPRA and SNPA, such as land consumption, fragmentation of the natural areas obtained trough of the most advanced technologies and methods for earth observation, including those develop Copernicus plastics.
ISPRA also expresses the Scientific and Technical correspondent of Italy at the UNCCD and actively participates in international negotiations in the framework of the UNCCD in support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea. It also represents the developed countries within the Bureau of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention, a subsidiary body of the UNCCD.
The global event this year will be held in Ankara from 17 to 19 June 2019, Turkey. An ISPRA researcher will participate with a presentation on "Assessing desertification through soil biomonitoring".