The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) officially opened in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, on Monday, bringing together representatives from the UNCCD’s 197 parties under the theme “Restoring Land, Restoring Hope.”
Mongolian Prime Minister Nyam-Osor Uchral, opening the conference, said desertification, land degradation and drought “transcend national borders and require a collective response,” and called for the summit to move beyond repeating past declarations toward funded, implementable action. “We need greater efforts now to turn commitments to combat desertification and land degradation into concrete action, supported by adequate financing, technology and institutional frameworks,” he said.
The programme includes four thematic days — finance, water, land and people, and food systems and soil health — alongside ministerial dialogues and multistakeholder forums on science-policy integration and technology. Land degradation affects a significant share of the world’s land, with knock-on consequences for food production, water availability, livelihoods and economic stability, according to the UNCCD.
Mongolia itself has among the highest exposure to the crisis it is hosting talks on: a recent national assessment found that 81.9 percent of the country’s territory has been affected by desertification and land degradation to some extent. The conference coincides with the UN’s International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026, an initiative championed by Mongolia, which Uchral said creates a “historic opportunity” to position rangelands as investable ecosystems — not merely degraded land — connecting food systems, nature and pastoralist livelihoods.
COP17 runs in Ulan Bator through August 28, with governments and stakeholders working toward decisions and partnerships to accelerate land restoration financing and strengthen drought resilience.
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