Convention to Combat Desertifi cation (UNCCD)

• Established in 1994.
  Secretariat: It has been located in Bonn,
• Germany since January 1999.
  It is the sole legally binding international
  agreement linking environment and
  development to sustainable land
  management.
• It is the only convention stemming from a direct
  recommendation of the Rio Conference’s
  Agenda 21
• To help publicize the Convention, 2006 was declared
• International Year of Deserts and Desertifi cation.
• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the nodal Ministry for this Convention.

In News

• The COP-14 to the UNCCD was hosted by India in New Delhi.
• The theme of the Conference was ‘Restore land, Sustain future’.
• India took over the COP Presidency from China for the next two years till 2021.
• India is among the select few countries to have hosted the COP of all three Rio conventions on climate change, biodiversity and land.