Summit opens in Ulaanbaatar
The 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is being held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 17 to 28 August under the theme “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.” Representatives of 196 countries and the European Union are taking part, as reported by Africa News and RFI.
Africa News described the meeting as focused on restoring degraded ecosystems, strengthening drought resilience and securing funding for the countries most affected by desertification. The talks come as land degradation threatens food production, water supplies and livelihoods, while Mongolia’s drylands face pressure from drought, overgrazing and desertification.
At the opening on 17 August, speakers warned that existing restoration pledges were not being translated into action quickly enough, making funding and measurable projects a key test for the summit, Africa News reported. The ceremony also featured an approximately 11-minute Mongolian cultural programme including ceremonial dance, the long song Erkhem tör, khoomei throat singing, and the presentation of a khadag scarf by performers associated with the Grand Theatre of National Art.
RFI noted that the bi-annual desertification talks have gained greater prominence amid recent heatwaves and wildfires, citing NASA figures that North America, Africa and Asia all experienced their hottest July on record.
Scale of land degradation
Multiple outlets stress that desertification is not the physical spread of deserts but the slow degradation of fertile land. RFI and AllAfrica report that the process affects about 40 percent of the Earth’s land surface and that around 100 million hectares of healthy land become unproductive each year.
RFI further reported UNCCD-linked estimates that desertification and land degradation directly affect the lives of some 3.2 billion people and cause economic losses of about $880 billion (€758 billion) a year. The same outlet cited a UNCCD estimate that restoring degraded soils costs roughly $1 billion a day, and that about $2.6 trillion is needed by 2030 to repair degraded land, halt desertification, protect against drought and restore soils.
In Mongolia, host of the summit, 77 percent of the land has been degraded through desertification, according to RFI. Under a Mongolian initiative, the UN General Assembly has declared 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, the same outlet reported.
Riyadh partnership and the financing gap
A central agenda item is the operationalisation of the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership, established at COP16 in 2024 under Saudi Arabian leadership. Under that partnership, countries and institutions pledged $12 billion (€10.3 billion) over seven years to help 74 vulnerable countries deal with drought and land degradation, according to RFI, AllAfrica and related coverage.
RFI underlined that the pledged sum remains small beside the multi-trillion-dollar need estimated by the UNCCD. Sandra Rulliere of the French Development Agency told RFI that every dollar invested in restoring degraded land returns between $7 and $30.
The Ghana News Agency, citing UNCCD Executive Secretary Yasmin Fouad in remarks to MENA, reported that a main COP17 objective is to move from discussing plans to financing projects, continuing work launched in Riyadh on drought, land restoration and business investment, especially for Africa. Businesses currently account for about 6 percent of global investment in land restoration, Fouad said according to that report. A financial package aimed at supporting local communities and the private sector on rangelands was scheduled for launch on 24 August. Other priorities listed include technology transfer, workforce training, and linking drought management with climate and biodiversity on a dedicated conference day.
Egypt has completed its national drought management plan and is thereby eligible for funding through mechanisms being established at COP17, the Ghana News Agency reported. A special mission is due to visit Egypt in September to meet local companies, and the African Business Forum in El Alamein is scheduled for 2–4 October 2026.
Causes, science and agroecology
In extended interviews carried by RFI and syndicated via AllAfrica, Jean-Luc Chotte, a soil expert at France’s IRD and chair of the French Scientific Committee on Desertification, said desertification refers to the deterioration of soils’ physical, chemical and biological properties in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid climates—areas where farmers and herders still live—making the everyday sense of the term misleading. He distinguished aridity, a long-term climatic condition, from drought as an exceptional period of water scarcity.
Chotte attributed land degradation mainly to human misuse of land—including ploughing, monoculture, excess fertiliser and loss of soil organic matter, as well as overstocking—worsened by climate change. RFI’s broader summit coverage similarly linked pressure on land to climate change, deforestation, poor farming practices and monocultures.
Since COP16 in 2024, France has been officially listed as a country affected by desertification. Chotte told RFI that France’s Mediterranean arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid zones represent just under 2 percent of French territory, of which about 0.14 percent is degraded on the three UNCCD-recognised indicators; on those indicators, 3 percent of mainland France is degraded. With expanded indicators covering erosion, metal pollution, biodiversity loss, vegetation decline, salinisation and landslides, he said 77 percent of soils across France are degraded.
On the Great Green Wall, Chotte said the Sahara is hardly advancing at all and that the project has not fully lived up to its ambitions. He pointed to agroecological efforts including Senegal’s Dytaes initiative launched in 2019, Faidherbia albida practices in Diohine, Sustain Sahel work, and projects in Ethiopia, as well as documentation tools such as the FAO Tape tool and IRD’s Bio Functool. He said COP16 in Riyadh ended without agreement mainly because states could not settle the role of drought within the UNCCD convention, a point also reflected in the AllAfrica syndication of the interview.
Indigenous and community demands
On 20 August, around 50 Indigenous representatives and civil-society activists protested in Ulaanbaatar, Africa News reported. They called for greater recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and a more meaningful role in negotiations on land degradation, drought and desertification for Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, local communities, women and youth, rather than confinement largely to side events. Protesters also sought greater recognition of traditional knowledge and argued that a dedicated Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities Caucus would have limited value without meaningful influence on formal decisions.
Perspectives
UNCCD leadership, as conveyed by Executive Secretary Yasmin Fouad through the Ghana News Agency, frames COP17 as a shift from plans to financed projects, with emphasis on drought, land restoration, rangelands, private investment—especially for Africa—and links to climate and biodiversity agendas.
Scientific voices represented by Jean-Luc Chotte in RFI and AllAfrica stress human land-use practices as the primary driver of degradation, clarify definitions of desertification and drought, and promote agroecology and soil organic matter recovery, while describing political disagreement over drought’s place in the convention as the main obstacle at the previous COP.
Indigenous representatives and civil-society activists, as reported by Africa News, demand formal negotiation power and rights recognition for communities whose livelihoods depend on land and grazing, beyond side events or a caucus without decision-making influence.
Opening speakers at the summit, according to Africa News, pressed governments on the gap between restoration pledges and delivery on the ground, casting funding and measurable projects as the practical test of the Ulaanbaatar meeting.