The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is a legally binding international agreement addressing desertification, land degradation and drought. It links sustainable land management with food and water security, ecosystems and the livelihoods of people who depend on land.

Basic Details

  • Genesis: The 1992 Rio Earth Summit called for a convention on desertification, with particular concern for Africa.
  • Adoption and entry into force: Adopted in Paris on 17 June 1994; in force from 26 December 1996.
  • Parties and secretariat: 197 Parties—196 countries and the European Union. The Secretariat is in Bonn, Germany.
  • Legal nature: A binding treaty and one of the three Rio Conventions, alongside the UNFCCC and Convention on Biological Diversity. Its national Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) targets are voluntary; these should not be confused with the treaty's obligations.

India and the Instrument

  • Membership: India signed on 14 October 1994 and ratified the Convention on 17 December 1996.
  • National planning and target: India issued its National Action Plan to Combat Desertification and Land Degradation in 2023. It supports preventive and remedial action through coordination across restoration programmes; it is a planning framework, not a separate financial-assistance scheme. MoEFCC on the 2023 plan. India has committed to restore 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030.
  • Reported progress: At COP17 in August 2026, the Government reported 21.76 million hectares restored during 2011–2020 towards India's Bonn Challenge target. This reported area does not by itself show that every hectare has fully recovered its former ecological condition. MoEFCC's COP17 update.

Aims

  • Combat desertification and land degradation: Prevent degradation where possible, reduce ongoing damage and restore affected land.
  • Mitigate drought: Strengthen preparedness and resilience in affected areas and communities.
  • Promote sustainable land management: Protect land productivity and ecosystem services through country-led plans, local participation and international cooperation.

Need

  • Desertification: Under Article 1, land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas caused by factors including climatic variations and human activities. It does not mean that every desert is expanding.
  • Land degradation: A reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of land, including cropland, pasture, rangeland, forest or woodland in drylands.
  • Drought: Precipitation significantly below recorded normal levels that causes serious hydrological imbalance and harms land or production systems.

Features and Key Functions

  • Country-led, participatory action: Affected country Parties prepare National Action Programmes suited to local conditions and involve communities. Developed country Parties commit to support implementation through finance, technology and cooperation, with particular attention to affected developing countries.
InstitutionMain role
Conference of the Parties (COP)Reviews implementation and makes decisions.
SecretariatSupports the COP and coordinates the Convention's work.
Committee on Science and Technology (CST)Advises on relevant scientific and technical matters.
Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC)Reviews implementation information and progress.
Global MechanismHelps countries mobilise resources; it is not an automatic global restoration fund.
UNCCD implementation links Parties and national action programmes with the COP, Secretariat, science and review committees, and Global Mechanism.
UNCCD implementation is country-led, while its global institutions support decisions, science, review and resource mobilisation.
  • Regional annexes: Five annexes address Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Northern Mediterranean, and Central and Eastern Europe.
  • Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN): A state where land resources needed for ecosystem functions, services and food security remain stable or improve within a defined time, place and ecosystem. The response hierarchy is to avoid new degradation, reduce ongoing degradation through sustainable land management, and reverse existing damage through restoration.
  • LDN indicators: Land cover, land productivity and soil organic carbon. The global method flags a significant decline in any one indicator as a loss in the assessment unit.
Land Degradation Neutrality hierarchy: avoid new land degradation, reduce ongoing degradation through sustainable land management, and reverse existing degradation through restoration, tracked by land cover, land productivity and soil organic carbon.
LDN prioritises avoiding damage, then reducing and reversing degradation; progress is tracked with three land-based indicators.

Significance

  • Food and water security: Healthy soils and vegetation support production, water regulation and rural livelihoods.
  • Biodiversity and resilience: Sustainable land management and restoration can protect ecosystems and strengthen resilience to drought and climate variability.
  • Implementation challenge: Outcomes depend on finance, coordination, local land rights, community participation and monitoring—not simply on adopting a national plan.
Educational illustration of UNCCD priorities: land restoration, drought resilience, sustainable land management and local communities.
UNCCD action connects land restoration, drought resilience and sustainable land management.

Source: United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).