Indicate which actions have been carried out to implement this Resolution :
Convene stakeholders/Networking
Education/Communication/Raising awareness
Fundraising
Policy influencing/advocacy
Describe the results/achievements of the actions taken:
Education/communication/awareness raising activities from Coalition Clean Baltic (CCB) consisted of developing communication material around the nexus conservation/agriculture for education purposes in universities and research institutions in the eastern part of Baltic Sea Region (BSR) in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. Other communication and information activities relates to Water in Agriculture and Climate adaptation in agriculture in the Baltic Sea catchment. A video on: “The water is running out! Protection of water resources on agricultural land” addresses proposed measures in climate changes adaptation in the agriculture sector. An overview report of existing Flood Risk Management Plans and approaches in the Baltic countries was published in 2021. The report includes proposals for integrated Flood Risk Management Plans, development of national adaptation measures and proposals for public participation in the agriculture sector.
In 2024, awareness raising and communication activities continued. Soil degradation and artificialisation is often the result of mismanagement of land through the use of unsustainable practices of land management and restoration. Human induced degradation of land and its conversion, especially in dry areas that aree highly vulnerable to drought, has led to further degradation. This year, together with partners, IUCN published a report about better understanding the link between nature conservation and drought mitigation, and the importance to integrate nature-based solutions in drought managemeent and policies at national, regional and global levels.
Policy influencing:
CCB developed and promoted strategies to address wise nutrient resource management and supported initiatives for management of critical raw materials like phosphorus and development of markets for raw materials like organic fertilizers.
Since 2020 CCB is implementing an advocacy campaign for pesticide dependency reductions, encouraging policy changes towards ensuring that farmers apply integrated pest management based on solid agronomic practices to prevent pest build-up and on the use of non-chemical alternatives, where needed, through awareness raising and education in rural farming communities in Ukraine in 2020 and in 2021. This is to support Low Harm Farming campaign of the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, and the Pesticide Free Towns campaign of PAN Europe that aim to reduce the use of pesticides in urban areas.
Restoring land contributes to combat soil degradation and to soil health. IUCN conducted a series of regional dialogues to get countries support about increasing action to rangeland and grassland restoration; and finalised the methodology to assess grassland and rangeland health.
In 2024, the International Year of rangeland and pastoralists support that IUCN is part of published a policy brief to address the critical importance and role of rangelands in providing ecosystem services such as climate regulation, biodiversity conservation, food and water security, etc, and therefore the need to address rangeland degradation and investment. The policy brief - available on the IYRP website https://iyrp.info/working-groups - consists of calls on the UNCCD Conference of the Parties to adopt 8 priority actions to meet the challenges that rangelands and pastoralsts face.
Fundraising:
In 2022 and 2023: development of 2 GEF projects of 2 million USD each, now approved. One project is about awareness raising and building capacities of Civil society organisations to influence actions towards improving land health, under the Land Degradation neutrality Framework. The project will start in 2024. The other project is executed by UNCCD and will develop land use plans that effectively take into account principle for healthy soils, as well as gender responsive planning. 18 countries were already selected to participate in the project and benefit from capacity building actions.
In 2024, the 2 above mentioned projects are now kicking off and they will help address land degradation neutrality, which will reduce soil artificialisation and degradation in target areas.
Regarding convenings, in 2024, soil degradation issues was addressed in many international platforms that IUCN was part of, through the organisation of side events related to land restoration at the 3 Rio convention COPs (UNCBD, UNFCCC, UNCCD), the regional stakeholders' workshops on the Dryland sustainable landscape impact programme for East Africa and for central Asia. These workshops addressed dryland degradation and opportunities for restoration, and presented some of the tools that IUCN and partners developed to address soil/land health.
What challenges/obstacles have been encountered in the implementation of this Resolution and how were they overcome :
Briefly describe what future actions are needed for the implementation of this Resolution:
Some capacity building activities, e.g, on land use planning, how to effectively assess soil artificialisation, and soil degradation using new or existing tools.
Consultations with stakeholders and awareness raising will help better understand the challenges around soil degradation and artificialisation, and promote increased action and investment.
One capacity building workshop related to the LDN project will be held at the margins of the UNCCD committee for the review of the implementation of the convention in November 2023.
Influence policies through the development and implementation of strategies that include fight against soil degradation or artificialisation
Implement the 2 projects above as they will cover policy influencing, capacity building and the use of tools to assess soil degradation and then inform actions for restoration, and protection.
Are these actions planned for yet:
