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हिन्दी — Read in HindiLand degradation, desertification and drylands
Desertification and land degradation: the convention and its neutrality goal, India's restoration target, the atlas that measures degraded land, and drylands and watersheds. Prelims has asked why the Convention to Combat Desertification matters.
Foundation note: Land degradation: the convention, the Atlas and the neutrality target
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United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
Copy link to United Nations Convention to Combat DesertificationPrelims and Mains
LeadLand restoration and drought: UNCCD COP17August 2026
Why in news
The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification met in Mongolia in August 2026, with drought at the centre. India presented its second Bonn Challenge progress report and launched its first guide to grasslands and other open natural ecosystems.
- 26 million hectaresIndia's pledge to restore degraded land by 2030
- 21.76 million hectaresbrought under restoration in 2011 to 2020
- 29.77 per centof India's land under degradation
Background
- Desertification is land degradation in dry areas, caused by human activity and climate variation; it does not mean the spread of existing deserts.
- The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was adopted in 1994 and has 197 parties.
- It is one of the three Rio Conventions, with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
- Its central goal is land degradation neutrality: restoring as much land as is degraded, so that there is no net loss.
- India hosted COP14 in New Delhi in 2019, where it raised its restoration pledge to 26 million hectares.
What COP17 was about
- The theme was "Restoring Land. Restoring Hope", and the focus was resilience to drought.
- India asked that drought be planned for as a predictable risk and not met each time as a disaster.
- It called for restoring catchment forests, so that a landscape holds its water for longer.
- Land degradation affects up to 40 per cent of the world's land.
India's report card
- The Bonn Challenge is a global pledge to restore degraded and deforested land, and India's commitment under it is 26 million hectares by 2030.
- The second progress report puts 21.76 million hectares under restoration between 2011 and 2020.
- The Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas still shows 29.77 per cent of the country as degraded.
- India named the Green Credit Programme and sovereign green bonds as ways to pay for restoration, and pointed to about 25,000 community sacred groves, such as the orans of Rajasthan.
Grasslands are not wastelands
- Open natural ecosystems are grasslands, savannas, scrub, ravines and deserts.
- Many are still recorded as wastelands, so they are handed over for plantations, solar parks and other projects.
- A grassland is not an unfinished forest: species such as the great Indian bustard live only on open ground, so planting trees there destroys habitat.
- India's first Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems, launched at COP17, is meant to change how these lands are classified and managed.
The way forward
- Reclassify open natural ecosystems in land records, so that restoration targets are not met by planting trees on grasslands.
- Move drought policy from relief to preparedness: early warning, water budgeting and crop planning before the season fails.
- Count restoration by what survives, not by the area planted.
Prelims facts
- UNCCD: adopted 1994, 197 parties, the only Rio Convention on land.
- COP17 was in Mongolia; COP14 was in New Delhi in 2019.
- India's Bonn Challenge pledge is 26 million hectares by 2030.
- Orans are community sacred groves of Rajasthan.
Degrading land has had a convention of its own since the Rio summit.
- The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was adopted in 1994 and is one of the three Rio Conventions, alongside the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
- It has 197 parties.
- Its central goal is land degradation neutrality.
What changed
26 Aug 2026LeadLand restoration and drought: UNCCD COP17
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2016: the importance of the Convention to Combat Desertification
Bonn Challenge
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Restoration only becomes a policy when a country can be held to a number, and India's number is pledged under the Bonn Challenge.
- India's commitment is to bring 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land under restoration by 2030.
- The Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas puts 97.85 million hectares, 29.77 per cent of the country, under degradation.
India's restoration instruments
| Instrument | Area given |
|---|---|
| PMKSY watershed component | 27 million hectares |
| Joint forest management | 81.53 million hectares |
| Green India Mission | Not given |
| CAMPA afforestation | Not given |
| Agroforestry | Not given |
| MISHTI | 54,000 hectares of mangroves by 2028 |
Watershed development
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A watershed project treats a whole catchment so that rain is held where it falls, which is what protective irrigation later draws on.
- Watershed projects under the scheme cover 34 million ha, and 2 million ha of it has been brought under protective irrigation.
- Completed projects have a benefit cost ratio of about 2:1.
What changed
11 Sep 2026
- The Watershed Development Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY) reported its twelve year record alongside the Dryland Congress.
Also filed elsewhere
- Open natural ecosystems · on Forests, grasslands and mountain ecosystems
India's open natural ecosystems, its grasslands, savannas, scrub, ravines and deserts, are still recorded in many places as wastelands, and lose out in land use decisions accordingly.