Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav today held a series of high-level bilateral meetings with South Asian counterparts on the sidelines of the ongoing 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification at Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. The conference prioritizes regional cooperation on climate resilience, wildlife conservation, and ecosystem restoration.
In a series of social media posts, the Union Minister highlighted key bilateral dialogue with Bhutan’s Minister for Agriculture and Livestock, Lyonpo Younten Phuntsho. He noted that the discussions focused on agroforestry, climate-resilient agriculture, and advancing transboundary cooperation for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration. Mr Yadav also met with Sri Lanka’s Environment Minister Dammika Patabendi to address critical environmental issues with an emphasis on preserving elephant populations, expanding capacity building, and strengthening bilateral collaboration on climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Alongside his bilateral engagements, the Union Environment Minister also addressed the Land 2030 (Plus): Linking Action, Network and Delivery — Finance, Partnerships and Livelihoods For Restoration at Scale session. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Yadav highlighted India’s global leadership as a major pledger to the Bonn Challenge. He noted that in the last 10 years, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government has successfully restored degraded and deforested land of 21.76 million hectares against the target of 26 million hectares. This demonstrates the commitment of the country to translate the ambitions into action involving stakeholders and local communities.
The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to restore 150 million hectares of the world’s degraded and deforested lands by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.
The 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is being hosted by Mongolia in its capital city, Ulaanbaatar till 28th of this month under the theme Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.
According to the UN, COP17 is expected to bring together delegates from UNCCD’s 197 Parties, alongside leaders from government, business and civil society, as well as scientists, youth, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists and smallholder farmers.
They will convene to forge solutions to the interconnected challenges of desertification, land degradation and drought, recognising that restoring land is also essential to reducing instability, preventing displacement and strengthening human and national security in vulnerable regions.
During the two-week conference, participants will engage in a high-level segment including ministerial dialogues, alongside multistakeholder forums and thematic discussions on science-policy integration, innovation and solutions, tools and technologies, and financing. In addition to formal negotiations, COP17 is expected to catalyze collective action on rangelands, resilience and water, as well as food systems and soil health.
