Ulanbaatar (Mongolia), August 24 (ANI): At the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Ulaanbaatar, India made a strong pitch for diversified, adequate, and predictable international finance for land restoration and drought resilience, even as global stakeholders announced a USD 1.3 billion financial package centred on restoring the world’s critical rangelands.
Addressing the Ministerial Dialogue on ‘Innovative Financial Mechanisms for Healthy Land and Drought Resilience,’ the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav urged the international community to treat land restoration as a high-value investment rather than an expenditure.
“Land restoration is not a cost, but an investment in food, water, biodiversity, livelihoods and long-term resilience,” Yadav stated, outlining India’s innovative blended green-finance framework.
Yadav said India views restoration not as a standalone intervention, but as an essential component of sustainable and resilient development.
Highlighting the country’s track record, the Union Minister said that India restored 21.76 million hectares of degraded land between 2011 and 2020, generating 1.22 billion person-days of employment.
Yadav said in a post on X that he had on the sidelines of UNCCD COP17 addressed the event on Land 2030+: Linking Action, Network and Delivery — Finance, Partnerships and Livelihoods For Restoration at Scale.
“India is among the major global pledgers to the Bonn Challenge and in the last 10 years, under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi ji, we have 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 Union Minister posted on X.
Among several domestic instruments driving India’s land strategy is ‘The Green India Mission,’ which Yadav said is strengthening forest and tree cover, ecosystem services and climate resilience.
He highlighted ‘Sovereign Green Bonds’ as an avenue to mobilise capital for land restoration, drought resilience, sustainable forestry and other environmental and climate priorities.
India’s Green Credit Programme, he said enables public and private entities to finance restoration of degraded forest land. Credits are issued after five years of restoration and upon achieving at least 40 per cent canopy density, and may be used once for compensatory afforestation, statutory plantation or CSR obligations.
He also highlighted India’s Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority, through which substantial resources are being directed towards compensatory afforestation and allied ecosystem restoration activities while corporate funding is integrated by the environmental regulatory processes.
‘The Nagar Van Yojana’ for urban greening extends the restoration agenda to urban and peri-urban landscapes through urban forestry and green spaces. These efforts are complemented by watershed development, agroforestry, soil and water conservation and community-based restoration across the country, the Union Minister said.
While showcasing domestic achievements through a “Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Society” approach, Yadav cautioned that domestic capital cannot replace international obligations.
“Finance must be continuous, verifiable and connected to local communities. Ultimately, innovative finance should be judged not by its design or resources mobilised, but by whether it reaches the land, ecosystems and communities that need it most,” the Union Environment Minister emphasized.
This year’s COP is being held during the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists.
Rangelands are natural and semi-natural grazing ecosystems that include grasslands, savannas, shrublands and open woodlands. They cover 54 per cent of the Earth’s land surface and support 500 million pastoralists, while providing ecosystem services, biodiversity and cultural and natural heritage.
During the Ministerial Dialogue at the COP 17 held on August 24, which was designated as Finance Day, innovative financial mechanisms brought together high-level representatives of the World Bank Group, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Investment Bank, Islamic Development Bank, GEF and Green Climate Fund to advance finance for land restoration and drought resilience.
The high-level discussions coincided with the release of a global report titled “Rangelands Rising: Investing in Sustainable Management and Restoration,” produced jointly by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), GIZ, UNCCD, IUCN, and the ELD Initiative.
The report highlighted that ‘Rangelands’ generate an estimated USD 21 trillion – USD 47 trillion in benefits every year, but remain largely overlooked in land and climate finance.
It estimated the annual economic cost of land degradation is about USD 300 billion and warned that this cost will increase if action is not taken.
The study revealed that private capital as of 2025 accounts for just 6 per cent of global funding directed towards combating land degradation, emphasizing the urgent need to redirect blended finance toward pastoralist ecosystems.
The COP17 unveiled a USD 1.3 billion pipeline and new finance package spanning 23 countries across five continents.
Key highlights of the announcement include the ‘Rangelands Flagship Initiative’ representing the core of the funding currently valued at USD 1.2 billion across 45 projects. It is the largest single mobilisation for rangelands in the Convention’s history as per a official release by the UN.
Host country Mongolia introduced a national Business4Land (B4L) Hub, set a 10 per cent green lending target by 2030, and established a national green taxonomy.
Russia launched a parallel B4L hub, Luxembourg established a Business4Land Foundation and Germany funded the B4L Finance Expert Group.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) committed $3.3 million toward the UNCCD COP17 Legacy Project to coordinate the flagship initiative. (ANI)
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