UNCCD COP17 Events

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When: 17 - 28 August 2026

Where: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will be hosted by Mongolia under the theme Restoring Land. Restoring Hope.  

UNCCD website
Host country website

Pre-COP

  • Webinar | Road to COP17: Advancing Youth Engagement in UNCCD Processes

    10 July | 14:00-15:00 CEST

    Location: Zoom (Online)

    Co-organizers: UNCCD, UNCCD Youth Caucus

    The first session of 4 Road to COP17 webinar series will explore how young people can meaningfully contribute to global efforts on DLDD. Rather than focusing on technical UNCCD structures, the conversation will build understanding around why land governance discussions directly affect young people and why participation in COP17 matters.

    Register here

Week 1

  • Side Event | Soil Data and Evidence for Land Restoration

    21 August | 18:00-19:30

    Venue: MET-03, Blue Zone

    Co-organizers: CA4SH, Landscape Alliance (ICRAF), Norad, GIZ, Varda, Alliance Bioversity-CIAT, YPARD, K4GGWA, 4per1000, ATREE, IUCN, Emerging Ag, IRD, WOCAT

    Credible, accessible soil data is needed to deliver on land restoration commitments. This session brings together innovators across field assessment, citizen science, and open-data platforms to show how soil evidence translates into decisions at every level, from national reporting to farm-level action and investment.

  • Side Event | Regenerative Agriculture for Land Restoration and Healthy Diets: Closing the Finance Gap

    22 August 10:30-12:00

    Side Event

    Venue: MET-01, Blue Zone

    Co-organizers: CA4SH, Landscape Alliance (ICRAF), EIT Food, AOFH, YPARD, 4 per 1000, WBCSD, WWF, SNV, Ambition Loop, Climate Champions Team, Alliance Bioversity-CIAT, RF, WHH, GFAR, EDF, EAFF, Regen10, YOUNGO, GIZ, 1AF

    Scaling regenerative agriculture requires more than proven solutions. It needs financial and institutional pathways that work for different actors. This session presents progress on the Plan to Accelerate Regenerative Agriculture, exploring how soil health investments deliver returns across landscapes and value chains through public-private partnerships, concessional finance, and policy alignment.

Week 2

  • Official Session | Connecting Food and Soil Health Breakthroughs: Towards Shared Metrics

    27 August | 09:00-10:30

    Venue: MET-24, Blue Zone

    Co-organizers: UNCCD, Ambition Loop, CA4SH, Agroecology Coalition, UNEP

    Measuring progress on land restoration requires shared indicators that work across governments, the private sector, and civil society. This session contributes to a common framework for agricultural land, rangeland and soil health metrics, and culminates in the endorsement of the Land and Soil Breakthroughs under the Riyadh Action Agenda.

  • Official Session | The Power of Data-Driven Innovation for Agricultural Lands, Soil and Rangeland Restoration

    27 August | 11:00-12:30

    Venue: MET-23, Blue Zone

    Co-organizers: UNCCD, CA4SH, FOLU, FAO, UNEP

    Restoration commitments exist and the tools to deliver them are growing, but fragmentation and interoperability are slowing progress. This session opens with a fair of innovations, from RAIZ, AITO, IDRO, and K4GGWA Restoration Monitoring Dashboard to soil information systems and drought resilience datasets, and explores what it takes to make them genuinely work together, closing with a concrete call to action on coordination and alignment across the restoration tool ecosystem.

  • Official Session | Parliamentarians for Restoration and Healthy Soils

    27 August | 11:00-12:30

    Venue: Action Dome, Blue Zone

    Co-organizers: UNCCD G20GLI, UN Staff College, CA4SH

  • Official Session | Youth4Soil Manifesto & Celebration of International Year of Women Farmers

    27 August | 15:30-17:00

    Venue: MET-24, Blue Zone

    Co-organizers: UNCCD, Agroecology Coalition, CA4SH, FAO

    Young people and women farmers are already leading land and soil restoration across regions. This session celebrates their leadership during the International Year of Women Farmers, launches the Youth4Soil Manifesto Implementation Guide, and showcases innovations in soil health and agroecology, with particular attention to young women, Indigenous, and pastoralist youth.

  • Side Event | From Policy to the Ground: Scaling Action for Healthy Soil and Land Restoration

    27 August | 15:00-16:30

    Venue: MET-03, Blue Zone

    Co-organizers: CA4SH, Landscape Alliance (ICRAF), GIZ, UNCCD Youth Caucus, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, Save Soil, UNCCD, Ambition Loop, WWF, 1AF, WFF Global Youth Initiative, Justdiggit

    Global commitments on soil health are growing. Turning them into effective implementation on the ground is not linear. This session brings together leaders and policymakers to share lessons on soil health policy design and implementation, examine national and regional approaches, and explore the legal and governance conditions that accelerate action on the ground.

Scaling soil health must not happen in a vacuum. We need multi-stakeholder, multilateral approaches that address the Rio Conventions in tandem.

Join the Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), a global multi-stakeholder partnership of 350+ stakeholders working together to improve soil health through collective, coordinated action.

Join the Coalition