3.1. To increase the accessibility and effectiveness of ecosystem service and climate finance [6], Parties are called to recognize and adopt decisions that (1) evaluate [7] the environmental protection activities of nomadic peoples, local residents, herders, and Indigenous Peoples in terms of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, soil protection, biodiversity conservation, water regulation, monitoring and policy engagement, and risk reduction of drought and dzud; (2) link it to financial mechanisms such as the Global Environment Facility, the Green Climate Fund, and the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund;

3.2 Financial mechanisms should be directed toward supporting the adaptive capacity and sustainable livelihoods of local communities vulnerable to drought and land degradation. Social protection policies and services that strengthen the adaptive capacity of herders, women, children, youth, and older persons vulnerable to drought and land degradation risk should be recognized as an integral part of sustainable land management. Policy-making should take into account the impact of drought and land degradation on people’s psychological wellbeing, livelihoods, and the sustainability of local development;

3.3. Guarantee social protection and adaptation measures. Any drought protocol or framework document adopted at COP17 must include adaptation measures and social protection provisions targeted at herders, local communities, women, children, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities and other minority groups in vulnerable situations. In particular, the caregiving burden and household-level vulnerability borne by herder women, and food security should be taken into account;

3.4. Establish a direct, accessible financing mechanism. Global investment needs $2.6 trillion by 2030, but the $12 billion raised in the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership has a significant gap compared to the $355 billion needed annually, with the private sector contributing only 6%. We therefore call for drought financing mechanisms to include low-barrier mechanisms that local herders, women, youth, older persons, and civil society organizations can access directly. Given the persistent gap between the investment needed to address land degradation and drought globally and the actual financing, the accessibility, efficiency, and local-level reach of existing resources should be increased;

3.5. Direct green investment toward the restorative capacity of nomadic pastoralism. Nomadic pastoralism is a vital system for protecting dryland ecosystems, mitigating land degradation, sequestering carbon, and supporting local livelihoods. Therefore, green investment, technology, and innovation support directed towards nomadic pastoralism and sustainable grassland management should be increased;

3.6. Provide financing to support local communities’ livelihoods and mental health. Drought and land degradation are not only environmental issues, but human livelihood and mental health issue as well. We therefore propose that funding should prioritize supporting the livelihoods of herders and local communities, particularly young herders, as well as local opportunities for sustainable livelihoods and psychosocial support. This will provide a pathway to reducing forced migration, strengthening local resilience, and improving sustainable land management;

3.7. Ensure the benefits of restoration are fairly shared. Policies that ensure equitable access to economic benefits from restoration, reforestation, and green jobs for women, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, and local communities need to be supported. Financial and technical support for increasing herder women’s income and for micro and small businesses that process and market livestock products will help diversify livelihoods;

3.8. Strengthen the participation, financing, and oversight capacity of civil society organizations. To ensure the implementation of Decision 5/COP.16, financing to support civil society participation should be increased. Furthermore, the process of establishing Indigenous councils demonstrates that meaningful participation requires not only political will, but also tangible financial support for participation, representation, and capacity building. Therefore, it is important to establish mechanisms that allow civil society organizations to monitor, oversee, and participate as observers in the commitment, disbursement, and access of international funding;

3.9. Support the participation of older persons and traditional renewal. Recognize elder herders, elder women, and older persons in local communities not only as those at risk, but as responsible custodians of the land and decision-makers, and support initiatives to document their traditional knowledge of pasture use, restoration, and water protection and to pass it down and hand it on across generations;

3.10. Integrate the voices of diverse social groups into policies. Include mechanisms in the documents to be adopted at COP17 to attend to the human rights concerns of women, children, youth, old persons and other minority groups affected by desertification, land degradation, drought, and incorporate these concerns into policies, especially in social, and gender sectors;

3.11. Strengthen systems for collecting and analyzing data disaggregated by sex, age, and other social indicators. In line with the COP16 gender decision, gender and human rights assessments should be conducted to improve sex- and age-disaggregated data to reflect the differential impacts on women, men, youth, ****persons with disabilities, ****older persons ****and other minority groups when assessing the impacts of land degradation, drought and desertification; Such information will provide a more foundation for evidence-based policy development.

3.12. To make the principle of supporting women herders and youth leadership effective in sustainable pasture rights and their management [8], Parties are urged to recognize and adopt decisions to: (1) increase the participation of herder women in decision-making by at least 40 percent; (2) develop youth leadership and expand their opportunities for choice; (3) mobilize and pass down the traditional knowledge and experience of elder herders; and (4) make access to digital-technology-based information an integral part of policy;

3.13. Integrate social diversity and differential impacts into policy. Drought, land degradation, and desertification do not affect everyone equally. Herder women and men, youth, children, older persons, local communities, persons with disabilities and other minority groups experience these impacts differently and face distinct risks and needs. This Statement therefore does not prioritize one group over another, but instead seeks to recognize these differing needs, experiences, and vulnerabilities, and to ensure they are fully and equitably reflected in policy, planning, and financing decisions.

Source:

[6] GEF-8 Programming Directions; Green Climate Fund Strategic Plan; LDN Fund

[7] Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; TEEB; IPBES; FAO Rangelands Atlas

[8] COP14 Decision 24/COP.14; COP15 Decision 24/COP.15; Gender Action Plan; UNCCD Gender Action Plan (2023)