In A First, India To Host UN’s Crucial Desertification Convention COP-14 Meet In September 2019

The Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar apprised the mediapersons on Tuesday (18 June) that India will be hosting the 14th session of the prestigious Conference of Parties (COP-14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in September 2019, reports The Hindu.

Javadekar also added that the conference will be witnessing more than 5,000 delegated from 197 nations, amassing in India between 2-14 September. The conference will be held in New Delhi.

India is bracing against a severe land degradation issue with more of its soil becoming unfit for cultivation. As a result, ahead of the aforementioned COP-14 meeting, Javadekar on Tuesday also launched a flagship project under the Bonn Challenge to enhance India's capacity for forest landscape restoration.

The project will be implemented on a pilot phase of three-and-a-half years in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Karnataka. Eventually, the project will be scaled across the nation and help to develop best practices and monitoring protocols to restore degraded lands.