WCC leaves COP17 in Ulaanbaatar with the same land question

WCC leaves COP17 in Ulaanbaatar with the same land question

valter

Thu, 09/03/2026 - 17:21

For 11 days in Ulaanbaatar, the World Council of Churches (WCC) made one argument in five different events: degraded land will not be restored without the communities who already hold it. It closed on 25 August, with churches in front of investors, then farmers.

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Group picture with participants of the WCC side event on Agroecology and Farmer-managed natural regeneration.

Photo: Mongolian Presss Agency

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the treaty to address land degradation and drought, met in Mongolia from 17 to 28 August for its 17th Conference of the Parties (COP).

On 22 August the WCC held an official side event on faith communities as partners in land restoration. Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food, presented the Living Planet Monitor, the WCC's land restoration evidence base, which he edits. The argument for restoration, he said, is only as strong as the data behind it.

The morning of 25 August began in the Business for Land Pavilion. Faith organizations hold roughly 8…