NEW YORK, JULY 5 – “As a result of the global health emergency, the world is facing an unprecedented crisis, which has deep roots in the health conditions of our planet. This crisis requires to restart with an enhanced spirit of collaboration, being aware that safeguarding the planet must be at the center of the political agenda, the Italian Undersecretary for the Ecological Transition, Ilaria Fontana, said at the General Assembly High Level Debate on “Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought”.
“The pandemic has shown that the well-being of the humankind – also from a social and economic point of view – is closely linked to the wellbeing of ecosystems: damaging the resources of the Earth jeopardizes the quality of our lives, not to mention our survival. It is therefore essential – in our way out of the crisis – to give priority to the conservation and the sustainable management of the territory, also to strengthen food security and reduce the effects of the pandemic on poverty”, Fontana said.
For Italy, combating soil degradation and protecting the Earth from the threats caused by climate change and the exploitation of natural resources represent a central goal, which the government decided to implement in the recently adopted National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
“We aim to integrate the actions for the protection and restoration of degraded soils with measures devoted to the mitigation and adaptation of climate change, as well as with the actions for the protection of biodiversity. We therefore support “nature-based” and “land-based solutions”, and are working to integrate the fight against drought and desertification into the main sectoral plans, such as those for the management of water resources and hydrogeological systems”, explained Fontana.
At the international level, Italy has always supported the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification [UNCCD], and is the only nation among industrialized countries that joined the Convention for “Land Degradation Neutrality” since the beginning.
Soil and desertification represent another important axis of the program of the Italian Presidency of the G20, centered on the three P’s: People, Prosperity and Planet. In view of the Ministerial Meeting for the Environment, Italy decided to resume and strengthen the “Global Initiative on Reducing Land Degradation and Enhancing Conservation of Terrestrial Habitats” launched by the Saudi Presidency in 2020.
Furthermore, in line with the priority given to the Planet in the actions of cooperation for development, Italy continues to be committed to the most vulnerable countries and communities exposed to desertification, soil degradation and drought, in line with our vision for a sustainable, inclusive and resilient recovery.
In the last three years, the Italian Cooperation has financed more than 140 initiatives in these areas for over 200 million euros. The Ministry for Ecological Transition, for its part, has financed a substantial project in Sahel which will be carried out with the support of the UNCCD in Burkina Faso, Niger and Ghana with the aim of restoring territories by generating sustainable economic activities. (@OnuItalia)
