CGIAR and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) signed a memorandum of understanding at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, on 12 November, to work together on sustainable land management, land restoration and drought resilience.
The agreement sets a framework for linking CGIAR's agricultural research with the UNCCD's work and with countries' efforts against land degradation. It follows CGIAR's part in the UNCCD's COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, in August 2026, where researchers, governments, farmers, pastoralists and finance partners met. CGIAR says a recurring message there was that many solutions already exist, and that their impact depends on joining up knowledge, finance and local action across whole landscapes.
CGIAR's Multifunctional Landscapes Science Program, part of its 2025-2030 research portfolio, will lead its side. The programme studies how decisions on individual farms interact with water, rangelands and forests, and how governance, markets and finance shape what land users can do; through its Living Landscapes it tests farming and restoration practices with communities, governments, producer groups and businesses.
Under the memorandum, CGIAR can, on request, give scientific and technical advice to the UNCCD's Science-Policy Interface and its Committee on Science and Technology. The two also plan joint policy dialogues, knowledge sharing and training, including through the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) consortium, and cooperation with the UNCCD's Global Mechanism to help countries set and monitor land degradation neutrality and drought targets.
CGIAR lists the kinds of work this could support: assessing land and soil conditions, finding where restoration would pay off most, judging drought preparedness and comparing land management choices. Research on rangelands and pastoral systems, for example, can link evidence on grazing and water with herders' livelihoods and local governance.
The organisations aim to turn shared priorities into biennial workplans in the run-up to the UNCCD's COP18 in Egypt.
Source: CGIAR
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