Rural Loop at UNCCD COP16
At Rural Loop we are thrilled to have the opportunity to organise and facilitate the side event "Connecting Science to Practice –Engaging Rural Communities to Take Action Against Desertification" at the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Riyadh. The COP16 will bring together 197 Parties to accelerate land restoration and drought resilience.
During the event, RURAL LOOP will moderate a roundtable discussion with representatives from COMMONLAND, SEKEM and SAE INNOVA involved in the PRIMA-funded FARMS4CLIMATE, a project that has been promoting sustainable agricultural solutions in the Mediterranean for the past three years.
Tristano Bacchetti
(SAE Innova)
SAE Innova will discuss its leading role in the EU Carbon Farming Summit, highlighting the need to embrace the broader view of sustainability beyond carbon, and its role in supporting Living Labs under the Soil Mission.
Willem Ferwerda (Commonland)
Commonland will present its holistic landscape restoration model, highlighting how its multi-stakeholder approach has been successfully implemented across various ecosystems to drive long-term land regeneration.
Ricardo Beck
(Rural Loop)
Ricardo Beck, president of Rural Loop, will facilitate the roundtable.
Thoraya Seada
(Economy of Love)
Economy of Love is a carbon credits certification for smallholder farmers. Supported by Farms4Climate (PRIMA-funded), validating potential carbon schemes to accelerate the diffusion of regenerative farming in the Mediterranean.
Helmy Abouleish
(SEKEM)
SEKEM will introduce its Economy of Love carbon farming scheme, which incentivises sustainable agriculture and ecosystem restoration in Egypt's desert landscapes.
Event details:
Title:
Connecting science to practice - engaging rural communities to take actions against desertification.
Date and time:
Dec 5 - 09:00 a.m – 10:30 a.m (Local time - GMT+3)
Thematic Focus:
Climate finance and multi-actor dialogues in the agricultural sector as an approach to combat land degradation and desertification.
The event aims to showcase success stories on how to bridge the gap between scientific innovation and practical, on-the-ground solutions for rural communities facing desertification and land degradation. The roundtable will highlight the crucial role of establishing and nurturing multi-actor collaborations in developing and deploying sustainable, regionally adapted land management practices. Importantly, climate finance represents a growing opportunity to scale out nature-based solutions that contribute to combat desertification while removing greenhouse gases. However, it is increasingly evident that focusing on carbon is not enough to have land managers committed to practice implementation. In order to promote actions on the ground, current carbon standards need to be able to promote social and environmental co-benefits that are valued by farmers, and metrics and indicators to report these to financiers are needed.
Based on the experience of the experts of this roundtable, it is evident that standards that cover climate, environmental and social benefits are likely to better support rural communities in taking actions.
By linking these diverse initiatives, the event aims to contribute to COP16's goals by promoting strategies that accelerate land restoration, build drought resilience, and enable farmers to adopt regenerative practices. Rural Loop, as the central facilitator, will ensure that the discussion connects scientific research with practical solutions, offering a platform for knowledge exchange and the development of actionable pathways for desertification mitigation in line with the UNCCD's strategic objectives.