COP31: Upscaling country-led dryland solutions across the Rio Conventions through the Dryland Forest Support Accelerator (DFSA)
©FAO/COP31
Antalya, Türkiye - 9 November 2026 - Country representatives and partners at UNFCCC COP31 highlighted the need to scale integrated, country-led approaches for the sustainable management and restoration of dryland landscapes, building on cooperation through the FAO Committee on Forestry (COFO) Working Group on Dryland Forests and Agrosilvopastoral Systems and the GEF-7 Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Impact Program (DSL-IP).
The special event, Thriving Drylands: Scaling Country Solutions at the Climate, Land and Biodiversity Interface through Rio Synergies, was co-organized by Türkiye (UNFCCC COP31 Presidency) and FAO and brought together high-level representatives, technical experts and partners to examine how practical solutions can contribute simultaneously to climate action, biodiversity conservation, land restoration and resilient livelihoods.
Opening contributions from Türkiye, Vice-Chair of the COFO Working Group, Zimbabwe, Chair of the COFO Working Group, and FAO emphasized the importance of coordinated approaches across sectors and the three Rio Conventions. Opening the event, Abdulkadir Polat, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Türkiye, addressed common challenges and misconceptions surrounding drylands, as well as the pressing barriers affecting the nexus between the Conventions, including land degradation, biodiversity loss, climate vulnerability, integrated dryland management, financing, institutional and policy constraints, and opportunities for enhanced cooperation and scaling up solutions.
Nabil Gangi, FAO Deputy Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia, underscored the importance of drylands for food security, resilient agrifood systems and livelihoods, highlighting the need to advance healthy ecosystems, healthy communities and resilient agrifood systems together underscored the importance of drylands for food security, resilient agrifood systems and livelihoods, highlighting the need to advance healthy ecosystems, healthy communities and resilient agrifood systems together.
A technical roundtable brought together countries engaged through the COFO Working Group and the DSL-IP, featuring shared experiences and evidence good practices from Türkiye, Malawi, Mongolia, Tanzania, Namibia and Kenya. The examples covered integrated landscape restoration, climate-resilient agriculture, sustainable rangeland management, forest-based livelihoods, restoration-based bioeconomy approaches and invasive species management. Together, this rich evidence base and country experiences demonstrated that solutions already exist across different dryland contexts, while highlighting the institutional, technical, policy, market and financing conditions required to overcome remaining barriers and replicate and upscale these solutions.
The discussions also pointed to the Call to Action on Dryland Forests and Agrosilvopastoral Systems launched during COFO28 and the evolving Dryland Forest Support Accelerator (DFSA) as avenues for translating country priorities and proven approaches into more coordinated support and action at scale.
Türkiye announced that it will organize a technical workshop of the COFO Working Group on integrated dryland management, as a first step towards translating Rio Convention synergies into action, drawing on the country's practical field experience and the capacity of its International Forestry Training Center. These follow-up avenues will strengthen country cooperation, knowledge exchange and integrated approaches across the climate, biodiversity and land agendas and reinforce the COFO Working Group's role in strengthening implementation on the ground, country cooperation, knowledge exchange and the links between implementation and the climate, biodiversity and land agendas.
Follow-up will focus on carrying the event's key messages into the Rio Synergies discussion on 17 November, exploring technical cooperation and tailored interventions with Türkiye and other interested countries, and maintaining the visibility of dryland forests and agrosilvopastoral systems across future Convention processes. Cooperation will also continue through the COFO Working Group including its fifth session to be hosted by Zimbabwe in 2027, in conjunction with the DSL-IP Global Gathering.
For more information, contact: [email protected] and [email protected]
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