Forest and land restoration

Overview

In support of the global debate for land restoration, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host the 16th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP 16) in Riyadh on 2–13 December 2024.

This event will share experience from Saudi Arabia on major forestry initiatives for sustainable land restoration and invite suggestions for the UNCCD COP 16.  Saudi Arabia is making concerted efforts to support vegetation cover improvement for sustainable land restoration at national and regional levels. The Saudi Green Initiative and the Middle East Green Initiative aim to support land restoration for protecting local biodiversity, reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainable livelihoods.

It is estimated that by halting deforestation and maintaining forests could avoid emitting 3.6 +/- 2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) per year between 2020 and 2050 (FAO, 2022). Similarly, by restoring about 1.5 billion ha of degraded lands and expanding agroforestry could support increase in agricultural productivity on another 1 billion ha.

Master of Ceremony
Saad Almutrafi
Executive Director
Media and Communications, National Center for Environmental Compliance

Opening Remarks

Muhammad Al-Ghamdi
Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Long term vision of Saudi Arabia towards land restoration particularly through implementation of Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives

Khaled Abdullah Alabdulkader
Chief Executive Officer
National Center for Vegetation Cover
Saudi Arabia

Synergies between sustainable land and forest management in the context of the action agenda of COP16 of UNCCD

Gabriel Lambert
Advisor to Deputy Executive Secretary
UNCCD

Significance of forests in agrifood systems

Zhimin WU
Director
Forestry Division
FAO

Mobilization of financial resources for sustainable land and forest management

Nature based solutions for landscape restoration

Chetan Kumar
Acting Head Forest and Grasslands
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Benefits of restoring 748 Biosphere Reserves and 213 Geoparks by fostering harmony between people and nature to prevent land degradation

Antonio Abreu (online)
Director
Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences
UNESCO