Mid-December 2024, the 16^thConference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification – UNCCD COP 16 for short – was forming the conclusion of a “triple COP Year” in which three important UN Conventions (UNCCD, UNFCCC and CBD) were negotiated in just three months’ time. What the three COPs have in common is that they need land to implement their targets – land that is scarce and confronted with increasingly competing demands.

Our authors and interview partners show what the impacts of insufficiently considering this interconnectedness in the Rio Conventions are like, and what has to be done to achieve more coherence in putting them into practice on the ground. Here, not only do they clarify the economic benefits of mutual action – for of course the implementation of the Conventions is above all a matter of (scarce) financial resources.

Above all, they refer to practical examples from very different regions throughout the world of how people and the environment can benefit from integrated approaches, so that balancing economic, environmental and social needs can really be achieved. And here, they once again show how important a rights-based approach is which also addresses the needs, experience and expertise of Indigenous Peoples, women and local communities.

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