The twenty-first session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (#CRIC21) to the UNCCD will take place from 13 to 17 November in Samarkand, Uzbekistan! Together with our partners, WOCAT will contribute to various side events, showcasing our efforts in assisting countries in enhancing LDN monitoring and reporting, promoting South-South collaboration, and advancing integrated land use planning. The WOCAT Global Network will express its role in supporting data generation and knowledge sharing on LD & SLM best practices and capacity building, in collaboration with the UNCCD and other partners.

Join us for the webinar on “Using the Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands (LADA) and WOCAT for scaling up good land management practices in Asia” on 17-18 October from 1:30 to 3:30PM GMT+7 (Bangkok time). In addition to raising awareness on the use of the WOCAT Database for the reporting SLM good practices and other related WOCAT-FAO tools for mapping land degradation and SLM, the webinar aims to increase the contribution of countries and projects to the WOCAT Database to enhance knowledge sharing.

WOCAT, in partnership with the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists 2026 and the FAO Committee on Forestry Working Group on Dryland Forests and Agrosilvopastoral Systems (COFO WG), is holding a summer school ​session ​to explore transformative approaches to building climate resilient dryland systems. FAO/IYRP dryland summer school 12-15 Sept 2023 in Jordan. WOCAT SLM expert Rima Mekdaschi Studer will be conducting the field say. 

For the annual World Soil Day celebrated on December 5, this year WOCAT is sharing good practices form Madagascar, developed, tested and implemented with success in collaboration with WOCAT consortium partner GIZ. The SLM technologies were documented as part of the ProSoil Project, which aims conserving and rehabilitating soil to promote food security and climate protection.

Another highlight of this year's World Soil Day is the interview of WOCA Executive Team member Tatenda Lemann.

WOCAT's LDN expert Dr. Ingrid Teich shared valuable insights during the UNCCD CRIC21 interactive plenary discussion on 16 November 2023, reflecting on the experiences acquired through WOCAT’s provision of technical assistance for land degradation monitoring and reporting in various pilot countries. Despite time constraints, countries were able to integrate default data with more in-depth analysis, enabling the reclassification of data categories to better reflect local realities.

As part of the GEF-funded FAO project "Decision Support for Mainstreaming and Scaling Out Sustainable Land Management", a guide on promoting SLM through evidence-based decision support has been published. The publication serves as a step-by-step guide for the application and implementation of the DSF during planning, design and implementation of SLM interventions. It will be launched at UNCCD CRIC21 at WOCAT's side event "Learning from each other: successful experiences on knowledge exchange and South South Cooperation for achieving Land Degradation Neutrality" on Friday 17 November, 13:00 - 15:00, MET-10.

» Read the FAO news release

Dr. William Critchley, WOCAT associated researcher, has developed an online course on Sustainable Land Management (teaser). The course (8 classes, 30min each) is targeted at in-service professionals and university students. The aim is to improve the understanding of SLM and to sharpen the skills in designing solutions on the ground.