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The UNCCD has proven itself to be a “learning convention” with parties exhibiting willingness to take stock and adjust structures and institutions over the years. The Scientific Conference concept perhaps best exemplifies this reflexivity, and as participants gathered for its third iteration, they were asked to engage with a new format and approach.

While the COP did not take the “brave and bold steps” that some delegations would have preferred, one noted that delegates did assign themselves and the Secretariat a number of tasks that could realistically be achieved by COP 12.

As CRIC 11 delegates gathered in Bonn at the halfway mark of the UNCCD’s 10-year strategic plan, expectations were high that the recommendations of the 2nd Scientific Conference the previous week would inject new life into parties’ efforts to implement the Convention. But it quickly became apparent that reaching agreement on the diagnosis, let alone a prescription to restore degraded lands, was proving elusive.

What some viewed as an intrepid direction for the UNCCD to pursue in years past turned into a potentially “game changing” accomplishment when COP 12 swiftly adopted a decision deciding that striving to achieve SDG target 15.3 is a “strong vehicle for driving implementation of the UNCCD,” and inviting countries to set voluntary targets to achieve land degradation neutrality.

Following two weeks of high-level discussions and negotiations, delegates adopted 38 decisions to improve drought resilience, reduce land degradation, invest in land restoration efforts, and improve synergies with the climate change and biodiversity conventions.

The reporting process that informed the CRIC’s discussions revealed that gaps remain in implementation, and many suggested returning to the grassroots level to point the way forward to achieve the Convention’s purpose—to provide a platform on which to upscale sustainable land management— with an emphasis on the many grassroots pillars supporting the platform.