Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Prof. Cheikh Mbow has spent much of his career measuring land. Forests, croplands, water, coastal erosion. New member of the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface, his argument at #COP17Mongolia is that measurement has done its job. "We have described the problem long enough. Now we have to solve it."
Three things he says have to change:
Science has to reach the people who decide. That is what the Committee on Science and Technology and the Science-Policy Interface exist for, turning research into something a minister or a finance director can use.
"Action" has to mean governance and money, not just ambition. Who has the mandate, who carries the cost, who takes the first loss.
Restoration has to be treated as a development strategy. Not a tree count. If restored land does not produce food, income, or water security, then meeting a target misses the point.
He closes on generations. The Global Land Outlook goals run past any single mandate, which is why he keeps returning to the same point: young people are not an audience for this work; they are the people who will finish it.
#UNited4Land =#COP17Mongolia
Prof. Cheikh Mbow has spent much of his career measuring land. Forests, croplands, water, coastal erosion. New member of the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface, his argument at #COP17Mongolia is that measurement has done its job. "We have described the problem long enough. Now we have to solve it."
Three things he says have to change:
Science has to reach the people who decide. That is what the Committee on Science and Technology and the Science-Policy Interface exist for, turning research into something a minister or a finance director can use.
"Action" has to mean governance and money, not just ambition. Who has the mandate, who carries the cost, who takes the first loss.
Restoration has to be treated as a development strategy. Not a tree count. If restored land does not produce food, income, or water security, then meeting a target misses the point.
He closes on generations. The Global Land Outlook goals run past any single mandate, which is why he keeps returning to the same point: young people are not an audience for this work; they are the people who will finish it.
#UNited4Land =#COP17Mongolia
