Belarus to help develop measures to combat land degradation at COP14 event

Photo: belta.by

Belarus is going to take part in the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification on 2-13 September 2019 in New Delhi, India. Belarus is an active participant of the convention, therefore it is going to join the efforts to work out measures to protect and restore forests and peatlands as key tools in combating climate change, loss of bio-resources and land degradation, BelTA learned from UNCCD national focal point in Belarus Andrei Kuzmich. “Belarus brings to the Conference national indicators of achieving land degradation neutrality and the political will to implement them. We have amassed some experience is reversing land degradation, in particular, peatland restoration, and we are eager to share these results with other Parties at the Conference,” Andrei Kuzmich said. An international project on restoration of drained peatlands, implemented with technical assistance from the Republic of Korea and UNCCD, resulted in more than a thousand hectares of degraded and inefficiently drained bogs restored in Mogilev region, where land in some areas there still bears the scars of the Chernobyl disaster. Peatland restoration helps prevent possible cross-contamination of other areas as a result of peat fires and radionuclide migration.

The forthcoming meeting will be the first conference of the parties after passing the UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework.