IFLA Position Statement: COP17

Join the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) in urging global leaders to put landscape-led design at the heart of land restoration, drought resilience and the fight against desertification at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17 Mongolia.

As world leaders gather in Ulaanbaatar under the banner "Restoring Land. Restoring Hope, "we are confronted by a crisis of degraded soils, deepening drought, and disappearing rangelands. This crisis is, like the wider climate and biodiversity emergency, at its core a failure of design; a result of human systems built in conflict with natural ones.

The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) urges all Parties, non-state actors and financiers to recognise a fundamental truth: LANDSCAPE MUST COME FIRST.

Without healthy, hydrated, living land, there is no food security, no drought resilience, no pastoral livelihood, and no future for the communities who depend on it.