The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will announce three new World Restoration Flagships during a high-level event at the 17th UN Conference to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The three initiatives, in Brazil, the Sahel region, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are restoring degraded ecosystems in regions facing drought, desertification and climate change. Together, they aim to restore almost 5 million hectares by 2030 — an area equal to nearly 7 million football fields — while boosting food security, livelihoods, biodiversity, and climate resilience.
The World Restoration Flagships are awarded under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and recognize some of the world’s most ambitious and impactful examples of large-scale ecosystem restoration.
UNEP is offering interested media:
- Embargoed access to the press release and country/region-specific data.
- Early access to photos and B-roll from the restoration initiatives (for features, photo stories, visual explainers and social media).
- Interviews with UNEP experts and representatives from the restoration initiatives.
- Background briefings on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and restoration monitoring.