《联合国防治荒漠化公约（UNCCD）》第三届国际科学大会

The 3rd UNCCD international scientific conference on “combating desertification, land degradation and drought for poverty reduction and sustainable development – the contribution of science, technology, traditional knowledge and practices” will be held from 9 to 12 March 2015 in Cancún (Mexico), during the 4th special session of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST S-4) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

The conference aims to attract the widest possible range of scientific, local and traditional knowledge that can be harnessed to achieve poverty reduction and sustainable development in areas susceptible to desertification, land degradation and drought. 
One of the major challenges facing delegates to the conference is the development of new scientific insights and recommendations to policy makers with regards to the assessment of vulnerability of socio-ecosystems to climate change and current and future capacities to adapt.

The conference will address three major challenges:

• Diagnosis of constraints: How to best characterize and understand the vulnerability and adaptive capacities of ecosystems (in particular agro-ecosystems) and populations in affected regions, including regions newly susceptible to the consequences of climate change?
• Responses: How to build efficiently on available knowledge, success stories and lessons learnt to promote implementation of better adapted, knowledge-based practices and technologies?
• Monitoring and assessment: What are the new monitoring and assessment methods available to evaluate the effectiveness of these practices and technologies that provide improved insights on whether or how their implementation should be scaled up?

The conference is expected to contribute to the combat against desertification and land degradation and to addressing the impact of drought, through delivering the following outcomes:

• Better anticipation and prevention of the impact of climate change on land degradation and desertification through capacity building;
• Identification and promotion of sustainable and adaptive methods of using ecosystems to reduce poverty and environmental degradation while achieving sustainable development;
• Identification of pathways towards a land-degradation neutral world: by way of reducing degradation processes and scaling up restoration activities, the objective is to maintain and improve the quantity and quality of productive land.

The working language of the conference is English. However, for opening and closing sessions, as well as most of the plenary presentations, simultaneous translation into the six UN languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Chinese) will be available.