How to help countries advance land degradation neutrality on the agenda of Sixth GEF Assembly

Every year, 13 million tonnes of plastic leak into the ocean according to UN Environment, which leads the annual celebration on June 5th of World Environment Day (WED).  This year’s theme is #BeatPlasticPollution and India is the host country, with states like Gujarat showing how they are taking on plastic pollution.

The International Day for Biological Diversity, celebrated each year on May 22, is an opportunity for the international community to reflect on the importance of conserving biodiversity for our planet’s health and for future generations, and think of the challenges ahead.  

Deforestation is contributing irrefutably to climate change, putting natural resources and livelihoods at risk. With two years left to deliver on the goal of zero commodity-driven deforestation by 2020, delegates from the private sector, government, civil society and academia were reminded this week in Ghana’s capital, Accra, of the need for urgent action.

Sixth GEF Assembly

June 27-28, 2018 | Da Nang, Viet Nam

The Sixth Assembly of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), set up to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems, will take place from June 27-28, 2018 at the Furama International Conference Center in Da Nang, Viet Nam.

The West African Coastal Areas (WACA) Resilience Investment Project, funded in part by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), was approved this week by the World Bank Group Board.

Earlier this week, a new UN report issued a dire warning saying that 3.6 billion people, or half the world's population, already live in areas where water can be scarce for at least one month a year. Projections are that this number could go up to 5.7 billion people by 2050 if business as usual continues.

Twenty years ago, the fate of the Amazonian rainforest was a cause celèbre – and many environmentalists believed it to be a lost one. After decades of rapid deforestation, peaking in the 1990s, prophets of doom were beginning to draft obituaries for the world's largest tropical forest.

Now it is being celebrated in a different way. Over the intervening period, the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen by more than two thirds. And though the battle for the forest's future is far from over, it has begun to become a symbol of hope, not despair.

Earlier this month, the World Bank approved a new $33 million project, funded in part by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), to improve sustainable rural livelihoods and forest protection in Zambia.

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has welcomed the signing by the government of Brazil of two decrees that designate two new marine protected areas around the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago and around the Islands of Trindade and of Martim Vaz.