UNCCD 36d ago

In Bozhüyük, a village at 1,100 metres in Türkiye's Antalya Province, UNCCD Executive Secretary Yasmine Fouad sat with pastoralist families marking the seasonal movement of their animals to higher pastures, a tradition as old as the landscape itself. She arrived from the Strategic Antalya Dialogue, where G20 environment ministers had confronted a well-documented reality: more than 40% of the world's land is degraded, 100 million hectares are lost every year, and the economic cost approaches $900 billion annually. What she found in Bozhüyük does not fit neatly into a data set. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is restoring 770 hectares of degraded grazing land through reseeding, water infrastructure, and controlled grazing. The work is sustained, technical, and necessary, and the evidence is clear that it works better when communities are partners in design, not recipients of outputs. The conventional image of pastoralism centres the male herder. It misses most of the picture. The women of Bozhüyük are not supporting actors. They are the reason the system functions. The Silk Road Caravan now continues east, into Russia, on toward UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar this August, and COP31 in Türkiye in November, where the Antalya Initiative on Rio Synergies will ask countries to align their climate, biodiversity, and land planning. 🔗 Follow the Caravan: https://silkroadcaravan.edw.ro 🌐 UNCCD: https://www.unccd.int #UNCCD #SilkRoadCaravan #Rangelands #LandRestoration