Page 54 - Çevre Şehir ve İklim Dergisi İngilizce - Özel Sayı

Türkiye Towards the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Cop16

3. UNCCD and Türkiye

3.1. Global Level

Türkiye became a party to the UNCCD in 1998. In order to strengthen
the institutional structure in combating against desertification, the General
Directorate of ÇEM was established in 2011 (ÇEMGM, 2024).
UNCCD COP12 was held in Ankara in October 12-23, 2015. Following the
COP12, the “Ankara Initiative” was launched by Türkiye. Within the scope
of the initiative, it was aimed, between 2016-2021, by Türkiye to support the
countries in the achievement of sustainable development goals, to improve
the capacities of countries in this regard and to contribute to countries
on LDN, which is one of the decisions taken at COP 12. In line with the
initiative, regional capacity building trainings are organized in Türkiye on the
successful Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices of it. A total of 1195
representatives of countries from the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East
and Africa have participated in these trainings so far (ÇEMGM, 2024).
Türkiye is one of the first countries to set national LDN targets in 2016. In
the further process, it was needed to update the goals. In this scope, Türkiye
participated in 2nd Period of Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting
Program launched in 18 countries in 2023 (LDN TSP 2.0) under the leadership
of the Secretariat. The updated targets are expected to be announced at
COP16 (UNCCD, 2024).
One of the five regional implementation annexes of UNCCD is “UNCCD
Annex-IV Northern Mediterranean Region” which includes Türkiye, Albania,
Croatia, the Greek Cypriot Area, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Malta, Portugal,
Spain and Slovenia. Türkiye took over the Presidency of Annex-IV in COP 14 in
2019, and then in COP15 in 2022, the Presidency was passed on Hungary. On
the other hand, the UNCCD Northern Mediterranean Regional Coordination
Center was established in Istanbul in 2016 and closed in 2023 (UNCCD, 2024).
In 2019, UNCCD 25th Year Global Celebrations were held in Türkiye.
Besides, Türkiye participates in the “17th June Desertification and Drought
Day” events / celebrations organized at the country and regional level every
year (ÇEMGM, 2024).

3.2. National Level
3.2.1. National Strategy and Action Plan to Combat Desertification

In accordance with the UNCCD Convention, State Parties are obliged
to prepare their National Action Plans. In order to combat desertification

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Special Issue / 2024