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Yasmine Fouad

November 07, 2025 23:30

Across the Arab world, land has always meant far more than soil. It holds our ancestors’ memories, the promise of tomorrow’s harvests, and the ties that weave families and nations together. 

From the fertile banks of the Nile to the oases of the Maghreb and the date groves of the Gulf, entire civilizations flourished by learning to live in harmony with scarce water and fragile soils.

Today, that precious balance is slipping away before our eyes. Droughts arrive more often and last longer. Fertile soils are exhausted. Dust storms strip fields bare. Rising heat threatens the very crops that sustained our region for centuries. 

The cost is not just measured in money, though land degradation already touches up to 40 percent of Earth’s land and drains hundreds of billions of dollars each year, but in the heartbreak of rural women who grow food without owning the land, and of young people who question whether they can build a future from it.

Yet our story is not only one of loss; it is also a testament to resilience and possibility. Across the region, communities are reawakening age‑old traditions of water harvesting, terracing and sustainable grazing. 

Governments are investing in restoring degraded land, managing our precious freshwater wisely and building resilience to drought. Every dollar invested in land restoration can return up to 30, proof that caring for our land is not just environmental stewardship but economic common sense and a moral duty to future generations.

Land is our most ancient inheritance. To protect it is to safeguard life itself.

Yasmine Fouad

Recent meetings of the Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment in Nouakchott show how we can act together. Ministers placed land and water at the heart of their agenda. As the UN’s voice for land, the UNCCD highlighted three key opportunities: integrating land and water management as the foundation of food security; deepening synergies between the Rio Conventions on land, biodiversity and climate through integrated projects that bring multiple benefits; and mobilizing resources at scale, attracting private investment and international finance to build green economies that create jobs while safeguarding natural resources.

This agenda builds on the region’s recent leadership. At COP16 in Riyadh last year, Arab countries helped launch the Riyadh Global Drought Resilience Partnership, mobilizing over $12 billion, and the Business4Land initiative, putting the private sector at the center of restoration. These initiatives show that the Arab region can lead global sustainability efforts and turn deserts into thriving landscapes.

The momentum from Riyadh now leads us to Panama in December for the 23rd session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention, where countries will assess how they are tackling land degradation and drought. This will set the stage for COP17 in Mongolia in August 2026, a pivotal moment for the international community to raise its ambitions and step up action to restore degraded land and build resilience to drought.

But the real test of our resolve lies far from conference rooms. It lies in the villages where farmers watch their soils come back to life, in the businesses that grow by restoring land, and in the communities where women and young people become the champions of change.

Land is our most ancient inheritance. To protect it is to safeguard life itself. With a history of ingenuity and perseverance, the Arab region can once again show that even in the harshest conditions, deserts can bloom and hope can be restored, for us and for generations to come.

• Yasmine Fouad is executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.