For only the second time in more than 50 years, World Environment Day (WED) is coming to West Asia. In 2024, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is hosting WED on 5 June with a focus on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience. 

Want to make this WED, the most successful one yet? Are you planning an ecosystem restoration event and activity in West Asia? Then don’t wait and register your activity or event. You will receive a certificate of participation after the Day. 

You can also check out the WED Practical Guide to get ideas how to get involved and become #GenerationRestoration. 

Renowned for their natural beauty and rich biodiversity, the forests of the Bamougoum Chiefdom in the western highlands of Cameroon have been sacred grounds for generations.  

However, decades of deforestation, unsustainable farming practices and agricultural expansion threaten the survival of these forests and the species that inhabit them. 

To protect and conserve these sacred forests, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have teamed up with Cameroon’s government and local NGOs to enhance the legal protection status for key biodiversity areas.  

The projects are part of ongoing investments mobilized by UNEP through GEF and other donors, to promote the protection and sustainable management of the Congo basin forests.   
 

On 5 June, Saudi Arabia will host World Environment Day 2024, an annual celebration of the planet which this year focuses on desertification, land degradation and drought resilience.   

To combat land degradation and desertification, the Kingdom has started the Saudi Green Initiative turn 30 per cent of the country’s land into nature reserves, plant 10 billion trees and restore 40 million hectares of degraded land to tackle drought, desertification, and land degradation threatening the region. 
 
Globally, more than 2 billion hectares of the world’s land is degraded, affecting half the global population, and threatening countless species. 

Soil is degrading, droughts are increasing and once fertile land is turning into desert. But there are glimmers of hope.  

In the high Andes of Latin America, hundreds of communities are uniting across five countries to secure water sources and mitigate climate change. Learn how they do it – and why an old tree is a secret weapon in their fight.  
 
Acción Andina has been recognized as a World Restoration Flagship under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. These initiatives represent Earth’s frontiers of hope. To learn more about other restoration initiatives, visit UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. 

Do you know how many people around the world are affected by droughts each year? Do you know what is the leading cause of land degradation? Or what is Earth’s most biodiverse habitat? 

This year’s World Environment Day, held on 5 June, focuses on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience. Ahead of World Environment Day, find out how much you know about the biggest crises facing our ecosystems. Take the World Environment Day quiz.

Everybody alive now is part of a generation that is the first to witness the devastating effects of environmental degradation.  

Drought, land degradation and desertification have the potential to destroy life on planet earth. As the campaign for World Environment Day starts, it is a good opportunity to get involved.  

The message is clear. Ecosystems restoration at mass scale is needed to tackle climate change, save species from extinction and secure our future.  

For this year’s World Environment Day, lend Earth a helping hand by becoming #GenerationRestoration. Check out “We Are #GenerationRestoration: A Practical Guide” to find out how.

“This year, World Environment Day will direct the world’s gaze to three perilous, though often-overlooked, challenges: land degradation, desertification and drought,” said Elizabeth Mrema, UN Envrionment Programme Deputy Executive Director. She spoke at the campaign launch for this year’s World Environment Day (WED) in Riyadh, capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “Our priority now must be on restoring ecosystems – on replanting our forests, on rewetting our marshes, on reviving our soils,” Mrema added.  

The 2024 World Environment Day (WED) campaign will launch on 28 April in Riyadh, capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This year, the Kingdom is hosting WED with a focus on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience.

One of the most effective ways to restore degraded land, halt desertification and build drought resilience is through ecosystem restoration. And the beauty of restoration is that it can happen at any scale. This means everyone has a role to play.  

As the campaign kicks off, get involved in this year’s WED. Register your restoration event or activity and receive a certificate of participation.

Every second, an equivalent of four football fields of healthy land becomes degraded, adding up to 100 million hectares every year. 

Engaging present and future generations is more important than ever to halt and reverse these alarming trends and meet global commitments to restore 1 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030.  

The theme chosen for this year's Desertification and Drought Day – United for Land: Our Legacy. Our Future – seeks to mobilize society in support of sustainable land stewardship. Taking place on June 17, also the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – the sole legally binding international treaty on land management and drought; one of the three Rio Conventions alongside climate change and biodiversity. 

Read more about Desertification and Drought Day 

Desertification is one of the biggest environmental threats of our time. It refers to land drying up due to reduced rainfall, the expansion of agriculture, poor irrigation practices, deforestation and overgrazing.  

Climate change is exacerbating desertification: right now, around 2 billion people live on drylands vulnerable to desertification, which could displace an estimated 50 million people by 2030. 

If people cannot grow food, they will need to move to an area where they can, increasing the risk of desertification, and having negative effects on landscapes, wildlife and human health.  

Read more about desertification here.