WCC news: WCC tells COP17 that land restoration needs faith partners

Mongolia is hosting the UN Convention to Combat Desertification for the first time, with nearly 77 percent of its land already degraded. Its theme is "Restoring Land, Restoring Hope." A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation is in Ulaanbaatar for the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17). Photo:  COP17 26 August 2026 "We have still too much land degradation all over the world, from Africa to, yes, North America, Turtle Island, even in the United States . . . We are finding new science, but also newer and deeper theological perspectives to help us move toward solving these challenges," said Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, WCC president from North America, part of the delegation in Mongolia. On 22 August, the WCC joined an official COP17 side event, "Restoring Land, Restoring Hope: Faith Communities as Partners in Land Restoration," held with the G20 Global Land Initiative. Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food, argued that advocacy on land restoration has to rest on evidence. Governments have committed, through the G20 Global Land Initiative, to halving the world's degraded land, affecting 3.2 billion people, by 2040. WCC delegates at COP17. Among them (second from the right), Rev. Dr Angelique Walker-Smith, WCC president from North America. Photo: Dinesh Suna/WCC Suna presented the Living Planet Monitor, the WCC publication that sets land, water, and food indicators by region and highlights what churches and communities are doing. Volume one appeared in November 2024. The second covers north, west, and central Africa. The third, launched in February 2026, turns to South Asia. That evening, about a hundred people gathered at the Khuree Maidar Temple for an interfaith Talanoa Dialogue, the Pacific practice of listening built on three questions. The WCC joined the Mongolian Buddhist community and the Brahma Kumaris. Groups worked through them: where we are now, where we want to go, and how we get there. The organizing team is compiling the outcomes. Dinesh Suna presenting the Living Planet monitor at COP17 side event. Photo: WCC WCC representatives remain in Ulaanbaatar until COP17 closes on 28 August. It is the first of three UN conventions meeting this year: biodiversity, also a COP17, in Yerevan, Armenia, in October, and climate COP31 in Antalya, Turkey, in November. All three fall within the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2034) advocacy activities.  WCC at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification COP17 WCC advocates faith-based solutions for land restoration at the Desertification COP16 WCC launches Living Planet Monitor 3 on South Asia at ICARRD+20 Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland