The International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) has issued a position statement for UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. Unlike the better-known UN climate COP, organised under the UNFCCC, UNCCD COP17 focuses on land degradation, desertification, drought and land restoration. IFLA is calling for landscape-led design to be placed at the centre of this agenda.

“Our message at COP17 is the same fundamental truth we carried from Belém: landscape must come first. Desertification is not a remote problem for drylands alone; it is a design failure with consequences for food, water and migration everywhere.”

—IFLA President Dr Bruno Marques said:

IFLA argues that land degradation, drought and biodiversity loss have too often been addressed through separate instruments. It positions landscape as an integrator of soil health, water cycles, food systems and cultural knowledge, and calls for landscape architects to play a stronger role in translating Land Degradation Neutrality commitments into place-based restoration projects. The statement also stresses that restoration should be co-designed with pastoralist and Indigenous communities.

Among its proposals, IFLA calls on governments to treat landscape as critical infrastructure, secure equitable land tenure, direct financing towards locally led restoration, connect urban and rural systems, and introduce measurable indicators for restoration projects.

UNCCD COP17 is also the first stage of IFLA’s 2026 engagement with the three separate Rio Convention processes: desertification under UNCCD, biodiversity under the CBD, and climate change under the UNFCCC. IFLA is using these meetings to advance an International Landscape Convention, proposed as a binding instrument connecting landscape governance across land restoration, biodiversity and climate policy.