Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), Aug. 25 -- The United Nations on Tuesday urged governments and investors to treat land restoration and drought resilience as economic priorities, saying the cost of inaction was far greater than the investment needed to protect land and livelihoods.
Speaking at a ministerial dialogue on innovative financial mechanisms at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP17 in Mongolia, UN deputy secretary-general Amina J Mohammed said land degradation should no longer be viewed primarily as an environmental issue.
"Healthy land is not an environmental luxury. It is productive capital," she said. "Drought resilience is not a sectoral concern. It is sustainable, inclusive economic growth."The UN estimates that a...