Shillong, Dec 19: Meghalaya government’s pioneering efforts in land restoration, agroforestry, and sustainable livelihoods have featured at the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which concluded in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia recently.
The efforts of the Meghalaya government and Earthbanc AB featured in the session, ‘Scaling Sustainable Land Management for Global Impact’ of COP16, which was themed on ‘Our Land, Our Future’. COP16, which was held from December 3 to 13, focused on urgent actions to address land degradation, a critical challenge affecting seven out of nine planetary boundaries and undermining the earth’s ability to sustain humanity.
Representing Meghalaya, Gunanka D.B, joint secretary to the state government, outlined the state’s comprehensive three-pronged approach to natural resource management. This included Community-Driven Initiatives by engaging local communities as primary stakeholders, Technology as Enablers by leveraging tools to monitor and innovate and Flexibility to Innovate by tailoring solutions to unique challenges.
Meghalaya’s efforts include payment for ecosystem services, promoting organic and natural farming, reclaiming land using medicinal and aromatic plants, restoring degraded landscapes, enhancing water security and harnessing bamboo resources.
On the other hand, Earthbanc showcased its groundbreaking solutions to make landscape restoration financially viable for investors and landowners. Using advanced geospatial data science and AI, Earthbanc monitors key indicators such as soil organic carbon, land cover, and productivity.
Rishabh Khanna, CEO of Earthtree (Earthbanc’s subsidiary company) emphasized the need to focus on land restoration, noting that less than 1 per cent of global carbon financing is allocated to this critical area.
Meanwhile, the Meghalaya government in collaboration with Earthbanc has spearheaded the ‘Regeneration Meghalaya: A Vision for the Future’ project, a regenerative agroforestry initiative aimed at restoring degraded landscapes and enhancing community livelihoods.
Over the next 40 years, the project seeks to expand land cover and productivity, increase annual income for local communities, preserve critical habitats in a global biodiversity hotspot and sequester carbon through large-scale landscape and catchment restoration.
With its holistic focus on sustainable development and carbon sequestration, Regeneration Meghalaya aims to become a model for landscape restoration worldwide.
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 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which concluded in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia recently.){kind=link}