ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia – Thailand has reaffirmed its support for international efforts to restore degraded land, improve drought resilience, and safeguard food security at the high-level opening of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Permanent Secretary for Agriculture and Cooperatives Vinaroj Supsongsuk led the Thai delegation at the August 24 session, which was attended by ministers and senior representatives from more than 150 countries.
Thailand backed the UNCCD principle of Avoid, Reduce, Reverse, which calls for preventing land degradation, limiting its effects, and restoring damaged areas. The country also supports Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030, while maintaining that implementation should account for national circumstances, including those of developing countries. Thailand is pursuing its LDN targets voluntarily in connection with food security and sustainable agricultural development.
Thailand’s efforts are tied to its Precision Agriculture, Secure Agriculture, and Sustainable Agriculture policies, which cover drought and water management, soil conservation, and the rehabilitation of degraded land. The country also uses its Volunteer Soil Doctors network to provide farmers and communities with soil-management knowledge and is working with the Global Soil Partnership and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to advance a proposed United Nations Decade on Soil Health for 2031–2040.
Thailand also supports closer coordination among global frameworks addressing land degradation, climate change, and biodiversity loss, including the UNCCD, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Vinaroj and the Thai delegation later joined senior international representatives in a tree-planting activity during COP17, highlighting shared efforts to restore ecosystems, maintain healthy soils, and improve agricultural resilience to drought and climate pressures. (NNT)
