Environment
UNCCD and India's Guide to Grasslands and Open Natural Ecosystems
GS3 EnvironmentGS2 International conventionsPrelims and Mains
- Why in news
- On 25 August 2026, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav told the Ministerial Dialogue on 'Accelerating Drought Resilience' at UNCCD CoP17 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, that drought should be managed as a predictable, preventable risk.
- What it is
- Open Natural Ecosystems (ONEs) are non-forest landscapes such as grasslands, savannas, deserts, scrublands and ravines. They were long labelled 'wasteland' because they lack tree cover. The Guide documents their geography, ecology, biodiversity and the communities tied to them, and links their restoration to Land Degradation Neutrality.
- Event
- India spoke at the Ministerial Dialogue on 'Accelerating Drought Resilience' at the 17th CoP of the UNCCD, held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
- India's core position
- India wants drought treated as a predictable, preventable risk rather than a recurring disaster needing emergency response.
- Early warning approach
- Rainfall monitoring and satellite-based drought assessments trigger preparedness at inter-ministerial and State levels.
- Watershed approach
- A pan-India watershed programme treats degraded rainfed lands using a ridge-to-valley approach, with community institutions and convergence with rural employment programmes.
- UNCCD background
- The UNCCD was adopted in 1994 and came into force in 1996. India is a party and hosted CoP14 in 2019 at Greater Noida.
- Launch venue
- The Guide was launched at a side event of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UNCCD in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on 17.08.2026.
- Who produced it
- ATREE organised the publication with IUCN, CoE-SLM, ICFRE and ISRO's Space Applications Centre, under MoEF&CC guidance.
- Content
- It covers geography, ecology, biodiversity and associated communities, with thematic sections on pastoralism, fire ecology and carbon sequestration.
- Range of ONEs
- India's ONEs run from Himalayan and Terai grasslands to the Thar and Banni landscapes, Deccan savannas, rocky plateaus, ravines and coastal ecosystems.
- Link to LDN
- Restoring grasslands and ONEs is discussed as a way to meet India's Land Degradation Neutrality targets.
- UNCCD
- The UNCCD, adopted in 1994, is the only legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management.
Don’t confuse with UNCCD vs UNFCCC vs CBD: UNCCD deals with desertification, land degradation and drought. UNFCCC deals with climate change. CBD deals with biodiversity. All three are Rio Conventions of 1992 origin, though UNCCD was adopted in 1994.
Environment: Prelims tests bodies, programmes and the law behind them; Mains asks why plans fall short.
Why it matters
- Drought hits water, food, biodiversity and incomes, so a prevention-first approach lowers repeated relief costs.
- India can lead Global South thinking on drought and share early-warning capacity.
- Recognises grasslands and savannas as ecosystems in their own right, not wasteland, which corrects a long policy bias towards tree planting.
- Supports India's LDN targets, carbon storage in soils and pastoral livelihoods.
Problems
- Reliable financing for restoration and early warning is hard to sustain, especially for vulnerable countries.
- Community-level capacity and coordination across ministries and States remain uneven.
- Weak legal protection and mapping of grasslands; many are classed as wasteland and diverted to other uses.
- Afforestation drives on open ecosystems, invasive species such as Prosopis juliflora, and overgrazing degrade them.
Way forward
- Invest more in ecosystem restoration, catchment forestry and groundwater recharge.
- Strengthen early warning systems and link them to timely local action and insurance.
- Map and assess ONEs with ISRO and ICFRE data and give them a clear land-use category.
- Adopt community-based rangeland governance, such as Oran and gauchar traditions, in landscape-level plans.
Put in your answer
Ridge-to-valley watershed approach: India's pan-India watershed programme treats degraded rainfed lands and converges with rural employment schemes.
Crop insurance for drought: Subsidised premiums and technology-driven assessment are meant to speed up and make claim settlement transparent.
Traditional commons: Oran and gauchar landscapes protected by villages show community stewardship of grazing lands.
Soil carbon: ONEs store substantial carbon in their soils, so they matter for climate resilience.
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UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: UNCCD is a lasting topic on the syllabus, but this release is a ministerial statement with few testable new facts. International bodies are 19% of news-linked Prelims questions.
Source: PIB, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change., 25 Aug, 12:59 IST · Release 293884
Issue page →Worth revising until Prelims 2028: most news questions come within two years of the event.