Living Lands Charter

Living Lands Charter UPSC: Relevance

• GS 2: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Living Lands Charter: Context

• Recently, all 54 Commonwealth members have agreed to voluntarily dedicate a ‘living land’ in their respective countries to future generations.

Living Lands Charter: Key points

• The charter is in line with the strategy set for the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
• The charter was adopted at the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali, Kenya.
• The member nations have emphasised on the “critical guardianship” provided by indigenous peoples and local communities in protecting land and vital ecosystem services.
• They have also recognised the land and resource rights of these communities, in accordance with national law and international instruments.
• The member nations called on developed countries to fully deliver on the $100 billion goal urgently and through to 2025 and emphasised the importance of transparency in the implementation of their pledges.

What is Living Lands charter

• The ‘Living Lands Charter’ is a non-binding document that mandates the member countries to safeguard global land resources and arrest land degradation while acting against climate change, biodiversity loss and towards sustainable management.
• The Living Lands Charter helps to hold the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• The document came after nearly two years of consultation, engagement and negotiation with member countries.
• The charter aimed to support member countries to effectively deliver their commitments under the three Rio conventions — UN Convention on Biological Diversity, UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Living Lands Charter: Why needed?

• More than a third of land having been degraded in the last two decades.
• The vulnerabilities of the ecosystems to land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change are closely interrelated and need to be considered collectively.

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