Restoration Flagship Award
The United Nations awarded three new world restoration flagship awards at the 17th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The event held on 26th August 2026 was jointly led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The world restoration flagship is an award given for the best examples of large-scale and long-term ecosystem restoration in any country or region. This year the award was bestowed upon Brazil, the Sahel region and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their efforts to restore degraded land, together aiming to revive nearly 5 million hectares by 2030 and contributing to the world’s broader pledge to restore one billion hectares of land.
This recognition comes at a time when climate change, droughts and desertification are among major issues being faced around the globe, directly influencing the global food system as well as water security. Investing and restoring degraded land helps defend against these threats. Every hectare that is restored brings us one step closer towards a more sustainable future.
Each award was given for a specific restoration project. Brazil was recognized for its Araticum initiative aimed at restoring the Cerrado. It is the largest and most biodiverse tropical savanna in South America, but it had lost half of its native vegetation due to large-scale land conversion. The Araticum brought together more than 180 organizations, indigenous peoples, local communities, farmers, and government institutions to support the restoration projects. The initiative has already mapped more than 27,000 hectares under restoration. Saudi Arabia was secured the flagship for its Saudi Arabia’s National Greening Program, led by the National Center for Vegetation Cover Development and Combating Desertification with an aim to transform degraded landscape including forests and deserts. By June 2026 the programme had restored 1 million hectares of degraded land and planted 159 million trees. Restoration activities included reforestation, natural regeneration and rainwater harvesting to support people in water-scarce landscapes. The Sahel region was honoured with the flagship award for the Sahel Integrated Resilience Initiative combining land regeneration with soil and water management and school feeding programmes across some of the world’s most drought-prone communities. By June 2026, the initiative had restored over 335,000 hectares of degraded land and continues to do so.
Together these flagships show that community action paired with government support can turn degraded land into a source of resilience.
Nanditha Ramesh – 9 G