Deadline: 15 May 2020
The United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is inviting applications to mobilize the youth to take care of land as part of the solution to climate change.
How is land connected to climate change?
- Land degradation is a driver of climate change, because it increases emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and reduces carbon uptake
- Desertification exacerbates climate change in many ways: loss of vegetation, sand and dust storms and greenhouse gas emissions
- In turn, climate change worsens desertification
- Land degradation can be avoided, reduced or reversed by managing land sustainably and applying land restoration and rehabilitation measures
- Healthy land acts as a powerful carbon sink, becoming an effective solution to climate change
- Land restoration is one of the cheapest solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss
- Indigenous and local knowledge in managing land sustainably (women are often the guardians of this knowledge) is invaluable for building resilience against climate change and desertification
What makes a strong land hero
- Believe in your message
- Know your audience and how to relate to them
- Deliver your message with passion
- Propose solutions to the issues and challenges that you are bringing up
- Lead by example since actions speak louder than words
- Rally your audience around your cause by showing that it has a direct impact on their lives
- Empower your audience, make them feel they can play a role and be part of the change
- Engage with your audience and keep the dialog going
Prize Information
- A USD 500 cash price will be awarded to one of participating UNCCD Land Heroes for an outstanding project with significant outreach capacity, to invest in the impactful and scalable action to be implemented by the end of 2021.
- The winner will be selected by the UNCCD secretariat, and the project widely promoted on social media and shared with UNCCD Land Ambassadors for them to support through their channels. The winning project will also be showcased at UNCCD major events, such as Desertification and Drought Day global observance event.
Eligibility Criteria
- The campaign “Become #UNCCDLandHeroes” appeals to the youth (15-30 years old) worldwide. It is a social media campaign “by the youth for the youth” that will trend under #UNCCDLandHeroes and #FoodFeedFibre.
- By entering the contest, you are automatically considered a UNCCD Land Hero.
- Due to the current COVID-19 situation, large gatherings are not longer permitted on the streets and in public spaces. But they still have the possibility, the will and power to create a large virtual crowd standing for land.
- Participants are invited to submit a short text with a photo or video where they propose a specific solution to limit the footprint that their production and consumption of food, feed and fibre leave on the land.
- Examples of individual actions can vary from swapping clothes with friends, composting or using a fabric handkerchief instead of disposable tissues
- Example of existing projects to make a difference can include planting a community garden, a school campaign to become plastic-free or mobilizing people to ban food waste, a school club that meets to mend and repair clothes to donate to a local shelter or resell to raise school funds
- Share your story on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram), tagging UNCCD and using the official hashtags of the contest #UNCCDLandHeroes and #FoodFeedFibre
- UNCCD welcomes submissions in any of the six official UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish). If your original post is not in one of these because your followers are more likely to be reached through another language, please send them the translation, so they can consider your entry.
- UNCCD will monitor daily all the posts featuring the official hashtags of the contest and share some inspiring and impactful ideas suggested by participants worldwide.
For more information, visit https://www.unccd.int/news-events/become-unccdlandheroes