Saudi Arabia and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) will mark World Environment Day on June 5 under the theme “Our land, Our future”.
The ceremony will be held at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Riyadh, and attended by dignitaries, officials, as well as experts and specialists from various countries.
According to the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA), the Kingdom’s hosting the World Environment Day confirms its commitment to protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development, in line with the Vision 2030 goals.
Focus will be on land restoration, combating desertification, and ensuring drought resilience. The event will emphasize the critical need for global investments in nature conservation, land rehabilitation, and sustainable practices.
Highlighting the importance of both national and international collaboration, the ceremony aims to promote efforts to rehabilitate worldwide ecosystems, in pursuit of achieving sustainable development goals.
MEWA also said that World Environment Day activities will help bolster the Kingdom’s efforts in land restoration and rehabilitation, and showcase Saudi Arabia’s initiatives in this respect at national, regional, and international levels, which focus on vegetation development, combating desertification, protecting natural habitat, and reducing carbon emission.
The event will also reinforce the G20 Global Land Initiative, launched during the Kingdom’s presidency of the G20 Summit in 2020. It will call for effective global participation in the sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) set to convene in Riyadh this December.
WED is one of the largest global platforms for environmental outreach, with tens of millions of people around the world. It contributes to supporting vital ecosystem restoration work globally. Countries have pledged to restore one billion hectares of land by protecting 30% of lands and seas by 2030.
