As the seventeenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification opens on 17 August 2026 in Mongolia, Nigeria is preparing to press, alongside the African Group of Negotiators, for two major demands: the adoption of a legally binding instrument on drought management and a substantial increase in international funding to fight desertification and land degradation.
For eleven days, from 17 to 28 August, delegates and experts from 197 countries will gather to negotiate the future of the global fight against desertification. Nigeria will send a delegation of 60 people, who will negotiate as part of the wider bloc formed by other African countries within the African Group of Negotiators, a strategy meant to give the continent greater weight in discussions against major economic powers.
At the heart of Nigeria’s demands is the current absence of an international legal framework obliging states to act on drought. « Nigeria, along with other African countries, wants to promote a legally binding instrument on drought management, » said Etim William, director of the relevant department at Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Environment, in comments carried by the local press.
Such an instrument would impose clear obligations on signatories regarding prevention, early warning and response to drought episodes, a phenomenon striking with growing intensity across several regions of the continent, from East Africa to the Sahel.
The figures put forward by Nigerian authorities illustrate the scale of the problem. According to the data cited, 23.41 percent of the country’s land is now degraded, roughly 21.07 million hectares. The situation is even more critical for pastoral land, with half of Nigeria’s grazing lands and stock routes reportedly affected by degradation. Across the continent as a whole, the phenomenon also remains significant, with 11.96 percent of African land classified as degraded.
Beyond the environmental dimension, negotiators describe land degradation as a factor worsening several crises already facing the continent. It fuels food insecurity in regions already under strain, sharpens tensions between farmers and herders over access to natural resources, and contributes to forced displacement of populations, a phenomenon already seen in Nigeria, particularly in areas affected by violence between farmers and Fulani herders.
This conference comes amid an especially busy period for African climate diplomacy, marked in recent months by repeated calls for more ambitious adaptation funding and by concerns over the Loss and Damage mechanism, which several organizations warn risks running out of available funds. For Nigeria and the African Group of Negotiators as a whole, the stakes at this conference are therefore twofold: securing commitments that are legally enforceable rather than mere statements of intent, and obtaining financing commensurate with the scale of damage already visible on the ground.