World Environment Day is celebrated each year on June 5 to emphasize the importance of protecting the Earth's natural resources.
This year's theme, Green Cities: Plan for the Planet draws attention to the need to limit the environmental consequences of urban growth. Cities are prolific users of natural resources and generators of waste. In the next quarter of a century, almost all population growth will occur in cities.
But even in 2025, when the majority of the world's population will be living in urban areas, an estimated 60 per cent of poor people will remain in rural areas. IFAD works to eradicate poverty in rural areas, where farmers, herders, fishers and artisans depend on the availability of land, water and other natural resources to earn a living and feed their families.
How IFAD protects the environment
IFAD works with impoverished communities in some of the harshest and most remote corners of the world, promoting sustainable water and land management practices that help to meet the goals of global environmental initiatives. Every IFAD programme and project is subjected to an environmental assessment before approval. IFAD also provides its Member States with policy and technical assistance for national and regional programmes to combat environmental degradation.
As an executing agency of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), IFAD works with governments to develop and implement projects that address global environmental concerns. Starting in 2003, IFAD became able to directly access GEF funds for projects addressing sustainable land management, instead of going through an implementing agency, such as the World Bank. In 2005, IFAD signed an agreement with the GEF Secretariat and the International Bank for Rural Development to formalize direct access and expand funding to any project addressing land degradation.
IFAD also hosts the Global Mechanism, which implements the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The Global Mechanism serves as a hub for a dynamic network of partners working together to stop desertification. Thanks to its relationships with these two initiatives, IFAD can assist countries harmed by land degradation to meet their obligations under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
IFAD also hosts the secretariat of the International Land Coalition. The Land Coalition works to increase access by rural poor people to land and other natural resources by building alliances between development partners, including non-governmental organizations. By combining the strengths of these partners, the Land Coalition helps rural poor people to gain better control over the policies and decisions affecting their lives.
