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Three days into the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), a fight over who gets a seat at the table is still shadowing the summit, with civil society organisations, Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists and youth groups continuing to press governments to restore agenda items dropped at the opening plenary.
COP17 opened August 17, 2026 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia under the banner 'Restoring Land, Restoring Hope' with Mongolian Prime Minister Nyam-Osoryn Uchral urging delegates to move past declarations toward implementation.
UNCCD Executive Secretary Yasmine Fouad struck the same note, repeatedly calling this summit the "COP of implementation". That framing is now the standard civil society groups say the conference has yet to meet.
On opening day, delegates approved the bulk of the COP17 agenda but set aside a cluster of contested items for further consultation among parties. Those deferred items covered policy discussions on gender, migration, drought and rangelands, as well as the item on civil society participation.
The removal followed objections from the United States and Russia, even as Brazil and the European Union spoke up on the floor to keep the items on the table.
The result, according to UNCCD's Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Panel, was an agenda adopted with the issues most central to communities facing desertification and drought — gender-responsive approaches, meaningful engagement of civil society and Indigenous Peoples, and synergies across the Rio Conventions — pushed to the sidelines before substantive negotiations even began.
Indigenous representatives staged a protest at COP17 in Ulaanbaatar on August 20, demanding to be included in the conference's official negotiations. Protesters, led by Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, coordinator of the Association of Peul Women and Autochthonous Peoples of Chad (AFPAT), argued that the dedicated Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities Caucus set up for this COP was insufficient and merely symbolic, falling short of allowing meaningful, full and effective participation.
Ibrahim called on government leaders at the conference to show greater respect for traditional peoples, and the demonstrators renewed calls for gender and civil society participation to be restored to the agenda after being dropped at the request of the United States.
The UNCCD's CSO Panel, representing accredited observers from all five UNCCD regions, echoed the demand in a statement, warning that sidelining Indigenous Peoples and local communities at the opening of a COP built on the promise of action "is not a technicality. It is a decision with consequences".
The Panel insisted that "under the Convention's own Rules of Procedure, deferral is not deletion", demanding that the format, convenor and a firm date for reporting back to plenary be announced before COP17 closes.
It added that "should consultations fail to resolve these items during this session, the Convention's own rules require that they be carried forward to COP18".