Drynet Members attended the 2014 Caux Dialogue on Land and Security: ‘Mitigating Risk, Responding to Threat’ between 30 June and 4 July, organized in Caux, Switzerland

Drynet Members attended the 2014 Caux Dialogue on Land and Security: ‘Mitigating Risk, Responding to Threat’ between 30 June and 4 July, organized in Caux, Switzerland. 16 participants from 14 Drynet member organizations met in Caux on 29- 30 June for the Annual Drynet meeting and later participated in the Caux Dialogue.
Patrice Burger (CARI) and Noel Oettle (EMG) were facilitators in the Dialogue and organized the workshop on ‘Monitoring Desertification’ on 1 July with the contribution of Nahid Naghizadeh (CENESTA). On 3 July, Drynet and WOCAT signed the Memorandum of Understanding between two Networks for further cooperation.
At the closing plenary of the Dialogue, Drynet shared the below statement:
“This year’s Dialogue highlighted debates around land grabbing, insecure land user rights, different drivers of land degradation such as soil sealing, chemical contamination and displacement of people.
It was a great honour for Drynet members to participate and contribute to this year’s Caux Dialogue on Land and Security. Drynet is a network of Civil Society Organisations in 15 countries working with local communities of drylands. For this reason, Drynet highly appreciates the Initiatives of Change in collaboration with the IUCN and UNCCD for taking forward discussions around these concerns into the international arena. They are shared by the local people of drylands and vital to their livelihoods and security.
Dialogues provide a safe and nurturing environment for strengthening values, sharing ideas and getting inspired. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the organizers, participants and volunteers for making this possible.
As is the case with every international and national platform in which we participate as Drynet, we carried the voices of local people living in drylands into the Dialogue.
We are looking forward to the continuation of the Caux Dialogues’ focus on land and security. We see great promise for further development of cooperation between participants and their organizations on sustainable land use and governance which will contribute to a better world. In line with the Caux spirit, we as Drynet members would like to offer our support in building partnerships and dialogues.
It is our hope and intention that we will be able to contribute to the growth of the Caux Dialogue on Land and Security in the forthcoming years, and to help broaden its impact globally.”