Djerba, March 25, 2026
Desert’actions 2026 opened in a global context marked by the intensification of climate, environmental and socio-economic crises, bringing together decision-makers, experts, international organizations, researchers and field actors around a common objective: to address land degradation and droughts.
From the outset, the tone was set by Mr. Walid Tabboubi, Governor of Medenine, who emphasized that local communities are on the front lines, calling for solutions rooted in local realities and implemented collectively. This dynamic was echoed in the opening address by Mr. Habib Abid, Tunisia’s Minister of the Environment, delivered by Ms. Awatef Messai, Acting Director General of the Directorate General for the Environment and Quality of Life, who stressed the need to strengthen international cooperation and translate commitments into concrete actions.
In this vein, Mr. Chedli Abdelli, Director General of the National Agency for the Promotion of Scientific Research and representative of the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, highlighted the role of research, training and innovation to better understand the dynamics of degradation and to guide solutions adapted to national and regional contexts.
Linking environmental issues and tourism activities, Mr. Mohamed Mehdi Haloui, Director General of the Tunisian National Tourist Office, stressed that, in a territory like Djerba, the preservation of natural resources directly conditions attractiveness, calling for responsible investments geared towards resilience.
This call for informed decisions was extended by Mr. Nabil Ben Khatra, Executive Secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory, who stressed the central role of knowledge, field experience and decision-making tools, while recalling that solutions must be co-constructed with local actors and thought out at the territorial level.
Going back to the very origin of the summit, Mr. Patrice Burger, President of the Centre for International Actions and Achievements (CARI), recalled that this initiative was born from civil society, with a strong conviction: the solutions already exist on the ground and must be valued, shared and reproduced.
This local focus resonated in the messages delivered remotely. Ms. Yasmine Fouad, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), placed these issues on a global scale, calling for an acceleration of the implementation of commitments. Ms. Monique Barbut, French Minister for Ecological Transition, Biodiversity and International Negotiations on Climate and Nature, and former Executive Secretary of UNCCD, emphasized the need to scale up funding and political commitment, while Dr. Osama Fqeeha, Advisor to the President of COP17, positioned this deadline as a key moment to transform commitments into concrete results.
In the same vein, the partners stressed the need to break down silos between approaches. Mr. Kalifa Traoré, Director of the Institute of Rural Economy and Chairman of the Board of Directors of CORAF, highlighted agricultural innovation and local knowledge as levers for resilience, while Mr. Claude Gascon, Acting Director of Strategy and Operations of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), called for better linking of the needs of territories to existing financing mechanisms.
Finally, to give substance to this dynamic, Mr. Christophe Brosse, Director General of CARI, presented a program structured around co-construction, in line with the perspective of CoP17, and called for active participation in order to bring about concrete and operational solutions.
This first session thus lays the foundations for an open dialogue, where the convergence of perspectives and experiences becomes an essential condition for building responses that meet the challenges.
source : OSS
