Environment Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo said that climate resilience and food security cannot be ensured without protecting land, adding that land should not be viewed merely as an environmental cost but rather as an economic and development priority.

He made the remarks on Monday at a ministerial dialogue on innovative financing mechanisms for healthy land and drought resilience, organised as part of Finance Day at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The minister said Bangladesh is working to reduce land degradation, prioritising soil fertility, forestland, waterlogging, hill erosion, coastal salinity and river erosion in national planning.

Bangladesh is transforming agriculture into a technology-driven and climate-resilient sector and expanding loans and agricultural credit support for farmers, he said.

He called on multilateral development banks and development finance institutions to use guarantees, first-loss capital and blended finance to ensure effective financing for smallholder farmers and land restoration.

Highlighting Bangladesh’s own initiatives, the minister said domestic financing for climate and land resilience has been provided through the Climate Change Trust Fund since 2009. One of the first such funds among developing countries, it has so far mobilised more than $495 million.

He said that with the support of this financing, 12 new stress-tolerant crop varieties have been developed and more than 19,400 metric tonnes of drought- and salinity-tolerant seeds have been distributed among farmers. But current demand has exceeded the fund’s annual allocation.

The minister said international financing should not be considered a substitute for national initiatives but should instead help bridge existing financing gaps. He proposed innovative mechanisms such as debt-for-nature and climate conservation and the issuance of green bonds for land restoration.

He further said such financing could help strengthen controlled groundwater recharge in the Barind region, agriculture, afforestation, climate-smart farming and coastal mangrove restoration under the national green mission to plant 250 million saplings.

On regional cooperation, the minister said changes in upstream water flows increase the risks of salinity and drought in deltaic countries such as Bangladesh. So joint initiatives are needed among countries sharing river basins to strengthen transboundary water-sharing arrangements and exchange information on water scarcity and land degradation.

The minister said Bangladesh is ready both to provide and receive cooperation. “We seek commitments that are specific, adequately financed and time-bound, so that land financing moves from the margins of decision-making to the centre,” he said.

Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa inaugurated the high-level segment of UNCCD COP17.