RegenWA’s Program Manager, Bonnie Jupp, was recently selected as one of 14 Frontline Leaders by the UN Presidency to attend United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP16 in Riyadh.

Words Ross Anile, Project Officer and Value Chain Facilitator, WA Stonefruit

AT COP16, Bonnie was invited to speak on two panels, ‘Advancements in Soil Health and Land Restoration Monitoring’, and a Common Ground film screening with farmers and indigenous peoples panel discussion. During these panels, Bonnie received interest in how Perth NRM’s Natural Capital Accounting Project can be used to monitor, measure, and ultimately improve on-farm natural capital.

RegenWA’s Program Manager, Bonnie Jupp with international representatives at the COP16 convention.

Bonnie also drew attention to on-ground activities being supported through other projects, such as ‘Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture Adoption’, which is enabling action through demonstrations, discounted training, and peer to peer learning. These projects are supported by funding from the Western Australian Government’s State NRM Community Stewardship Grants.

Bonnie also participated in a dialogue which served as the precursor to the Riyadh Action Agenda. During this conversation, Frontline Leaders detailed the contributions required from an array of stakeholders to deliver on UNCCD’s commitments and global goals; to restore 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land by 2030 and 250 million hectares of farmland.

These commitments hinge on collective effort ; highlighted in Bonnie’s key takeaway that “we must ensure farmers, alongside Indigenous communities, are included at the decision-making tables so that we can have clear, genuine and effective action…policies and financing are the keys to unlock scaling-up.”

Through the upcoming Regenerative Food Systems Conference, and involvement in Perth NRM’s Collective Impact project, RegenWA Ltd is committed to collective responsibility for our land and our health; taking the local actions that spark global transformation.

“For WA, we can amplify the great work being done, and using demonstrations, case studies and toolkits for knowledge sharing/story telling to apply on-ground action at catchment scales.”

Bonnie’s participation at COP16 was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Meridian Institute.