Threads of Change

A story woven across continents, a single thread tells a powerful story

Natural textiles yield benefits for people and planet

The 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will be hosted by Mongolia in its capital city, Ulaanbaatar, from 17 to 28 August 2026.

Bringing together governments and a wide range of stakeholders to advance action on land restoration, drought resilience, water, rangelands and food systems, the theme for the conference ‘Restoring Land, Restoring Hope.’

At UNCCD COP17, our new campaign, Threads of Change, brings to life a powerful story.

The Threads of Change campaign is a story woven across continents - from the vast rangelands of Mongolia to the global stage of COP17. A single thread tells a powerful story: a story of nature restored, livelihoods sustained, and value created.

This unique collaboration brings together Mongolian herders and producers - stewards of rangelands - with sustainable fashion innovators, transforming natural fibres into a capsule collection of cashmere products including scarves, shawls and headbands, specially made for COP17.

Together, these partners and this collection brings to life - persuasively and beautifully - the nature-positive economic potential of our future.

Photograph of two people in green clothing helping a person lying on the ground in a grassy field. — Herders in Bayangovi, Bajanhongor province, Mongolia.

UNDP Mongolia / Asher Svidensky

Purpose-driven partners

UNDP Mongolia has helped restore degraded pastures, improve grazing practices, strengthen adaptation to droughts and dzuds (steppe livestock disasters), and expand market opportunities for pastoral herding communities to sustainably produced cashmere, wool, and other natural fibres, including those now supplying to BODIOS.

In early 2026, BODIOS harvested the premium, sustainably sourced Mongolian cashmere for the items of this campaign from pastoralist herder communities.

Untouched World then blended the raw cashmere received from BODIOS with rescued wool fibres to craft a limited ‘mini collection’ of exceptional quality cashmere items to showcase at COP17.

Smiling shepherd wearing a striped shirt in a fenced field with sheep.

UNDP

Working with herders, government, and private-sector partners, UNDP supports pastoralist communities build sustainable livelihoods and ecosystem health - including expanding market opportunities for sustainably produced cashmere and other natural fibres.

UNDP Mongolia

Woman in a brown cloak standing in a grassy field with a forest backdrop.

BODIOS

BODIOS is a Mongolian sustainable luxury fibre brand that works closely with local herders and sources premium natural fibres - including cashmere, yak down, and camel wool. The company prioritizes traceable, nationally sourced raw materials.

BODIOS

Untouched World

Untouched World is a New Zealand-based sustainable lifestyle brand built around natural fibres, ethical sourcing, and durable design. A certified B Corp enterprise, it uses responsibly sourced renewable fibres, and integrates environmental and social responsibility throughout its supply chain.

Untouched World

Realizing nature's value

Mongolia is the world’s second-largest producer of cashmere, accounting for roughly 40% of global supply.

Cashmere is a cornerstone of rural livelihoods in Mongolia: around 190,000 herder households raise cashmere goats. With an estimated 1.2 million people depending on the cashmere sector for their livelihoods - more than one-third of the country's population, there is a direct link between global demand for cashmere and incomes in rangeland communities.

Studies of Mongolian herding households show that cashmere can account for over half of household livestock-related revenue, and for smaller herders it can generate up to 56% of household income - a powerful example of nature’s value to jobs and rural livelihoods.

From rangelands to runways

From the rangelands of Mongolia to the global platform of COP17, this is a campaign anchored in the coming together of partners to produce a capsule collection of around 200 items of luxury cashmere products to demonstrate the opportunities and potential in connecting threads of a value chain that links sustainable pastoralism with international design, ethical production, and conscious consumers.

This story-driven collection of cashmere products:

Demonstrates the economic potential of sustainable land use and elevate the role of pastoralists and herders to audiences at COP17 and beyond
Aligns with the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists
Reinforces the importance of partnerships in nature-positive solutions linked to livelihood opportunities and economically positive outcomes

Featured story

A World Sustained by Rangelands

How evidence is shaping action on land restoration in Botswana, Kazakhstan, and Kenya

Read the full story

Open rural landscape with green fields, shrubs, scattered houses, and a distant lake.

Felt animals

As part of our Threads of Change campaign, we are collaborating with a Rehabilitation and Vocational Training Center to create felt animals. As the only specialized institution in Ulaanbaatar that provides vocational and technical training for persons with disabilities, the training center plays a key role in addressing barriers to employment and education.

Group photo of people around a table with wooden sculptures in a library. — The Training Centre is creating camels, goats, and musk deer for the UNDP COP17 Threads of Change campaign.

Join the Thread

Does your work or project support sustainable fibre manufacturing or production? If you’re interested in supporting or collaborating with this campaign, please Join The Thread.

This call to action to collaborate with the campaign invites anyone whose work connects to the threads of change being woven through the potential and opportunities of sustainable fibre to share their own work and stories.

We also welcome collaborators to help expand our reach by supporting our outreach and advocacy at UNCCD Land COP17 and beyond to your own networks and communities.