Land Degradation Neutrality and the UNCCD: From Political Vision to Measurable Targets

Abstract

Efforts to establish Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) as a global objective in the fight against land degradation culminated in 2015 when LDN became part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (target 15.3). Following swiftly, the twelfth session Conference of the Parties (COP 12) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) decided to integrate LDN into the Convention process and invited countries to set themselves national voluntary targets to achieve LDN. This recognition of LDN at the political stage created the need to further operationalize the concept of LDN and transform it into an implementable approach that helps countries to make progress towards reaching the SDGs and the objectives of the UNCCD. Given that LDN is essentially a “not net loss” approach it requires the quantification of land degradation. As such, a particular challenge lies in identifying and measuring appropriate indicators that allow for monitoring changes and tracking progress.

Against this background, the aim of this article is both to describe the integration of LDN in the UNCCD process and explain how and with which indicators LDN might be monitored. To start with, Sect. 1 illustrates how LDN was established as a political goal and provides an overview of the most important decisions of COP 12 in this regard. Then, Sect. 2 describes the meaning of LDN and presents the basic elements of the LDN conceptual framework that is currently being developed by the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI). Subsequently, Sect. 3 explores how LDN can be measured, monitored and reported. It starts by giving an overview of the SDG indicator framework and then discusses opportunities and challenges of monitoring LDN. Following sub-sections present the approved indicator for reporting on LDN, the currently discussed sub-indicators and how they are embedded in a broader monitoring approach. Eventually, Sect. 4 provides some preliminary conclusions on the on-going process of transforming the political vision of LDN into measurable targets.