Unprecedented is the number of international efforts by governments and private actors alike that seek to foster sustainable landscapes around the globe for the wellbeing of humans and nature. Working towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the Bonn Challenge, the New York Declaration on Forests, the Aichi Targets of the CBD, the Paris Agreement, or regional efforts like the African Agenda 2063, the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn 2018 aims to accelerate and mobilize collective action on the ground.

Great emphasis is currently being placed on achieving transformational change and paradigm shift through policies and measures to implement the Paris Agreement and the UN 2030 development agenda, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF). There is a need to improve our understanding on how to enable, operationalize, measure and evaluate the intended, lasting outcomes.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a conceptual framework of 17 goals and 169 targets. An abundance of interlinkages exists between them. Land targets are core to achieving most of the SDGs including poverty eradication, food security, gender equality and empowerment of women, adequate housing and urban development, mitigating and adapting to climate change, reducing and preventing land degradation, and fostering peace and stability for prosperity.

The Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) was tasked by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) in its 50th session to “work jointly with custodian agencies and establish a fruitful dialogue between all parties, to further refine the guidelines by taking into account concerns raised at the forty-ninth session of the commission and to prepare criteria for implementation of the guidelines that are based on best practices and on ways to limit the burden that the

In April 2019, UN Habitat through the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) and Global Urban Observatory (GUO) Units; with support from the Global Land Indicators Initiative (GLII) contacted National Statistical Offices (NSOs), National Land Registries and SDGs focal points with the aim of mobilizing existing data on land tenure security in response to SDGs indicator 1.4.2. The data drive was conducted in support of UN Habitat Database for Human Settlements Indicators, for which 1.4.2 is part of.

Policy reform is required to more accurately value natural capital and incentivize green investments through aligned subsidies, supportive financial measures, and risk mitigation support.

A centralized system that synthesizes evidence and connects projects to investors would both improve awareness of initiatives and funding sources, and build capacity and financial literacy.

Key information gaps persist in reporting, monitoring and impact assessment. Leveraging a centralized system could reduce redundancies, enhance cost-effectiveness and bridge finance gaps.

We are probably at the most crucial crossroad of humanity’s history. We are changing the earth’s climate as a result of accelerated human-made Greenhouse Gases Emissions (GHG) and biodiversity loss, provoking other effects that increase the complexity of the problem and will multiply the speed with which we approach climate chaos, and social too.

Authors: Larson, A.M.; Dokken, T.; Duchelle, A.E.; Atmadja, S.; Resosudarmo, I.A.P.; Cronklet

Authors: Colfer, C.J.P.; Sijapati Basnett, B.; Elias, M.

The case studies from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, the Philippines and Viet Nam highlight how forest landscape restoration (FLR) interventions enhance food security. They illustrate the ‘win-win’ solutions that can enhance land functionality and productivity, develop resilient food systems and explore the long-term potential outputs and enabling conditions for FLR interventions.

Increasing demand for food, fiber and raw materials is putting more and more pressure on (often) fragile landscapes. Today, about one-fifth of all cultivated land suffers from some form of degradation, such as salinization, deforestation, erosion, excessive fertilizer use, waterlogging and poor nutrient availability (ELD Initiative 2015). Degradation often goes hand in hand with the worst poverty, affecting the lives, health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.

The deforestation-free movement (or “zero-deforestation”) has emerged recently in a context of lower state control, globalization and pressure on corporations by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) through consumer awareness campaigns, acknowledging the essential role of agricultural commodities in deforestation. It takes the form of commitments by corporations to ensure that the products they either produce, process, trade or retail are not linked to forest conversion.