This Toolkit has been prepared to support the design and implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) programs. The specific purpose of the Toolkit is: to inform the user of the approaches that can be followed to analyze and value the economic costs of land degradation and the benefits of sustainable land management. ‘Land’ is interpreted broadly in the Toolkit, also including wetlands and coastal zones.

The Toolkit contains five Tools that together present a detailed description of the various relevant ecological and economic assessment methodologies. A number of case studies illustrate the application of thesemethodologies. For policy makers, an executive summary is provided that describes the basic approach and itspotential to support policy making in the field of land and ecosystem management.

The Toolkit is based on an in-depth literature review of (i) the theories and applications of environmental-economic valuation techniques; and (ii) the existing experiences with ecosystem services assessment in thecontext of sustainable land management. Furthermore, the Toolkit has benefited from comments of stakeholdersinvolved in SLM including the Technical Advisors of the LDC and SIDS Targeted Portfolio Project
This document has been produced by the Global Support Unit and was written by Lars Hein, Wageningen, the Netherlands