This paper examines the operability of the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) concept in a developing country context illustrated with the case of Nigeria, a country highly ranked as undergoing biomass degradation. While LDN offers an approach to monitor land degradation, through net-gain in land cover, land productivity and soil organic carbon, its operationalisation poses methodological, implementation and governance challenges. Based on a review of literature, available spatial datasets and the analysis of national policies, we examine the dynamics of land degradation and the prospects of LDN in Nigeria. We identify land pollution and gully erosion as further relevant indicators for LDN in the Nigerian context.

We found that current institutional arrangements are largely unconducive and incoherent for operationalising LDN. Despite Nigeria’s international commitments, current national policies with relevance to LDN are vague and fragmented, based on several old laws, and have important gaps for monitoring due to inadequate data, skills and expertise, inadequate coordination, and the lack of national LDN baselines. The limited power of the national environmental agency and the lack of political will to change this situation compound the challenges. However, two promising entry points for operationalising LDN include incentivising and monitoring Sustainable Land Management practices (SLM) of local resource users according to agro-ecological zones, and mainstreaming SLM into initiatives in its agriculture and environment sectors. These insights can inform the operationalisation of LDN in other African countries.