National target setting to achieve land degradation neutrality in Asia and Pacific countries

12 July 2016
Story

The Asia and Pacific Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) target setting inception workshop - the third in a series of four workshops (Konya, Batumi, Bangkok and Buenos Aires) - was successfully held in Bangkok. These workshops have been organized in the framework of a global initiative of the UNCCD Secretariat and the Global Mechanism to support a growing number of countries that have committed to set national LDN targets – as of today, 95 countries.

The LDN Target Setting Programme (TSP) supports countries to define LDN baselines, targets and associated measures to achieve LDN by 2030 as called upon by the Sustainable Development Goals. It furthermore helps countries to create leverage at country level by making the country specific LDN business case, implanting LDN in selected high profile national policies and commitments, ensuring stakeholder engagement at the highest possible level as well as identifying opportunities for the development of transformative LDN projects and programmes.

The workshop was attended by representatives of sixteen countries in Asia and the Pacific. Country representatives, representatives of ADB, GEF, IUCN, and UNDP and the LDN TSP project team discussed the approach and steps towards setting voluntary targets aiming at achieving LDN by 2030. It was facilitated by the Global Mechanism and the Secretariat of the UNCCD, co-hosted by the Land Development Department of the Government of Thailand, and supported by a multitude of bilateral and multilateral partners. This event enabled participants to understand the key building blocks to defining national voluntary LDN targets and identifying transformative LDN projects and programmes.

Participants acknowledged that the LDN-TSP provides a versatile platform for raising national capacity and increasing investments in order to avoid, minimize and revert all forms of land degradation. The LDN approach is recognized to offer participating countries opportunities to mainstream sustainable land management issues on a new and higher political level, both nationally and globally. “For implementation of the LDN , we need two ingredients: finance & technical capacity. But more than that we need leadership! We need individual leadership at country level - from the national focal points up to the most senior levels of government. And we need collective action at all levels - country, regional, and global”, declared Dr. Pitayakon Limtong, Advisor to Land Development Department, the National Focal Point Agency of the Royal Thailand Government to UNCCD.

Participants recommended that LDN should be addressed not only at the highest in-country government levels but also at the regional policy-making level. Moreover, they alluded to the critical need to create synergies between UNCCD’s LDN approach and the other two Rio Conventions (CBD and UNFCCC) and explore options for co-operation and financing.