Report: LDN contributing to global biodiversity conservation goals

Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) can directly support the achievement of more than three-quarters of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, according to a new report published by the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD, in collaboration with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The report “Land Degradation Neutrality for Biodiversity Conservation: How Healthy Land Safeguards Nature” highlights how LDN can address the priorities of both the CBD and the UNCCD in an effective and complementary manner. According to the report, LDN and the CBD’s 2011-2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity have multiple mutual objectives aimed at promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, ecosystems and biodiversity and can therefore strongly reinforce each other. Both also include a commitment to socio-economic goals, including contributing to health, livelihoods and well-being and ensuring that the benefits from the sustainable use of land and biodiversity accrue to all, especially women, indigenous communities and the poor and vulnerable.

The report provides concrete examples of how LDN can support the achievement of each of the Strategic Goals of the CBD’s Strategic Plan and suggests how synergies can be further exploited by countries in their efforts to achieve both LDN, through their voluntary national LDN targets, and their National Biodiversity Strategies And Action Plans (NBSAPs), by promoting actions to address the drivers of land degradation and biodiversity loss, protect ecosystems and support climate action.

Good practices from around the world which are highlighted in the report include:

• The Philippines’ approach to integrating the three Rio Conventions with its national development strategies on agriculture, natural resources management and climate, and actions to prevent and reverse conversion and degradation in over 6 million hectares by 2030;
• Benin’s new Mono Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, recognized by UNESCO, protecting some 345,000 hectares of forests, savannas, wetlands and mangroves;
• Chile’s target to afforest 140,000 hectares primarily using native species and to improve the management of livestock grazing near protected areas;
• Moldova’s focus on conserving and improving the fertility of its soils, by expanding forest cover and establishing greenbelts and buffer strips.

As the process of defining the post-2020 global biodiversity framework moves forward and the 2021-2030 UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration unfolds, the report notes that there is strong potential to step up joint action on these agendas. In this context, the international community has an unique opportunity to better reflect the synergies between LDN, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration targets in the and also to scale up joint UNCCD and CBD implementation to raise both awareness and financial support for action on biodiversity loss and land degradation and make a pivotal contribution to achieving national and international objectives.

The full technical report and the accompanying briefing note are both available to download.