Land degradation adversely affects the businesses, communities, and species that depend on that land. It also contributes significantly to climate change and reduces land productivity. And it is the communities that are often already exposed to climate-related risks that are made even more vulnerable when the land they depend on is degraded. For instance, competition for scarce land resources is projected to increase social instability like conflict and migration (UNCCD, 2017).

To prevent land degradation and restore land that is already degraded, companies and cities need to take a holistic approach to setting science-based targets for nature. Companies’ and cities’ impacts on land come primarily from land transformation – changing from one land use category to another – and land occupation – the continuous use of an area of land for human-led purposes. We need to find more sustainable ways of using land so we can produce food, fiber, and fuel, transport it to market, and build infrastructure in a way that does not cause degradation.

By setting SBTs for nature, companies and cities can consider their impacts on land in relation to biodiversity, water, ocean, freshwater, and climate. Doing so will increase the return on investments made in the process of setting and taking action to achieve their science-based targets, thus supporting their goals in other areas, as well.

Craig Beatty (WWF), Marco Daldoss Pirri (Systemiq) and Scarlett Benson (Food and Land Use Coalition) from the Science Based Targets Network’s (SBTN) Land Hub, address some of the common questions about land science-based targets for companies, to be released as part of the first science-based targets for nature on May 24, 2023.

The Land Hub is led by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Conservation International with partners including Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), Systemiq Ltd., The Nature Conservancy and World Resources Institute.

Tell us a little bit about these first land science-based targets for companies?
Land science-based targets will give leading companies a unified framework that aligns their commitment and actions with what nature needs in land systems, backed by what science says is required. Specifically, these targets will help companies protect existing natural ecosystems, free up agricultural land and reduce its pressure on nature and will drive corporate engagement in delivering positive outcomes for nature across landscapes and especially in working lands.

The land targets are relevant for any company that has material impacts on nature through their impact on land use or change and through the management of land linked to a company’s operations or upstream supply chain (downstream activities are not covered in the first version). Depending on their material impact, sector, size and other factors, companies in, or sourcing from, a range of sectors can set land targets including (but not limited to): food, beverage and agriculture, forestry, fishing and aquaculture, bioenergy, mining, infrastructure, construction.

There are three complementary and linked SBTN land targets:

Target 1: No Conversion of Natural Ecosystems which avoids the loss of nature in land systems by addressing land conversion— the dominant driver of terrestrial biodiversity loss.
Target 2: Land Footprint Reduction which reduces the land use pressure of large agricultural areas whose expansion and ongoing impact has far exceeded the resilient capacity of the natural ecosystems on which these human systems rely.
Target 3: Landscape Engagement which puts company action and effort within the context of collaborative multi-stakeholder processes at the landscape scale to regenerate working lands, restore degraded or converted ecosystems, and transform the ways that they act in, and source from, landscapes.
Land targets mitigate biodiversity loss through reduction of land use and conversion pressures as well as ecosystem conservation and restoration. The first land SBTs have been designed to guide leading companies as they embark upon this critical transformation journey.

Through the piloting of these beta methods we will improve our understanding of how potential trade-offs can be managed and this will be reflected in future versions of the targets.

Finally, we would like to thank the great number of individuals and organizations who provided input into the development of these targets who are referenced in the acknowledgements section of the guidance, as well as the numerous companies and experts who provided input during the expert and public consultation.

The technical methods for the first land science-based targets will be published on May 24, 2023 as part of the new science-based targets for nature. Join our launch webinar for an overview.


What's coming up?

In early 2023, the Land Hub will launch initial science-based targets related to both land occupation and land transformation as part of SBTN’s SBTs for nature v1. These SBTs will allow companies to align with the directionality of the subsequent final targets and will bring working lands into the nature agenda.

The final SBT methods for land will be informed by the needs of land systems in terms of the physical extent and functional condition required to remain resilient to impacts of people in the long term. As such, the Land Hub is working closely with the Earth Commission and a network of scientists to understand the place-based and locally-relevant thresholds which will underpin these targets.


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