Share your best practices
For UNCCD stakeholders the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) is the primary recommended database for best practices on “sustainable land management (SLM) technologies, including adaptation”.
WOCAT facilitates the exchange of knowledge on this topic with stakeholders worldwide – from land users to decision-makers – with the aim to improve land management.
In 2015 all data on SLM best practices, as previously shared through the UNCCD PRAIS system in the UNCCD reporting process, was migrated to the WOCAT platform. The WOCAT secretariat has revised the template for reporting on best practices in their database, based on guidance and feedback received from UNCCD country Parties.
If you have an example of an SLM best practice you would like to share, you are invited to do so through the WOCAT platform, using the new revised template. The template provides you with many tools to make reporting on best practices easy for all stakeholders. To report a best practice on SLM, please follow the steps below.
Registering with WOCAT
Visit the WOCAT login page
If you already have an account with WOCAT, click on “Login” in the upper right corner of the page (1).
If you do not already have a WOCAT account, click on “Signup for a new account” (2).
Fill in the form as requested. Fields marked by an asterisk (*) are mandatory. Under the "Institution" tab, enter the first letters of your institution’s name and see if the full name comes up. If your institution's name is not in the list, please contact the WOCAT Secretariat so that they can help you complete your registration.
Make sure that you have entered a correct e-mail address. Your account registration request will be sent to this address for confirmation. Click on “Send” to finalize your registration.
Go to your e-mail account and follow the instructions in the automatic e-mail you receive.
You will then need to wait for the WOCAT Secretariat to review your information and send you the confirmation e-mail. Once you have received the confirmation e-mail, you will be able to log into the WOCAT SLM Database with your email address and password.
How to add a new best practice
Start by reviewing the Core Questionnaire, which gives you an overview of the information you will be expected to provide to register your practice in the database. The questionnaire can be downloaded here. Once you have reviewed it, please follow these steps:
Go to the WOCAT SLM Database. The following window will appear:
Click on “Add” under SLM technology. The “Login” form will open. Enter your e-mail address and password that you used when registering with WOCAT.
The “New SLM Technology” page will open. You will be assigned the role of a “compiler” of the technology. Read the Introduction to the questionnaire (3) and follow the help tour by clicking on the links (4).
Click on “Start data entry” to add your technology (5).
The data entry form consists of seven sections. Click on the button to edit a section and enter your data. The numbers beside the blue boxes indicate how many questions have already been completed in this section.
After entering the data, the form can be saved as a draft. If you would like to continue with the questionnaire, click on the “Edit” button. As a compiler responsible for the data entry, you are also able to invite editors, who also need to be registered as a WOCAT user, to review the questionnaire by clicking on the “Manage editors” button.
Once the data entry is complete, the compiler can submit it for review. After the review, it will be submitted for publication and your SLM technology will become available online through the WOCAT SLM Database.
For UNCCD reporting countries are invited to share best practices on SLM through the WOCAT database or through other platforms, and include the link in the PRAIS report.