*[Enwl-eng] GEO-LDN Initiative launches competition to design a land use planning software for Land Degradation Neutrality

[ENWL]

GEO-LDN Initiative launches competition to design a land use planning 
software for Land Degradation Neutrality

                              NO. 04/2020
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                              The GEO-LDN Initiative launches a competition
                              to design a land use planning software for 
Land Degradation Neutrality

                              Bonn, 20 July 2020 – An international 
technology competition to design software that can support well-informed 
land use decisions is launched today by the Group on Earth Observation Land 
Degradation Neutrality (GEO-LDN) Initiative.

                              As reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate Change, up to 70% of the Earth’s ice-free land has already been 
transformed from its natural state, mainly to meet the demand for food, raw 
materials and human settlements. “As the pace of land conversion continues 
to rise, we need to shift the focus of land conservation efforts to the 
point when land use decisions are made, so that the trade-offs from 
competing demands for limited land resources can be navigated successfully,” 
says the UNCCD Lead Scientist Dr. Barron Orr.

                              Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) is a unique 
approach that balances the expected loss of productive land with the 
recovery of already degraded areas. LDN strategically places its three 
pillars of conservation, sustainable land management and restoration in the 
context of land use planning. Today, over 120 countries have committed to 
set national voluntary LDN targets. However, as reported by the UNCCD 
Science-Policy Interface (SPI), limited national progress is evident when it 
comes to establishing effective integrated land use planning systems and 
embedding a neutrality mechanism into them.

                              Recognizing the importance of filling this 
critical gap, UNCCD country Parties tasked the SPI with the development of a 
demonstration, resulting from an open call, of how LDN can be incorporated 
into existing open source land use planning and trade-off analysis tools. To 
address this mandate, the GEO-LDN Initiative and the SPI are launching a 
competition.

                              The challenge is to develop a software that 
can support the implementation of a “neutrality mechanism” within a 
well-established open source model. “This no-net-loss land use planning 
module would help users to map anticipated future impacts of land use 
decisions for a given area. A planner would be able to generate a scenario 
where all expected losses of productive land can be counterbalanced with 
planned gains for each land type,” explains Dr. Orr.

                              The purpose of the competition is to inspire 
innovation and collective action towards LDN. Eligible participants include 
teams composed of at least one technical implementer and at least one 
end-user, such as a local government institution involved in territorial 
planning, a civil society organization engaged in sustainable land 
management or an indigenous community fighting against land degradation and 
land take. Winning solutions will be promoted by the GEO-LDN Initiative and 
the UNCCD for use by countries who are setting voluntary LDN targets and 
reporting on SDG Indicator 15.3.1 “Proportion of land that is degraded over 
total land area.” The winning team will receive financial and technical 
support valued at USD100,000 to transform their prototype into an 
operational and scalable tool.

                              For more information, please visit the 
competition’s website: https://www.geo-ldn.org/ or contact Ms. Sara Minelli 
sminelli at unccd.int, Programme Officer on Monitoring and Assessment.

                              For media-related questions contact: 
wwischnewski at unccd.int or press at unccd.int



                              From: UNCCD Secretariat
                              Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 7:44 PM
                              Subject: GEO-LDN Initiative launches 
competition to design a land use planning software for Land Degradation 
Neutrality









                                About the UNCCD
                                The UNCCD is an international agreement on 
good land stewardship. It helps people, communities and countries to create 
wealth, grow economies and secure enough food and water and energy, by 
ensuring land users have an enabling environment for sustainable land 
management. Through partnerships, the Convention’s 197 Parties set up robust 
systems to manage drought promptly and effectively. Good land stewardship 
based on a sound policy and science helps integrate and accelerate the 
achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, builds resilience to 
climate change and prevents biodiversity loss.























                              Copyright © 2017* United Nations Convention to 
Combat Desertification*, All rights reserved.

                              For more information on the Press Release, 
contact
                              Wagaki Wischnewski
                              Public Information and Media Officer




                              From: UNCCD Secretariat
                              Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 7:44 PM
                              Subject: GEO-LDN Initiative launches 
competition to design a land use planning software for Land Degradation 
Neutrality








 
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