The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3 states: “By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world”.

Target 15.3 has therefore become a strong vehicle for driving UNCCD implementation, while at the same time contributing to other SDGs, including those relating to climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem restoration, food and water security, disaster risk reduction, and poverty.

At the 12th session of the Conference of Parties of the UNCCD held in October 2015 in Ankara, Turkey, country Parties reached a breakthrough agreement to endorse this vision and link the implementation of the Convention to the SDGs in general, and target 15.3 in particular.

The Global Mechanism, in close collaboration with the UNCCD Secretariat, will support interested countries in the national Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) target setting process, including the definition of national baselines, measures and targets to achieve LDN by 2030.

We have therefore developed a global programme to support countries in setting national LDN voluntary targets. The programme builds on the successful experience of the LDN pilot project that ran between May 2014 and October 2015 with 14 LDN champion countries. This global programme is possible thanks to the commitment of partners such as the Global Environment Facility, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the Government of the Republic of Turkey (though the Ankara Initiative), Trinidad and Tobago, and the Republic of Korea (through the Changwon Initiative).

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