The LDN Fund requires that each project in which it invests contribute to the achievement of LDN.
This LDN impact monitoring methodology has been developed to outline how LDN Fund investments can monitor LDN impact at project scale, and for assessing the overall contribution of a project to achieving national LDN targets. It has broader applicability, as the approach can be used by any Sustainable Land Management (SLM) project to monitoring their contribution towards the achievement of LDN.
LDN Monitoring Methodology
The vision of LDN (SDG 15.3) is keeping land in balance in order to ensure food security, healthy ecosystems and human wellbeing. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the custodian agency of the LDN indicator, and the scientific community of the UNCCD developed a methodology and indicators to track progress towards LDN at a national level. This methodology was, however, not yet readily applicable to investments.
The LDN TAF therefore supported the LDN Fund in developing a methodology (download publication here) for measuring and tracking progress on LDN impact at investment project level, directly tied to SDG target 15.3. This was done by partnering with Conservation International and their Trends Earth platform and GlobalGeoHub, in close consultation with the UNCCD.
Read more
Download publication
Project Monitoring Case Studies
As part of the “Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Fund Impact Monitoring Methodology” developed by Conservation International and OpenGeoHub two pilot studies were completed – Mountain Hazelnut Ventures – a fully traceable hazelnut production business in Bhutan, and Café Selva Norte – a sustainable coffee production project in Northern Peru, part of the Urapi Sustainable Land Use program, managed and operated by Ecotierra.
The pilot includes project baseline for the three LDN indicators, changes in land cover, land productivity and soil organic Carbon, which also includes recommendations on how to monitor the indicators over the project lifespan, and an appendix presenting an assessment of potential impact of project activities on the three LDN indicators which is intended to inform the implementation of the monitoring plan.
