Public Lecture: SDG 15 – How Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) can help integrate and accelerate other SDGs

September 25, 2018 | 16:00 h - 17:00 h

Public Lecture on

"SDG 15 – How Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) can help integrate and accelerate other SDGs"

Speaker: <link https: snre.arizona.edu people barron-orr external-link-new-window internal link in current>Barron Joseph Orr, Lead Scientist, <link https: www.unccd.int external-link-new-window internal link in current>UNCCD

Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2018. 4:00 pm

Venue: Center for Development Research (ZEF), Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn in the right conference room (ground floor)

Highlights:

Sustainable Development Goal 15 is “Life on Land” and one of its core targets is Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). What is LDN and how can this new paradigm help integrate and accelerate other SDGs?

Abstract:

In 2030, the international community will be brought to account regarding the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For this to be accomplished in just 12 years, there is an urgent need to identify those targets which can accelerate progress and integrate the activities planned for multiple goals. SDG Target 15.3 calls on countries to “combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world”. This target is focused on the sustainable management and restoration of our landscapes – the main pillars for achieving Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) – in order to deliver many co-benefits, from biodiversity conservation and combating climate change to ensuring economic growth and human wellbeing. In this respect, the United Nations General Assembly, in its resolution 71/229 notes that “the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, including Goal 15 and target 15.3, would serve as an accelerator to ending poverty and hunger, tackling inequality, empowering women and stimulating economic growth”. It also “reiterates that degraded land, if recovered, would, inter alia, contribute to restoring natural resources, thus potentially improving food security and nutrition in the affected countries, and in the process could, inter alia, contribute to the absorption of carbon emissions”.  Land restoration initiatives, if designed with the intent of achieving multiple benefits simultaneously, can not only help ensure land degradation neutrality is maintained or exceeded, but also contribute to meeting the targets of a range of other SDGs.

About the Speaker:

Barron Joseph Orr, PhD is the Lead Scientist of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona (USA) and Profesor avalista at the University of Alicante (Spain). A former Marie Curie Fellow, he has worked over the past two decades on coupled human and environmental systems and bridging the divides between research, practice and policy.

For more information:

The Scientific Conceptual Framework for Land Degradation Neutrality
<link https: www.unccd.int publications scientific-conceptual-framework-land-degradation-neutrality-report-science-policy>www.unccd.int/publications/scientific-conceptual-framework-land-degradation-neutrality-report-science-policy

Manuscript: <link https: doi.org j.envsci.2017.10.011>doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2017.10.011

The event will free of charge and held in English. Please note: This event will be recorded for distribution through ZEF outlets. All audience members (or parents/ guardians of minors attending the event) agree to the possibility of appearing on these recordings by virtue of attending the event or participating in the event.