Land in balance: The scientific conceptual framework for Land Degradation Neutrality

Cowie, Annette; Orr, Barron J.; Castillo, V.; Chasek, Pamela; Crossman, Neville D.; Erlewein, Alexander; Louwagie, Geertrui; Maron, Martine; Metternicht, Graciela; Minelli, Sara; Tengberg, Anna; Walter, Sven; Welton, Shelley

doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2017.10.011

Cited by 472 publications

(258 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…In order to establish the current LDN status, we used LC as the global indicator (Cowie et al, ). For each LC class, LCC (LCC = LC 2012 − LC 1990 ) was determined using a 100 × 100‐m spatial grid.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land cover transitions and changing climate conditions in the Polish Carpathians: Assessment and management implications

Kędra

Szczepanek

2019

Land Degrad Dev

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Widespread, human‐induced land cover (LC) transitions in areas surrounding national parks and nature reserves, accompanied by changing climate conditions, can trigger serious consequences for these natural environments and their ecosystems. The aim of the study was to assess the direction and magnitude of transitions in LC in the Polish Carpathians since 1990 for determining the current status of land degradation neutrality and future degradation risk as well as to analyze concomitant changes in climate conditions to enable sustainable land management. The study area encompasses six national parks with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization biosphere reserves, several dozen nature reserves, and landscape parks and is a key source of drinking water in Poland. We studied detailed changes in LC (13 classes). The Wilcoxon signed rank test indicated significant increases in built‐up areas (urban fabric and industrial/transport infrastructure), waters, dense forest cover, and herbaceous vegetation but a decrease in heterogeneous agricultural areas. On the basis of two new methods, we assessed the LC transitions for 20 mountain catchments and for the entire Polish Carpathians. Although we found a slight positive transition in LC for the entire Polish Carpathians, clearly negative transitions occurred in the five analyzed catchments, including those covering two national parks. These LC transitions are accompanied by changing climate conditions with significant increases in air temperature and precipitation. The ongoing intensive urbanization in the studied mountain region, which is accompanied by significant regional warming, implies the need to apply sustainable management practices that will avoid or reduce degradation in the catchments involved.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land cover transitions and changing climate conditions in the Polish Carpathians: Assessment and management implications

Kędra

Szczepanek

2019

Land Degrad Dev

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“…The long‐held promise of ecological restoration becoming widespread and adopted by organizations at all levels is upon us (Aronson & Alexander ; Perring et al ). In the last half‐decade, international organizations have adopted restoration within their policies (Alexander et al ) and international agreements have set ambitious restoration targets (Suding et al ; Cowie et al ). Of course, there is heightened activity in restoration at all levels and across all biomes; it is truly a remarkable time for the often urgent tasks of helping recover damaged, degraded, or destroyed communities, ecosystems, and landscapes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The implications for restoration are significant. In the case of recent policy guidance from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification based on the SER Standards (Cowie et al ; Orr et al ), restoration is portrayed as “pre‐existing biotic integrity, in terms of species composition and community structure…” What lies beyond restoration is rehabilitation, which is weakly defined internationally and encompasses a wide range of activities (e.g. reclamation, revegetation) along what is asserted in the SER Standards as a “restorative continuum.” Thus, much of what is practiced as restoration in heavily transformed landscapes in Europe, emerging novel ecosystems in Australia, or ecosystems tied to food security in Africa would not fit this model of restoration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On principles and standards in ecological restoration

Higgs

Harris

Murphy

et al. 2018

Restoration Ecology

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The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) has long debated how to define best practices. We argue that a principles‐first approach offers more flexibility for restoration practitioners than a standards‐based approach, is consistent with the developmental stage of restoration, and functions more effectively at a global level. However, the solution is not as simple as arguing that one approach to professional practice is sufficient. Principles and standards can and do operate effectively together, but only if they are coordinated in a transparent and systematic way. Effective professional guidance results when standards anchored by principles function in a way that is contextual and evolving. Without that clear relation to principles, the tendency to promote performance standards may lead to a narrowing of restoration practice and reduction in the potential to resolve very difficult and diverse ecological and environmental challenges. We offer recommendations on how the evolving project of restoration policy by SER and other agencies and organizations can remain open and flexible.

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“…Indeed, most non-specialists including public stakeholders probably presume this meaning of NNL (that is, no further loss of biodiversity compared to what now exists, whatever the cause of losses). For example, the goal of 'land degradation neutrality' is to be achieved relative to 2015, the year the approach was developed 5 . Nevertheless, even the current state of natural capital is usually imperfectly known.…”

Section: Reference Scenarios For Nnlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the term NNL was first popularized during the 1988 United States presidential election campaign of George H. W. Bush 3,4 , such goals increasingly have become embedded within international pledges 5,6 , national and regional government policies 7 , voluntary corporate sustainability policy 8 and lending requirements for major financial institutions 9 . For example, the European Commission is exploring policy options for a European Union-wide NNL Initiative, and countries including France, Colombia and Peru have recently introduced legislation that includes such goals 10,11 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%