GEF Activities for Assessment and Monitoring for Sustainable Land Management Dr. Maryam Niamir-Fuller Principal Technical Advisor UNDP-GEF

Global Environment Facility (GEF) A multi-donor Trust Fund A multi-donor Trust Fund budget of US$ 3 billion budget of US$ 3 billion Available for projects that protect and enhance global environmental benefits Available for projects that protect and enhance global environmental benefits Implemented by UNDP, UNEP and WB Implemented by UNDP, UNEP and WB  With other executing agencies : FAO, IFAD, RDBs Scientific rigour assured by STAP (Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel) Scientific rigour assured by STAP (Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel) GEF is a financing mechanism of the UNCCD under the Focal Area of Land Degradation (desertification and deforestation) GEF is a financing mechanism of the UNCCD under the Focal Area of Land Degradation (desertification and deforestation)

Why should GEF Focus on Land Degradation ? It is the underlying cause of the breakdown of ecosystems integrity  affects ecosystem functions (cycles of carbon, nitrogen, water, etc) and services for human welfare  affects global processes Wind erosion and dust storms Micro- and meso-level impacts on cloud formation and rainfall patterns Carbon emissions (e.g. fires), sequestration (e.g. agroforestry) and sinks (e.g. grasslands) affects global carbon cycle freshwater flow regimes Even ocean temperatures ?

Affects other global goods, such as biological diversity and international waters is the leading cause of poverty and vulnerability of populations and livelihoods is, together with its consequences, mostly preventable but also difficult to reverse once it happens

GEF and Land Degradation GEF focuses on sustainable land management in three production landscapes : agricultural land, grazing lands, and production forests Programmatic Objective: To protect, restore and enhance ecosystem integrity, stability, functions and services, while enhancing sustainable livelihoods, through :  Demonstration of dissemination of sustainable land management techniques, approaches and solutions  Removal of critical barriers to sustainable land management (legal and policy barriers; institutional and governance barriers; economic and financial barriers; social and behavioral barriers; technology and knowledge barriers) Strategic Objectives of the LD focal area:  I: Promoting systemic change towards SLM  II: Facilitate replication and upscaling of successful SLM practices  III: Generating and disseminating knowledge that addresses current and emergent issues in SLM  IV: Promoting cross focal area synergies and integrated approaches to natural resources management

GEF initiatives of relevance to DeSurvey Global soil organic carbon (UNEP) – research on SOM cycles and trends LADA (FAO/UNEP) – Livestock and Wildlife interactions in dryland Africa (UNEP/ILRI) World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (UNDP) – research, advocacy Capacity building for Sustainable Land management (UNDP) – developing indicators for CB and mainstreaming (process issues) Knowledge from the Land (KM: Land) – UNDP coordinating inter- agency initiative

Knowledge from the Land - (KM:Land) Building a Community of Practice for the GEF Land Degradation Focal Area

KM:Land Overall Goals & Objectives Long term goal of KM:Land is to contribute to:  Enhancing ecosystem integrity, functions and services by encouraging the diffusion of best practices  Cross-fertilization of ideas, enhancing learning and capacity building  Increasing the opportunities for innovation in land degradation mitigation activities Objectives of KM:Land are:  to strengthen the capacity for adaptive management leading to enhanced effectiveness and impact on ecosystem integrity, stability, functions and services  to evaluate the impact and performance of the LD focal area

Three specific objectives 1. Portfolio and project-level indicators demonstrate global environmental benefits derived from actions on combating land degradation (consensus on 2-4 global indicators) 2. An expanded and coherent GEF LD portfolio is supported by a Learning Network linking GEF project stakeholders 3. A process is defined to establish a harmonized monitoring and evaluation system that supports adaptive management to maximize impacts of the GEF LD Focal Area

Knowledge from the Land KM:Land is a multi-UN agency initiative, coordinated by UNDP, and executed by UNU, and engaging: GEF, UNEP, FAO, IFAD, World Bank, Other partners are : UNCCD Secretariat, Global Mechanism, CIDA, Iceland, ….

FRAMEWORKDEVELOPMENT

Existing Frameworks - DPSIR State ImpactPressure Driving ForceResponse

GLOBAL REGIONAL LOCAL Human well-being and poverty reduction Basic Materials Health Good social relations Security Freedom of choice/action Direct drivers of change Changes in local land use Species changes Technology External input Resource consumption Climate change Natural drivers Indirect drivers of change Demographic Economic Sociopolitical Science & technology Cultural and religious Ecosystem Services Provisioning Regulating Cultural Supporting Long-term Short-term

GEF LD Framework Human well-being & Poverty reduction (basic materials, health, social relations, security, freedom) Pressure (Direct drivers) Response State Driving Force (Indirect drivers) Impact on Ecosystem Services (provisioning, regulating, cultural, supporting)

Using the Framework for Assessment

Indicator Selection Criteria CriterionDescription CredibleScientifically credible, at both global and local levels RobustBe relatively insensitive to expected source of interference Space-boundSensitive to changes in space Time-boundSensitive to changes within policy time frames MeasurableMeasurable in qualitative or quantitative terms Portable & UniversalBe repeatable and reproducible in different contexts Cost-effectiveBenefits should outweigh cost of usage, resource allocation CompatibleCompatible with indicators developed and used elsewhere Linked to managementLinked to specific management practice or interventions Scale of applicabilityProvide information at the right spatial and temporal scales

Support from STAP : three studies State of the knowledge on global impacts of Land Degradation (Stocking et.al.) Operationalizing the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment Approach (Niemeijer et.al.) Trade-offs : global vs. global, and global vs local (CSIR)

LINKAGES & NEXT STEPS

Key Linkages Collaboration within GEF family  Indicator development and KM in other focal areas, particularly Biodiversity and International Waters  LADA responds to the need to strengthen support to land degradation assessment at international and national levels. identifies socio-economic and environmental benefits in terms of conservation of biodiversity and international waters, and sequestration of carbon. relevant to the process of development of indicators of project- level impacts and, to a lesser extent portfolio-level impacts. However, LADA only covers dryland ecosystems, and will not address the issues of global benefit from SLM per se, nor tackle the issue of attribution LADA and KM:Land are very complementary, and will share governance structures

Key Linkages KM:Land will actively seek broad linkages at regional, international and thematic levels to help create the community of practices Linkage with UN CCD processes  Facilitation of national reporting  CST’s program of work Benchmark & indicators (work of GOE) Best practices Assessments

Key Linkages Linkage with international networks  CGIAR-system wide networks  World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism  Collaborative Forest Partnership of the UNFF  EcoAGriculture  Interagency and Expert Group on MDG Indicators  CBD’s work on drylands, forests and agrobiodiversity  UN FCCC’s work on Adaptation to Climate change, and CDM

Exploring linkages between KM:Land and DeSurvey :  Expert consultations (phase 1)  Testing models and indicators in pilot sites and pilot projects (all phases)  Scenario development (phase 3)  Community of practice; sharing experiences (phase 2 and 3)  Presentations at CCD related events (all phases)

Thank you