Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Certification Standard
| Standard Development Process Timeline | Initiated from May 2020 |
| Chairperson | Dr. Devendra Pandey, Former: PCCF &HoFF, Arunachal Pradesh and ex DG, Forest Survey of India |
| Standard Development Group | Stakeholder Mapping being carried out |
Land degradation due to competing land use is one of the biggest challenges faced by the world today. It is estimated that about 30% of the total geographical area of India is affected by land degradation. India faces a huge pressure on land resources due to the high density of human and life stock population which is expected to increase further. For reversing land degradation to support and sustain its ecosystem services and improve productivity, country parties of the United Nations Convention for Combating Desertification (UNCCD) in October 2015 agreed on a new paradigm called land degradation neutrality (LDN). A Global effort to restore deforested and degraded land at the landscape level launched by the leaders of the world in 2011 at Bonn on the initiative of IUCN and Germany known as Bonn Challenge has become an integral part of the UNCCD program. India made a pledge at Bonn Challenge to bring 13 million hectares of degraded land into restoration by 2020 and an additional 8 million hectares by 2030 or a total of 21 million ha which has been revised to 26 million ha in the COP14 meeting of UNCCD.
During the COP14 meeting of UNCCD in September 2019 in India, NCCF organized a side event on “Certification of Natural Resources to Combat Desertification and Restoring Landscapes” focusing on the sustainability of forests, agroforests, urban forests, and NWFPs, helping in combating desertification and achieving the ultimate goal of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). It was recommended that NCCF should develop the Certification Standard for Land Degradation Neutrality. Certification standard for Land Degradation Neutrality will be impactful in terms of promoting responsible management inputs for land restoration. It will test the sites at the landscape level where all the conditions of ecological restoration are fulfilled. Forest certification systems have in-built specific Principles, Criteria, and Indicators to reverse and arrest land degradation and check desertification
Keeping in view the above, NCCF has initiated the process for the development of Certification standard for Land Degradation Neutrality by constituting a multi-stakeholder Standard Development Group (SDG) which is the apex body for developing the Standard under the Chairmanship of Dr. Devendra Pandey.
We seek your valuable comments, feedback, and suggestions to take this idea forward and elicit the support of relevant stakeholders
Mail: ldn.mail@nccf.in
Document Library
| EoI for participation | TOR- SDG- LDN | Draft Concept Note |