The UNCCD’s scientific framework for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) explains how countries can design, implement and monitor LDN targets. To make LDN work in practice, two elements must come together: an enabling environment (institutions, finance, policies, regulations and science–policy links) and multiple benefits from halting and reversing land degradation (improved ecosystems, livelihoods and well-being). Within this, Integrated Land Use Planning (ILUP) and Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) are highlighted as core processes for achieving LDN.
seeks to balance economic, social, and cultural opportunities provided by land
with the need to maintain and enhance ecosystem services provided by
land-based natural capital. Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) is
interconnected with ILUP efforts. ILM ensures the land is managed to
reflect diverse stakeholders’ interests and values through a coordinated and
collaborative process across sectors. (Source: UNCCD SPI Report)
Integrated Land Use Planning (ILUP) is the assessment and allocation of land-based resources across a landscape, taking into account different uses and demands from multiple users and sectors. It coordinates planning and management across administrative or geographic units (e.g. catchments, regions, countries) to find land-use combinations that meet stakeholders’ needs while safeguarding resources for the future. By examining all land uses together, ILUP helps identify efficient trade-offs between options and links social and economic development with environmental protection, thus supporting sustainable land management. It is an umbrella term that includes, for example, territorial and spatial planning.
For LDN, ILUP focuses on balancing economic, social and cultural opportunities provided by land with the need to maintain and enhance ecosystem services from land-based natural capital.
–> Access the LDN-Toolbox directly
The Integrated Land Use Planning Cycle and the LDN concept:
Integrated Landscape Management (ILM) is about long-term collaboration among different stakeholder groups to deliver multiple landscape objectives. It is characterized by:
- Shared or agreed management objectives covering multiple benefits;
- Field practices designed to contribute to several objectives at once;
- Active management of ecological, social and economic interactions to enhance synergies and reduce trade-offs;
- Collaborative, community-engaged planning, management and monitoring;
- Adjustments in markets and public policies to support diverse landscape goals.
ILM focuses on how the landscape is managed, rather than just how it is zoned. Together, ILUP and ILM move beyond traditional, purely technical land-use allocation. They integrate environmental, socio-cultural and economic data, consider differing stakeholder preferences and legal standings, and operate through policy, regulation and zoning. Public participation, appropriate scale and attention to spatial and temporal dynamics are central to both approaches, making them essential for implementing the LDN “neutrality” principle—counterbalancing land degradation in one place with equivalent or greater gains elsewhere.
