During the 23rd Session of the Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC23), held from 1–5 December 2025, the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS) hosted the side event “Innovative Technologies for Land Degradation Monitoring and Intervention.”
From 13–15 October 2025, the EuroGEO Workshop took place at the World Forum The Hague, Netherlands. Organized by the European Commission, the EuroGEO Secretariat, and the Netherlands Space Office, the event brought together Earth observation (EO) experts, policymakers, private sector actors, and representatives of GEO flagships and initiatives such as Copernicus and ECMWF to advance collective Earth Intelligence.
From 6–9 October 2025 in Dakar, Senegal, AfriGEO, the African initiative of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), convened its 9th Symposium under the theme ‘From Data to Impact: Strengthening Africa’s Geospatial Future.
Team Benin is advancing its roadmap to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030. The plan combines capacity building, comprehensive data collection, and the use of geospatial tools, including a Google Earth Engine application to monitor progress. With support from the GEO-LDN Flagship, Benin is working to restore 1.25 million hectares of degraded land while limiting further loss of healthy land.
The LDN Toolbox is a curated entry point to help users select the right analytic tools and methods for monitoring land degradation and planning restoration. Structured along the land use planning cycle, it features applications like Trends.Earth, LandPKS, and KoBo Toolbox, enabling countries to combine satellite data with field feedback for effective LDN action.
From 5 to 9 May, GEO-LDN actively engaged in the GEO Global Forum in Rome, contributing to discussions on the value of Earth observation data for monitoring and national reporting processes. The week highlighted the relevance of geospatial information in supporting countries to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) and reinforced GEO-LDN’s positioning as a Flagship Initiative.
In 2023, the GEO-LDN Flagship established an international postgraduate program focused on land degradation neutrality (LDN) at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in Ghana.
At UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh (2–13 December 2024), GEO-LDN showcased how geospatial data drives global land restoration. Through its Pavilion, multilingual workshops, and country use cases, GEO-LDN fostered collaboration among 10 countries and experts worldwide. Highlights included capacity-building, storytelling for land restoration, and the launch of a new Regional Dialogue Forum for Pacific SIDS.
The #HowToLDN series highlights the efforts of intersectoral country teams to implement their roadmaps towards Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). These teams have been supported by the GEO-LDN flagship program since our 2023 Global Dialogue Forum in South Africa. This post highlights Team Peru: Background Peru is the third largest country in South America, and its … Read more
Today’s spotlight is on Mongolia, where over 76.9% of land is affected by desertification, driven by overgrazing, mining, and climate change.
Team Mongolia’s roadmap to 2032 focuses on improved land use/land cover (LULC) mapping, identifying tree species for reforestation, and modeling future land use changes to guide data-backed policies. Restoration efforts in Dariganga and Eastern Mongolia use satellite tools like Sentinel-2 to monitor vegetation, sand movement, and protect habitats of Mongolian gazelles and white-naped cranes.
