Why does the world need a focus on Landscape Policy?
As we all know, the world has been at a crossroads for some time. Countries have signed up for landmark targets with various UN conventions to help address challenges of Climate Change (UNFCCC), Biodiversity loss (UNCBD), and landscape degradation (UNCCD) to achieve SDGs and NDCs as per the 2015 Paris Accords. However, the 2024 G20 Declaration reported SDG achievements at a meager 17%! It’s not surprising if we take a moment to understand the simple reason – required targets and actions have not (entirely) become a part of our core policy. Some countries have done it better than others, and we have moved along, but there’s still ways to go.
Also during a G20 interview, the World Bank chief highlighted – ‘If countries introduce the correct policies and regulatory frameworks, it can reduce the investment needed to meet an SDG goal by half!! This has 2 benefits – It does not just reduce the friction to get there, it also helps the private sector engage to help get us there’. Thus, endorsing a need for strong policy. The G.A.L.L.O.P. Initiative was put together in 2020 to specifically address this need! Working with EcoAgriculture Partners we are now on a path to ensure we don’t come short on global goals due to a lack of policy action!!
Our plan is to build and disseminate policy models for managing landscapes as a ‘whole’ via better community and stakeholder collaboration in this ‘UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration‘. It would help address most challenges via bottom-up action in a systemic way to achieve SDGs and NDCs seamlessly. As a convening partner for the 1000 Landscapes for 1 Billion People (1000L) program, EcoAgriculture Partners appreciates its importance. The 2019 EU Green Deal was the world’s first, targeting Net Zero by 2050. An ambitious 55% reduction is planned by 2030, and the 1000L partner recommendations to help the process via holistic landscape restoration are already provided to the EU.
To highlight the need for this, after the energy and transportation GHGs, the major cause of most perils is the mismanagement of landscapes. Integrated Landscape Management (ILM), an approach by the UNCCD wherein land use, tenure, resources, and capacities are managed locally and problems addressed at source – is the winner. This has returned multiple dividends wherever deployed and will help address global goals. However, though there have been many good projects executed, successes have not been replicated uniformly, or scaled up. This is due to lack of central policies that could address linkages to support landscapes and encourage the spread of ILM! Moreover, a digital ILM network can be the vehicle to share other sustainable development practices, knowledge, guidelines to become an enabling mechanism for all-of-society in the future.
Research shows every dollar invested in the landscape provides a return of 7–30 times. It would be appropriate to say any investment in landscape policy will further double this impact, based on the WB head’s above comment. In its absence, siloed financial flows will not deliver desired results, once the right policy is in place, Integrated Landscape Finance (see Report) can make a big difference. Thereafter, each investment can be deployed as per the landscape’s priority. This seals the case now to invest and develop a Landscape Policy Lab (LAB) rather than spending billions each year to fight climate change and other disasters – the downstream effects are too exhaustive to be even listed. Ideally, it would be good to have all human land use under ILM for structured management and governance via policy, then government and civil society can participate to help get scale. At minimum governments, and society need to ensure everyone can contribute to the World Bank’s ‘Clean, Green, and Resilient‘ vision. This needs policy incentives to help provide direction, and align resources that help scale up faster. I realized this within the past decade as a result of my ground involvement with large landscapes in central India as part of Project Tiger under the World Bank’s Global Tiger Initiative. The learnings therein combined with my corporate, non-profit and policy work over the decades helped in framing the G.A.L.L.O.P. initiative. To take it forward, we have now developed a Concept note for the Landscape Policy Lab. In this journey, a policy brief & white paper were developed along with Columbia and Cornell Universities. The UNDP, World Bank, government representatives and NGOs were consulted. The brief was released at the 2022 UNCCD Conference (COP15) and since socialized at the UNCBD and UNFCCC forums. The white paper was released on the Evidensia platform with representatives from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the USDA.
We are at a point in history to envision a new way to live in a post-Covid world towards global goals for a healthy planet, people and nature. ILM needs policy design and testing for operating various processes, and finances. Towards this, WWF incubated and spun off a Landscape Finance Lab. The World Bank has instituted a Private Sector Investment Lab with 15 industry stalwarts. Now we need to move forward and set up a Landscape Policy Lab for inclusive land management. Thereafter, the private sector can participate for an all-of-society and all-of-economy approach to scale up!
While the outcome remains to be seen, we would be glad to collaborate to help heal the planet! Let’s come together to invest in Landscape Policy for a better life and save trillions in climate change and other calamities in the decades ahead!
Look forward to hearing from you,
Bhushan H. Sethi and Sara J. Scherr
Bhushan H. Sethi 