About ELD
The Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative was established in 2011 by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the European Commission. The initiative is coordinated and supported by the ELD Secretariat, which is hosted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
The initiative entered its second decade of activities. More than ever, this decade needs to bring "Transformative action for land".
► Read our "ELD Strategy 2023-2030: Transformative action for land"
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Our Vision
The ELD Initiative aspires to a world in which land is managed in a sustainable manner that preserves and restores natural capital including soils, water, and biodiversity, enhances ecosystem services, ensures climate-resilient landscapes and food systems, provides livelihoods, and secures the well-being of people and the rest of nature. In this world, land degradation is at least net neutral and preferably significantly reversed.
Our Mission
The ELD Initiative makes the values of land and its ecosystem services count in decisions – hence uncovering the true costs and benefits of land degradation and sustainable land management.
We do this with the aim to inform, promote, and scale land solutions for transformative change; these solutions include sustainable land management and restoration practices, policy instruments and institutional design, and financing solutions and strategies.
In working at the science-policy-practice interface, ELD brings scientific knowledge and evidence into political and business discourses and decision making.
ELD action areas
The work of the ELD Initiative is organized in three strategic and interconnected action areas:
Provide tools
and data
Provide tools, approaches, and methods, as well as datasets on the values of land and ecosystem services and promote their use for informing land use decisions.
Promote land
solutions
Promote the sustainable management of land by informing decision-making with demand driven and context-specific studies and assessment processes at global, regional, national, or local level that support and engage relevant stakeholders.
Partnerships, capacity-building, and communication
Scale ELD approaches and work through collaborating, exchanging, and learning in a multi-disciplinary network, with strong partnerships, capacity-building, and communication while linking to current policy discourses.
Our achievements and outputs
ELD secretariat team
The ELD initiative is coordinated and supported by the ELD Secretariat, which is hosted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) at the Sector Project on Soil Protection, Combating Desertification, Sustainable Land Management.
Nina Bisom
Position ELD Initiative Secretariat Coordinator Location ELD Initiative Secretariat, Bonn, Germany With ELD since Nina joined the ELD Initiative in July 2021 What she does As coordinator, Nina is responsible for the synchronization of partners and donors, strategic exchange and policy dialogue, internal and external communication, internal work streams, and dialogue with potential partners and partner countries. Background Nina holds a Master’s Degree in Political Sciences. Before she joined ELD, Nina worked for GIZ in different projects and positions. From 2006 to 2013, she worked on water policy issues, giving policy advice to the BMZ as well as between 2009 and 2013 to the Burundian government, supporting the Burundian water sector reforms and water resources management. She then worked on a GIZ sector project on environmental policy in Bonn, which she coordinated as team leader from 2017 to 2021.
Mark Schauer
Position ELD Initiative Senior Programme Officer – External Relations Location ELD Initiative Secretariat, Bonn, Germany With ELD since Mark re-joined the ELD Initiative in January 2024. What he does Mark is co-responsible for the communication with partners and donors, strategic exchange and policy dialogue and dialogue with potential partners and partner countries, facilitating synergies between the three Rio Conventions in ELD processes. Background Mark holds a master’s degree in Forest Management from the University of Göttingen, Germany. After his graduation and gaining hands-on experience in forest management, he worked in Europe, southern Africa and southern Asia on natural resource management and nature conservation, focusing on this issue's interconnectedness with development, poverty alleviation and institutional support programmes. He re-joined the ELD Secretariat in January 2024 after spending some years in a Forest Landscape Project with GIZ in Rwanda. Before joining GIZ, Mark worked for UNEP, the German Federal Ministry for Environment and the Forest Service. Mark’s work has for a long time been focused on coordinating projects which link economic and ecologic issues, providing economic information for better decision making in the context of sustainable ecosystem management.
Waltraud Ederer
Position Natural Capital Officer Location ELD Initiative Secretariat, Bonn, Germany With ELD since Waltraud re-joined the ELD Initiative in late 2019, after having already been part of the team in 2015 What she does Waltraud is mainly working on topics related to the ELD workstreams on natural capital and financing for sustainable land management Background Before Waltraud joined ELD, she worked at the interface of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Comprehensive climate risk management and the policy discourse on Loss and Damage built the core of her work as policy advisor. Coordinating capacity development formats and climate risk assessments (incl. economic evaluation) in partner countries used to be an important part of her work. She holds a Master’s Degree in Sustainability Economics and Management.
Johannes Kruse
Position ELD Project Manager Location ELD Initiative Secretariat, Bonn, Germany With ELD since Johannes joined the ELD Initiative in May 2022. What he does Johannes primarily works on network development, knowledge management and the science-policy interface. He also coordinates the communications work of ELD. Background Before joining ELD, Johannes worked as a policy advisor to the environment division of the German development ministry and coordinator of the BMZ Green Value Initiative – Natural Capital in Africa. He has extensive experience with integrating the value of nature in decision-making and policies in partner countries, development banks, and accounting systems. He holds a Master’s degree in Sustainability Economics and Management and a B.A. in Philosophy and Economics.