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"
No time? Here is a short cut to our strategy » ELD brochure
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
ELD makes the values of land and its ecosystem services count in decisions: We provide robust economic evidence and support its use in land decisions 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 for land. 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
