Implementation Strategy

G20 Ambition

The ambition of the G20 Global Initiative on Reducing Land Degradation and Enhancing Conservation of Terrestrial Habitats is to achieve a 50 percent reduction in degraded land by 2040.

Download Strategy and Workplan 2022-24 >>

Visual theory of change

Cross-cutting principles

Global and inclusive of all countries

While initiated by G20 members, the Initiative will seek to be inclusive of all countries who are interested in being be associated with it. All countries will have opportunities to both contribute to the Initiative as well as benefit from it.

All terrestrial ecosystems are included

The Initiative stresses that ecosystems including, but not limited to, forests, grasslands, drylands, rangelands, croplands, peatlands, mangroves, soil, tundra, karst and wetlands, are essential for the existence, survival and sustainability of biodiversity as well as food security and human well-being. Therefore, the Initiative will cover the entire range of ecosystems, which also include riverine systems and watersheds.

The important role played by cities

While global Initiatives often operate at the national level, cities can play an important role in the implementation of this Initiative. The Initiative will place particular emphasis on working with city governments to increase green cover within cities as well as improve ecosystem protection in peri-urban areas.

Multi-stakeholder-based

The initiative will work not only with governments but also with all other stakeholders: the private sector, academia, the media, communities, non-governmental organizations, faith-based institutions, financial institutions, etc. The Initiative will establish a number of new platforms to bring together the stakeholders who are interested in the domain area of land restoration and develop strategies and action plans to increase their participation.

Networks and partnerships

The Initiative will connect and generate functional partnerships with the United Nations Rio conventions (Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other global initiatives (Bonn Challenge, United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Importance of leadership

Transformative action in the domain of land restoration happens when visionary leadership take up land restoration and habitat conservation issues as one of their priorities and steers it towards upscaling and implementation. Learning from such leadership actions as well as recognizing them, including through global awards, is important to provide signals for leadership elsewhere. It is also important that emerging leaders from all sectors – politics, the public sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academia – are sensitized and trained to take up restoration and conservation issues so that interest on this topic continues from the current generation of leaders to the next.

Aligned with other initiatives

The Initiative will work with all stakeholders, government, private sector, academia, media, community, NGOs, financial institutions, and others.

Pillars of Action

Showcase

Showcase success stories that benefit nature and safeguard people’s lives, jobs and incomes.

Engage private sector

Engage the private sector in sustainable land management, land restoration and habitat conservation.

Empower civil society

Empower civil society and the public on land stewardship for sustainable development.

Share knowledge

Share knowledge and develop and mobilize capacity between G20 members, non-member countries and other stakeholders to collectively deliver on land conservation and restoration outcomes.

Key Performance Indicators

Director's Message

The year 2024 was pivotal for the Global Land Initiative. Land degradation and restoration remained prominent on the global policy agenda throughout.

The UN Environmental Assembly, G7 Leaders’ Summit, G20 Environment and Climate Change Ministers’ meeting, and BRICS Leaders’ Summit addressed land degradation and committed to scaling up land restoration efforts.

The European Union passed a new Restoration Law mandating quantitative targets for land restoration. The UNFCCC, UNCBD and UNCCD Conferences of the Parties (COPs), held during the last quarter of the year, reinforced land restoration as a crucial solution to combat land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change.

Building on this favorable policy momentum, the Global Land Initiative continued to develop and deliver a robust program. In collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), we completed a database on Global Restoration Commitments by countries under the UNCCD, UNCBD, UNFCCC and the Bonn Challenge.

Representing a significant increase in global commitments since 2021, the total global commitment now stands at 1.2 billion hectares, with 30 countries, including 11 G20 members, pledging to restore over 10 million hectares each.

The UNCCD, with financial support from the Global Land Initiative, published the first global restoration economy international report, titled, Investing in Land’s Future: Financial needs assessment for UNCCD. The report defines the private sector’s growing role in land restoration and its potential for creating green jobs.

The study outlines key recommendations to support the growth of the restoration economy, which has an associated market survey valued at $37 billion globally, growing at 8.2% annually and is projected to reach $70 billion by 2031. Together, these studies stressed the need for focused policy action to encourage private sector investment and engagement in the restoration economy.

Working with the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Global Land Initiative launched the first cohort of the “Global Ecopreneurs Program,” training 100 young entrepreneurs from restoration startups. These entrepreneurs received training on improving business plans and pitching to investors. We plan to scale this program regionally to reach 10,000 ecopreneurs by 2029.

Training remained a cornerstone of the Global Land Initiative, with programs on the restoration of mining areas, of urban lands, of lowland-based systems, of drylands and with biosaline agriculture. These trainings consistently attracted more applications than available slots. To accommodate this high demand and broader participation, we also conducted online webinars on these topics, in English, Arabic and French.

The first University Curriculum Course on Sustainable Agriculture for Land Restoration was launched this year. It reached over 400 university teachers, with over 100 trained on implementing the curriculum. A university module on urban land restoration is in its final stages.

Representatives from 25 countries attended the second Global Changemaker Academy for Parliamentarians held in Bonn. With the European Union Restoration Law’s passage, global best practices can now be discussed and adapted to national contexts.

The Global Land Initiative’s visibility surged with participation in the G20 Environment and Climate Change Working Group meetings in Brazil, the COPs of the UNCBD and UNCCD and 7 other international exhibitions. In December, the Initiative, in partnership with Germany’s Federal Museum of Arts and Sciences, opened the Save Land: United for Land Museum Exhibition, the first museum exhibition on land restoration, which will run until June 2025.

Online engagement grew, reaching over 35,000 newsletter subscribers and over 14,000 followers across social media platforms, and a global reach of nearly 400,000. The Global Photography Festival, which attracted 17,000 entries from 154 countries, further boosted visibility.

The Global Restoration Information Hub was launched in July 2024. It is a compilation of globally available data on land restoration from credible sources. The site provides information on global best practices, restoration commitments, best practice legislations, documentaries, restoration actors and other databases.

The Initiative issued a global call for communities and NGOs to submit their restoration projects for small grant support, receiving over 600 submissions from 100 countries. Forty-one projects from XX countries were selected for funding.

[Statement on faith, if the faith report is finalized]

The G20 Global Land Initiative Steering Committee was kept informed of developments through regular communication. It met in July and continues to provide guidance on program implementation. It received the work plan for 2025-26; an exciting period of action is ahead.

Executive Director's Message

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo.

Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus.

Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus.

Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum. Nam quam nunc, blandit vel, luctus pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas nec odio et ante tincidunt tempus. Donec vitae sapien ut libero venenatis faucibus. Nullam quis ante. Etiam sit amet orci eget eros faucibus tincidunt. Duis leo. Sed fringilla mauris sit amet nibh. Donec sodales sagittis magna. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit cursus nunc,