The Tools for Land Degradation Neutrality (TOOLS4LDN) project is an interdisciplinary global research collaboration to provide improved methods and tools for assessing land degradation and understanding the socio-economic conditions of vulnerable communities in affected areas through the integration of free and open platforms towards supporting country level implementation and reporting to the United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

This project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is aimed at mitigating land degradation towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3, a key component of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Co-PI Kevin Mwenda is leading efforts at Brown University towards identifying and integrating appropriate demographic and socio-economic data at sub-national, national and regional levels with climate data provided by partners on the project.

The goal of this project is to strengthen Land Degradation Neutrality and Drought resilience data and decision-Making by combining tools, databases and expertise from leading organizations and universities such as Brown University researching best practices and approaches to eliminating land degradation. This endeavor hopes to improve the livelihoods of those most affected, and to build resilience to safeguard against the most extreme effects of climate change.

Lopez-Carr, D., Brablec, G., Mwenda, K.M., Pricope, N.G., Teich, I., Fernandez, Maria Angelica., Noon, M., Daldegan, G., Zvoleff, A. 2022. A Review of Pilot Country Workshops in Support of UNCCD Strategic Objectives (SO) 1, 2, and 3: A case study testing the usefulness of the datasets and approaches suggested to monitor progress. PDF

Lopez-Carr, D., Mwenda, K.M., Mapes, K.L., Sokolow, S.H., Liu, L., and Pricope, N.G. 2021. A Review of Publicly Available Geospatial Datasets and Indicators in Support of UNCCD Strategic Objective (SO) 2: To Improve Living Conditions of Populations Affected by Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought. Tools4LDN Technical Report on Monitoring Progress Towards UNCCD Strategic Objective 2.

Pricope, N.G., Mapes, K.L, Mwenda, K.M., Sokolow, S.H., and Lopez-Carr, D. 2021. A Review of Publicly Available Geospatial Datasets and Indicators in Support of Drought Monitoring. Tools4LDN Technical Report

These reports were produced as outputs of the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded project 10230 “Strengthening Land Degradation Neutrality data and decision-making through free and open access platforms”. For additional information on the project see https://www.tools4ldn.org/

Pricope, N. G., Daldegan, G. A.,Zvoleff, A., Mwenda, K. M., Noon, M., & Lopez-Carr, D. 2022. Operationalizing an integrative socio-ecological framework in support of global monitoring of land degradation. Land Degradation & Development, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.4447

Project Website