A storytelling workshop during the GDF 2024.
Photo: Mark Grasy
Building skills to restore land
By Julia Bayer-Cremer and Alicia Hupperich
Land degradation neutrality (LDN) is more than a global goal – it is a necessity for ensuring food security, climate resilience and biodiversity conservation. But achieving LDN requires more than just technology and data. People are called for – skilled professionals who can interpret data, understand landscapes and make informed decisions. That’s why the GEO-LDN Flagship Initiative puts education and capacity development at the heart of its work.
The Initiative is part of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and works closely with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Launched in 2018 during the GEO Week in Kyoto, Japan, GEO-LDN helps countries integrate Earth observation (EO) tools into their national planning, monitoring and decision-making processes. One key component of this support is practical and accessible education. The Initiative secretariat is hosted by the Global Project “Geodata for Development – Supporting the GEO-LDN Initiative” of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is an intergovernmental initiative comprising a current 116 member states and the European Union. It has 157 participating organisations and more than 20 private sector associates. GEO supports its member states to advance access to open Earth observations. It offers all countries the opportunity to benefit from collective knowledge, expertise and skills to develop national Earth observations programmes.
GEO-LDN’s geospatial approach to monitoring land degradation offers valuable benefits across all three Rio Conventions – the UNCCD, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – by providing consistent, science-based data that can inform integrated reporting and planning. By using harmonised Earth observation tools and indicators, countries can more efficiently track changes in land productivity, vegetation cover and carbon stocks, which are relevant for climate adaptation and mitigation, biodiversity conservation and sustainable land management. This alignment not only reduces duplication of effort but also supports more coordinated policy responses and investment planning at national and international levels.
From the lecture hall to the field – a landmark programme in Ghana
In 2023, the GEO-LDN Flagship established an international postgraduate programme at the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in Ghana. The programme comprises the degrees Master of Science in Land Degradation Neutrality (MSc – LDN), Master of Philosophy in Land Degradation Neutrality (MPhil – LDN) and Doctor of Philosophy in Sustainable Land Management (PhD – SLM). All three courses are designed to respond directly to the needs of countries implementing LDN strategies.
Currently in its second year, the programme is funded by scholarships awarded through a transparent selection process. A total of 29 students are now enrolled. Their research topics range from land tenure security to coastal erosion monitoring and the role of EO in climate adaptation.
One of these scholars is Edward Boamah, a GIS and remote sensing specialist from Ghana who works with Digital Earth Africa (DE Africa). Digital Earth Africa is a data platform providing planners and policy-makers with crucial satellite Earth observation information. The data supports better decision-making in areas such as land management, food security, sustainable urbanisation and coastal management.
Boamah is not only pursuing a PhD in Sustainable Land Management, he also applies what he learns in real time, supporting Ghana’s intersectoral team on coastal erosion and contributing to international training events. “The programme has given me both theoretical foundations and hands-on experience,” Boamah says. “With tools like DE Africa and Trends.Earth, I can now better support national decision-making and environmental conservation efforts.”
Through his PhD programme, Boamah was also able to attend the UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia in 2024 as an expert of GEO-LDN. At the COP, he held workshops and presentations representing Digital Earth Africa.
Learning without borders – webinars and e-learning
Beyond academic programmes, GEO-LDN offers flexible and open formats to reach professionals world-wide. Since 2023, it has hosted regular online seminars designed to share practical knowledge on the use of geospatial data for land use planning. These sessions have drawn participants from more than 30 countries, offering a space for shared learning and technical exchange.
In addition, GEO-LDN, in cooperation with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UNCCD, and hosted in the FAO e-learning academy, provides self-paced e-learning courses tailored to the needs of national planning teams. One course focuses on how to use land cover data for monitoring Sustainable Development Goal indicator 15.3.1 (“proportion of land that is degraded over total land area”). Others address the use of satellite imagery and open-source platforms to track environmental change. These training materials are available on the GEO Knowledge Hub and are frequently updated.
In-person trainings during Dialogue Forums
Additionally to the E-learning courses, GEO-LDN regularly hosts Dialogue Forums at national, regional and international level, the latest one having been held during the UNCCD COP16 in Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia. The GEO-LDN Flagship brought together eleven country teams from ten nations – Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Benin, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mongolia, Georgia, Colombia and Peru – to showcase how geospatial data can support efforts to combat land degradation. These teams, composed of experts from environmental ministries, research institutions and civil society, are part of GEO-LDN’s growing global network working to integrate Earth observation into national land restoration strategies. The Dialogue Forum provided a valuable platform for these countries to share progress, challenges and innovative approaches, while strengthening technical skills and deepening collaboration through a series of workshops and knowledge exchange events.
Each of the eleven participating country teams took part in targeted trainings on tools like Google Earth Engine Apps and Trends.Earth, building technical skills for analysing and reporting on land condition.
Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a platform combining a vast catalogue of satellite imagery and geospatial datasets with powerful analysis capabilities, enabling users to detect changes, map trends, and quantify differences on Earth's surface. Browser-based apps based on GEE can facilitate tasks like finding land degradation hotspots and monitoring restoration efforts. GEE is free for academic and research purposes.
Trends.Earth is a free, open-source tool for analysing land change, utilising data from global and local sources. As a plugin for QGIS, a free and open-source GIS, it provides an easy-to-use interface to measure SDG Indicator 15.3.1 (proportion of degraded land) using satellite Earth observations on land cover, land productivity and soil organic carbon (SOC). It offers a direct interface to PRAIS, the reporting platform of the UNCCD.
The trainings were offered by experts in the field and held in English, Spanish and French in an effort to include every team member equally. One highlight was the storytelling workshop, where teams worked on refining how they communicate their use cases to decision-makers and the public. These interactive sessions not only enhanced practical knowledge, but also fostered peer learning and exchange across countries, reinforcing the value of collaboration in the fight against land degradation. The next Dialogue Forum, in Fiji this time, is to centre on the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) and will be held in collaboration with the United Nations University (UNU-EHS).
Country support – learning by doing
Technical support is another key learning avenue within the GEO-LDN Initiative. Through hands-on, country-specific guidance, GEO-LDN supports national teams in implementing land degradation neutrality (LDN) – from assessing land productivity and selecting appropriate data sources to preparing national reports. This practical approach combines training with real-time problem-solving, enabling institutions to build long-term capacities while addressing concrete challenges using real data. To ensure that this knowledge extends, GEO-LDN has also established its first regional helpdesk. Hosted by the Regional Centre for Mapping Resources for Development (RCMRD) in Kenya, the helpdesk supports RCMRD member states and other Parties to the UNCCD in monitoring progress towards SDG target 15.3.
Growing a global community of practice
GEO-LDN’s education efforts aim to do more than teach skills – they seek to build a community of professionals committed to using geospatial technologies for sustainable development. Whether through academia, government or NGOs, these professionals play a crucial role in transforming data into decisions.
As countries continue to identify ways to balance development with conservation, the need for data-literate, land-smart professionals will only increase. GEO-LDN is working to ensure that they are ready.
Julia Bayer-Cremer is an Advisor for Stakeholder Engagement & Communications in the Global Project “Geodata for Development – Supporting the GEO-LDN Initiative”, at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in Bonn, Germany.
Alicia Hupperich is a Student Trainee in the Global project “Geodata for Development – Supporting the GEO-LDN Initiative”, at GIZ in Bonn.
Contact: info(at)geo-ldn.org
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