Promoting sustainable land management through evidence-based decision support

Countries have different ecological, political, economic and cultural contexts and characteristics. Nevertheless, they share several common barriers to mainstreaming and scaling out sustainable land management (SLM). They also share key opportunities which can help to overcome these barriers and create an enabling environment to facilitate the implementation and spread of SLM. This process requires context-specific mechanisms and decision-making processes at different levels, grounded in the existing wealth of evidence about SLM. This publication is a product of the GEF-funded FAO project ‘Decision Support for Mainstreaming and Scaling Out Sustainable Land Management (DS-SLM)’ which has developed a decision support framework (DSF). The DSF integrates experience from work with land degradation (LD) and SLM into an overall strategy for mainstreaming and scaling out SLM at different spatial and temporal scales. Such a strategy, put in place at the beginning of a project or programme, can ensure impact beyond a project’s implementation area and timeframe. Furthermore, if SLM is integrated appropriately into existing decision-making processes, the dependency on project-bound financial and technical support decreases, and there is a better chance of enhancing a process with sustained impact. The DSF is flexible and offers, through its modular format, different entry points. It is applicable at different scales, supports multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary processes, encourages and facilitates networking, dialogue, and partnerships, and it takes into consideration the use and management of knowledge. The DSF is divided into seven modules as follows: Module 1: SLM mainstreaming and scaling out strategy Module 2: National/ subnational level assessment Module 3: Selection of priority regions and landscapes Module 4: Landscape/ local level assessment Module 5: Land use/ territorial planning Module 6: SLM implementation and scaling out Module 7: Knowledge management for evidence-based decision-making The innovativeness of the DSF lies in the design and application of SLM mainstreaming and scaling out strategies, which are simple and proactive, flexible, and can be adapted over time, developed at different levels, and use key decision-making processes and instruments. This is illustrated by summarized experiences and insights from 14 of the countries that participated, demonstrating how the DSF can be moulded to fit various different contexts. Each case shows how the DSF ensures that land degradation and SLM evidence is integrated into decision-making processes to mainstream and scale out SLM. This publication serves as a step-by-step guide for the application and implementation of the DSF during planning, design and implementation of SLM interventions. It includes elements – both in its modules and proposed tools and methods – which can support countries in pursuing land degradation neutrality (LDN).