Delivering an enabling environment and multiple benefits for land degradation neutrality: Stakeholder perceptions and progress

Fast-tracking action on the Sustainable Development Goals by enhancing national institutional arrangements

Six years remain to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite some progress, institutional effectiveness for SDG achievement has not been delivered at a national level. Identification and establishment of an institutional framework to operationalise the 2030 Agenda within national plans, giving science-based coordination of SDG implementation a central role, is urgently required to accelerate progress. This paper tackles this challenge. Drawing on literature analysis, it asks: 1) What are the deficiencies in institutional national arrangements that hinder SDG implementation? 2) How can existing institutional deficiencies in SDG implementation be addressed? and 3) How can institutional changes support fast-tracking of SDG implementation processes at national level? Findings show that country-specific horizontal institutional arrangements are usually advanced. However, national visions to improve mainstreaming across decision-making at different levels to enable whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches to SDG implementation are commonly under-developed. Deficiencies are due to poor systematic engagement of scientific and technical expertise in operational day-to-day communication, as well as in the design, validation, implementation, monitoring and reporting of domestic SDG-related multi-stakeholder actions. Vertical institutional arrangements are complex, and risk resource-consuming, uncoordinated implementation. Our analyses suggest countries may benefit from establishing a national, centralised independent scientific and technical coordinating body for SDG implementation at national level, within existing science-based institutional arrangements. Such a body would not be led by governmental processes but would provide technical support to government agencies. We argue that scientific and technical skills in data and information management and quality control are central to coordinated and evidence-informed support, and could help to accelerate national SDG implementation. Such a supporting body would also enable a more joined-up approach between stakeholders working in the areas of science and technology, government and practice, improving orchestrated science-based actions and their auditing across sectors and stakeholder communities at national and sub-national levels. It would further guide actions to reduce trade-offs within national sustainable development aspirations, and would facilitate consideration of diverse values in advancing towards a durable and just transformative future. Such efforts are vital given the rapidly closing window of time for SDG achievement.

Land degradation neutrality assessment and factors influencing it in China's arid and semiarid regions

The ecosystems in China's arid and semiarid regions are notably fragile and experiencing dramatic land degradation. At the 12th Conference of the Parties (COP12) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in October 2015, a definition for land degradation neutrality (LDN) was proposed and subsequently integrated into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Research on LDN has developed in terms of conceptual framework constructions, quantitative assessments, and empirical studies. However, LDN and its drivers must be clarified in China's arid and semiarid regions since some representative processes have yet to be fully considered in the assessment. Here, we develop an LDN indicator system specialised for the area, assess their LDN status, and determine the impacts of human activities and climate change on LDN. Our research aims to refine the LDN indicator system tailored for China's arid and semiarid regions by incorporating the trends of wind and water erosion. We also identify the influence of human activity and climate change on LDN, which provides insightful strategies for ecological restoration and sustainable development in drylands with climate-sensitive ecosystems. The results show that: (1) In 2020, more than half of areas of China's arid and semiarid regions achieved LDN, with more pronounced success in the southeastern areas compared to the central regions. (2) For LDN drivers, elevation shows negligible influence on LDN, whereas increased temperature promotes LDN achievement. Conversely, factors like vapour pressure deficit and v-direction wind speed hinder it. In conclusion, China's arid and semiarid regions achieved LDN, and the dominant factor that substantially influences LDN varies across geographical zones, with higher wind speeds and elevated GDP levels generally obstructing LDN in most areas.