Resource-Efficient Land Use – Towards a Global Sustainable Land Use Standard (GLOBALANDS)

Given the challenges of future land use policies addressing sustainable natural resources management and socioeconomic aspects, the inter- and transdisciplinary GLOBALANDS (Global Land Use and Sustainability) project identified relevant international policy options, their synergies and possible implementation, and initiated and supported respective processes. GLOBALANDS identified also “windows of opportunity” to strengthen sustainable land use through international policies based on an extensive screening of the most important international policies - both governmental and non-governmental approaches - with relevant impacts on land use.

Key processes which could strengthen global governance towards sustainable land use are:

• The proposed UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in which land is covered partially.
• Mainstreaming of sustainable land use in existing UN and international governance systems such as UN conventions to allow for more coherence
• Better safeguarding of sustainable land use in project-level financing of bi- and multilateral devel-opment agencies and bodies.
• The private sector can play an increasing role in the governance of sustainable land use, but this may require e.g., a certification system.
• GLOBALANDS developed a new (complementary) approach for land-related indicators which integrates environmental and social aspects through the formulation of sustainable land use practices for different actors, and regions. The application of such indicators is possible within the process of regionally or nationally implementing the SDGs.

A final outcome of the GLOBALANDS project are policy recommendation for Germany policy to foster sustainable land use in the international governance system. Also, key open (research) questions were identified.