Guest lecturer from the ELD Initiative
This week Dr Richard Thomas, the Scientific Coordinator of the Economics of Land Degradation (ELD) Initiative, gave two-day course on the economics of land dynamics in GRÓ LRT six-month training programme. This was the fifth time that Dr Thomas contributed to the GRÓ LRT Programme as a guest lecturer.
In his lectures, Dr Thomas introduced the ELD framework for the consideration of the economic values of land. He talked about the valuation of ecosystem services, instruments to incentivise sustainable land management, and introduced the 6+1 ELD approach and methodology to assess the economics of land management. The theory and basic elements of cost benefit analysis was also covered, but that method is used to assess whether an action or project is worth undertaking.
The ELD Initiative is a global initiative established in 2011 by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the European Commission. The initiative works toward making the economics of land degradation an integral part of policy strategies and decision-making by increasing the political and public awareness of the costs and benefits of land (see www.eld-initiative.org). We thank ELD for the collaboration and providing the GRÓ LRT fellows the opportunity to learn about the economic aspects of land dynamics.