19 January 2012: The report from the Multi-National Final Workshop of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) pilot impact indicator tracking, which convened on 6-7 October 2011, in Changwon, Republic of Korea, has been released.

The objective of the workshop was to facilitate countries piloting the UNCCD Impact Indicators to develop lessons learned on the feasibility and applicability of the indicators and to synthesize them into key messages to be presented to the tenth meeting of Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the UNCCD, which met immediately after the workshop. The workshop was facilitated by the UNCCD Secretariat, the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), and Barron J. Orr from the Office of the Arid Lands Studies of the University of Arizona. Participants from Armenia, China, Colombia, Senegal, South Africa and Spain reported on their experience with the indicators.

Key messages included: reporting on UNCCD Impact Indicators contributes to an improved understanding of the land degradation process; the UNCCD impact indicators can help to identify priority areas of intervention; the pilot exercise has raised awareness of data availability and accessibility; data and capacity for reporting the UNCCD impact indicators exist, but improvements are needed; harmonisation of data and reporting standards, nationally and internationally, should be encouraged where appropriate and feasible; data access can be improved through promoting cooperation among conventions, ministries and institutions; and the COP should encourage government institutional and financial commitment to facilitate data sharing, analysis and reporting. In addition, some pilot countries found that national data collated for reporting to other Rio Conventions were challenging to access. [Workshop Report]