A technical workshop brought together public institutions, universities, and environmental organizations to validate indicators for the country’s upcoming national report to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
The Daily Journal.- Venezuela made progress in reviewing technical and methodological criteria for measuring land degradation during a workshop held on October 13 at the headquarters of the Ministry of People’s Power for Ecosocialism (Minec) in Caracas. The initiative forms part of preparations for the country’s upcoming national report to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
Abigail Castillo, the Convention’s technical focal point, and Carmen Parra, its Science and Technology Correspondent in Venezuela, led the workshop. The meeting aimed to validate geospatial methodologies for calculating the proportion of degraded land across the country using indicator 15.3.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The workshop’s findings will contribute to the fourth reporting cycle of the Performance Review and Assessment of Implementation System (PRAIS 4). This mechanism monitors countries’ progress in fulfilling their commitments under the Convention.
The event brought together specialists from Minec, the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC), the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), the Rómulo Gallegos National Experimental University of the Central Plains (UNERG), and the National Climate Crisis Observatory (ONCC). Representatives from the Venezuelan Society of Soil Science, the National Academy of Housing and Habitat, Provita, and the Montalbán Agroecological School also participated.
Discussions focused on three key variables for assessing land degradation: changes in land cover, land productivity trends, and variations in soil organic carbon stocks.
Franklin Paredes of the ONCC presented the international methodology for analyzing land cover trends. Subsequently, Mylena Gutiérrez, a UCV researcher and MapBiomas-Venezuela specialist, coordinated a working group to establish national criteria for classifying land cover changes as degradation, stability, or improvement.
Regarding land productivity, Yamil Madi, from IVIC, outlined geospatial variables to identify the most appropriate productivity dynamics model for the country’s different bioclimatic regions. Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Rey, from the Venezuelan Society of Soil Science, addressed the analysis of soil organic carbon trends.
By validating these indicators, participants aim to establish common criteria to develop a national assessment of land degradation and identify priority areas for environmental intervention.
The initiative also seeks to align desertification monitoring with Venezuela’s climate commitments, including its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for 2025–2030 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The technical findings from this process will support the development of a national land degradation map and help establish voluntary targets and actions to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). This goal seeks to balance losses and gains in soils’ productive and ecological capacity.
