A Standardized Approach to Measuring

Landscape Sustainability Performance

The LandScale assessment framework helps users gain critical insights, make more informed decisions,
and share credible stories of impact. It provides a holistic overview of a landscape in relation to four
pillars of sustainability: ecosystems, human well-being, governance, and production.

The framework is grounded in key international norms and methods for assessing sustainability,
including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It’s structured hierarchically to allow for
global consistency and local adaptability.

Pillars and goals provide an integrated structure for assessing sustainability, which users can tailor to
different landscapes by selecting context-appropriate indicators and performance metrics. It’s possible
to defer the assessment of a certain percentage of indicators if data is not available.

The framework includes three categories of indicators:

Core indicators are deemed critical to landscape sustainability in all contexts and are
therefore required as part of all LandScale assessments.

Landscape-dependent indicators must be included in assessments in contexts where they

are deemed applicable. For example, water quantity-related indicators should be included in
water-stressed landscapes.

Optional indicators may be included in an assessment at the user’s discretion. Users may
want to assess optional indicators because they provide additional context on landscape
sustainability or address priorities of certain stakeholders.

See the detailed description of the

assessment framework to learn more.
Assessment
Framework
Ecosystems
Protect and restore natural ecosystems
Natural ecosystem protection
Natural ecosystem conversion
Natural ecosystem degradation
Ecosystem restoration
Natural ecosystem connectivity
Protect and restore biodiversity
Threats to species
Biodiversity habitat conversion
Biodiversity habitat degradation
Biodiversity habitat restoration
Biodiversity habitat protection
Maintain and enhance ecosystem services
Water quantity
Water quality
Agriculture, forestry, & other land use
(AFOLU) sector GHG sources & sinks
Soil health
Other ecosystem services
Human
Governance Production
Well-Being
Improve standard of living, especially for Recognize and protect rights to land and Promote regenerative agricultural,
vulnerable and marginalized groups resources, and reduce related conflicts agroforestry, and tree production systems
Household income and assets Land tenure Agricultural, agroforestry, and
tree plantation productivity
Health and nutrition Land conflicts
Input use efficiency in
Education Resources tenure agricultural, agroforestry, and
Water, sanitation, and hygiene tree production systems
Promote transparency, participation,
Basic infrastructure Adoption of sustainable land
inclusion, and coordination in land use
management practices
Vulnerability policy, planning, and management
Adoption of sustainable waste
Land use plan adoption management practices
Respect, protect, and fulfill human rights and enforcement
Child labor Coordination of government
agencies in land-use policy,
Forced labor planning, and management
Workers’ rights Stakeholder participation and
Other human rights inclusion in land-use policy,
planning, and management
Illegality and corruption related
to land and resources
Core (required)
Landscape-dependent
(where applicable)
Optional