Sustainable Landscapes Rating Tool

– assessing jurisdictional policy and governance enabling conditions

The Sustainable Landscapes Rating Tool enables a rapid assessment of the key conditions for jurisdictional policies and governance that enable sustainable landscapes. The Tool provides a snapshot of a jurisdiction’s capacity to establish and ensure effective functioning of policies, plans, strategies, regulations, monitoring systems and multi-stakeholder platforms, which, collectively, have been found to be important in supporting sustainable landscapes.

The Tool applies an objective, evidence-based rating system to assess each of the identified key conditions. It collects and organizes complex information about policies and governance into a structured and easy-to-understand format.

Landscape actors including sub-national governments, producer organizations, NGOs and civil society organizations can use the tool to:

Communicate externally about the status of key enabling conditions to attract investment and other support
Benchmark progress on establishing enabling conditions against internationally-recognized criteria
Build support among diverse stakeholders and facilitate planning to address gaps.

Investors including investment funds, banks, commodity sourcing companies, bi-lateral and multi-lateral development agencies and international NGOs can enhance their investment decisions by using the tool to:

Identify jurisdictions likely to help them meet sustainability goals
De-risk investments by providing a due diligence framework to unpack and understand key policy, legal, governance and other enabling conditions
Identify priorities for policy and governance support that will help to facilitate transition to green growth.

Download the Sustainable Landscapes Rating Tool

Combining with other tools

The information about policy and governance conditions provided by the Sustainable Landscapes Rating Tool is important but not sufficient for a full appraisal of the opportunities and risks for sustainable landscapes. It is designed to be used in tandem with other tools and platforms that assess a jurisdiction’s progress towards sustainable landscapes goals in terms of outcomes, such as status and track record on deforestation rates, economic growth, crop productivity, human development, and social inclusion. Please contact Joanna Durbin jdurbin@climate-standards.org for information on using the Tool in combination with:

Conservation International’s Landscape Accounting Framework
Earth Innovation Institute’s Produce-Protect Platform
Verra, Rainforest Alliance and CCBA’s LandScale

Development of the Sustainable Landscapes Rating Tool

The Tool has been developed by the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) including Conservation International, Rainforest Alliance and Wildlife Conservation Society and partners including EcoAgriculture Partners and Global Canopy Programme. A concept was discussed with potential users at round tables held in London in June 2016 and Washington DC in July 2016.

An initial version of the tool was developed by a working group of representatives from the partner organisations and a trial was conducted by CCBA in San Martin in Peru in September 2016, conducting interviews to locate evidence. Feedback from the trial was used to develop a first draft in November 2016 which was circulated widely for review.

Draft Sustainable Landscapes Rating Tool – November 2016

The San Martin, Peru, rating was revised and validated in a one day workshop in Tarapoto on 25 January 2017.

Feedback from reviewers and from participants at the workshop in San Martin and at a workshop organized by CCBA and partners in Brussels were used to revise the draft version of the Sustainable Landscapes Rating Tool and to prepare Version 1.