The global regulatory context and reporting requirements are increasingly incorporating biodiversity and nature components for the private sector. This brief introduces how existing datasets, metrics and tools can help to report on biodiversity and nature outcomes in landscape and jurisdictional approaches so that those working on and supporting these initiatives can better align their data collection and reporting with global corporate reporting needs.

Landscape and jurisdictional approaches foster collaboration among stakeholders within a landscape to advance shared sustainability objectives and tackle systemic challenges like deforestation, biodiversity loss, tenure insecurity and livelihood sustainability. They aim to tackle environmental or social issues concentrated in a particular landscape through integrated landscape management and monitoring to have wider positive impact.

ISEAL and its partners have done considerable work on measuring household income among small producers within commodity supply chains and certification systems. The Living Income Community of Practice (LICoP), for example, has produced dozens of guidance documents and important lessons on income measurement among smallholder farmers. However, as organisations increasingly align their efforts, they are moving beyond specific producers to supporting income earning among diverse populations within larger landscapes.

Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is an important concept and process that has multiple benefits for landscape and jurisdictional initiatives. FPIC is about acknowledging and respecting the inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples to self-determination and control over their lands and resources. It represents a shift towards more inclusive, equitable, and respectful approaches to land use planning and programme implementation - a recognition that true sustainability cannot be achieved without the full and willing participation of those most intimately connected to the landscape.

From mid-2022 – mid-2024, ISEAL led a stream of work focused on Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) for landscape and jurisdictional approaches. As part of this endeavour, we committed to supporting three sustainability systems and related organisations through pilot project funding. The goal was to explore the practicalities of measuring landscape and jurisdictional level performance improvement to tackle sustainability issues at scale, with a particular focus on biodiversity and nature, human well-being, and human rights.

The aim of the ISEAL Measurement Working Group (MWG) is to advance measurement practices at a landscape or jurisdictional scale and, where feasible, promote alignment of specific indicators and data requirements for three thematic areas related to sustainability assessment: biodiversity and nature; human wellbeing; and human rights. The MWG brings together a variety of organizations that are developing tools and resources for implementing Landscape and Jurisdictional Approaches (LJAs).