In September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including target 15.3, which aims to strive towards land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030. This has opened a "window of opportunity" for many countries to strengthen policies for sustainable use of land and soils. This chapter first outlines the concept, the main elements and the current international framework for assessing the progress towards SDG target 15.3. Ecologic Institute's authors propose a stepwise approach to further tailor national requirements with the overall goal of LDN implementation. Since both the concept of LDN and the internationally agreed implementation framework leave room for national interpretation, the example of Germany is used to illustrate how the implementation process can be set up at the national level and what experiences have been made.

This chapter builds on the insights of the German research project 'Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals on Soils in Germany' carried out by the Ecologic Institute on behalf of the German Environment Agency and the German Federal Environment Ministry. The project was finalised in July 2017.

The yearbook 2017 presents an important discussion on soil and sustainable agriculture from a range of perspectives, addressing key topics such as sustainable intensification, the FAO Voluntary Guidelines, and the crucial role of appropriate tenure rights.

The "International Yearbook of Soil Law and Policy" is a book series that discusses central questions in law and politics with regard to the protection and sustainable management of soil and land – at the international, national and regional level.