In Step A, you must register all members of your assessment team, clearly indicating their roles and responsibilities. You can also upload CVs or other relevant documents detailing their skills and expertise.
If you are not able to lead the assessment or require specific expertise that is not available within your organization, refer to the 'Terms of Reference' template below for guidance on recruiting suitable team members.
Assessment team composition
Role
Description
Owner
The individual(s) responsible for the landscape profile and the associated assessment(s). Owners have full control and access to the landscape profile and can transfer ownership to another individual at any time, if necessary. Owners can also add new users. Multiple owners may be designated for a single landscape.
Assessment lead
The individual responsible for leading the assessment team and ensuring the successful execution of the assessment. The assessment lead also has the authority to edit the landscape profile and can add new users. Only one lead can be assigned per assessment.
Assessor specialist
A subject matter expert who provides specialized knowledge and expertise for specific aspects of the assessment. Specialists should collectively cover all topics within the scope of the assessment. They can view the landscape profile, but must be granted permission to make edits.
Qualifications and expertise
Required subject matter expertise
The assessment team must have technical expertise across all sustainability themes within the assessment scope. This includes interdisciplinary knowledge in areas such as land use, natural resource management, commodity production, social development, and governance, as well as sector-specific expertise in agriculture or forestry if these are relevant to the landscape.
The team's expertise must cover all pillars of the LandScale assessment framework. Below is a summary of the areas where expertise is needed. Some areas marked '(optional)' indicate expertise that may only be required if those specific indicators are included in the assessment.
Pillar 1: Ecosystems
Natural ecosystem protection, conversion, and degradation.
Biodiversity habitat protection, conversion, degradation, and restoration.
Restoration of converted and degraded ecosystems (optional).
Connectivity and fragmentation of natural ecosystems (optional).
Water resources measurement (optional).
Greenhouse gas emissions (sources) and carbon sequestration (sinks) associated with agriculture, forestry, and other land use activities (optional).
Ecosystem services measurement (optional).
Pillar 2: Human well-being
Due to the sensitive nature of human rights issues addressed by the LandScale framework, the assessment team must meet specific qualifications for assessing human rights indicators. This includes expertise related to the human rights issues covered in the LandScale framework (child labor, women's rights, Indigenous Peoples' and other marginalized groups' rights, forced labor, and workers' rights).
At a minimum, the team must include an expert who meets the following qualifications to ensure that the human rights indicators are assessed in a rigorous and objective manner:
Proficiency in the local language(s) of the landscape.
Commitment to objective and inclusive assessments, including a willingness to engage with marginalized or vulnerable groups separately as needed.
At least 3 years of experience in human rights issues and impact assessments.
Strong understanding of key human rights issues affecting local people and communities.
Experience conducting surveys, interviews, focus groups, and other types of engagements with workers, households, and local communities.
Familiarity with the local culture, context, and politics.
Additional areas of expertise needed within this pillar include:
Multidimensional poverty assessments, covering education, sanitation, health, nutrition, etc.
Human rights impact assessments (child labor, forced labor, workers’ rights) (optional).
Pillar 3: Governance
Land and resource tenure.
Land and resource conflicts.
Transparency, participation, inclusion, and coordination in land-use policy, planning, and management.
Illegality and corruption related to land and resources (optional).
Pillar 4: Production
Productivity of agricultural (crop and livestock), agroforestry, and tree production systems in the landscape (optional).
Efficiency of input use in agricultural, agroforestry, and tree production systems in the landscape (optional).
Adoption of sustainable land management and waste management practices in agricultural and forest plantation operations in the landscape (optional).
Expertise in other natural resource-based production sectors (optional).
Required technical skills
Data and analysis
Expertise in social and environmental data collection and analysis.
Ability to identify data sources, assess data quality, and calculate metrics from primary and secondary data.
GIS and data manipulation and management
Spatial information is a key component of a LandScale assessment. For this reason, the team should include one or more people experienced in the following:
Proficiency in spatial data collection, management, and analysis using GIS software.
