De Montfort University is a global academic hub chair and as such publishes a progress report on both the individual United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as well as a comprehensive report on all the goals.
Our 2025 report will show what the university has been doing in terms of research, teaching, partnerships and engagement in helping to meet those targets and raising awareness of the progress towards the 2030 aims.
This is the progress report for SDG 15 Life on Land. The full report on all the SDGs can be viewed here.
UN PROGRESS REPORT ON SDG 15 in 2025
THERE has been no progress on more than 40% of the targets for SDG 15 – 20% of the targets have regressed on their 2015 levels and a further 20% show stagnation. A further 40% show marginal progress while 20% of the targets are on course to be met by 2030.
The UN report states; “Persistent challenges continue to hinder progress in protecting life on land, managing natural resources sustainably and combating the biodiversity crisis. Global forest cover is shrinking; protection of key biodiversity areas has stalled recently, and species extinction is accelerating.
“Yet, there are signs of progress: global forest loss is slowing, and regional advances show promise.”
MAJOR DMU NEWS ON SDG 15 IN 2025
Student's Japanese research trip will strengthen Leicestershire UNESCO bid
TWO students from De Montfort University have travelled to Japan as part of a fact-finding mission to bolster Charnwood Forest’s application to become a UNESCO Global Geopark.
Becky Wilson and Natalia Stachowiak set off on 5,000-mile journey to the city of Nagaoka to learn about Japan’s cultural attitude towards sustainability, and explore the nearby Itoigawa UNESCO Global Geopark.
The pair were investigating how the country protects its geological heritage, animals and educates visitors about the region’s importance.
Their findings will now be fed into the National Forest’s application for Leicestershire’s Charnwood Forest to receive UNESCO Global Geopark status, which will be submitted later this year.
Million-pound climate project to help Leicester become a climate leader as DMU launches its COP 30 programme
A NEW million-pound initiative that will help grassroots community organisations develop their own sustainability projects has the potential to turn Leicester into a city of climate action, according to DMU.
The project was launched as part of the COP 30 @ DMU programme to coincide with the talks of world leaders on climate action in Brazil.
The focus of DMU’s programme of events was not just SDG 13 Climate Action, but also SDG 14 Life Below Water and SDG 15 Life on Land, with a Big River Clean-up on the city’s waterways being announced for next year.
MAJOR DMU RESEARCH ON SDG 15 IN 2025
Ecologies beyond the Human - Reimagining Nature-based Solutions through Relational and Multispecies Perspectives
Salvi, S., Reeves, A., Kerr, D. and Abuzeinab, A. (2025)
DESPITE growing interest in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and their promise to deliver social, economic, and environmental benefits for society, their human-centred utilitarian functionality raises questions about the adequacy and effectiveness of NbS.
Now, with two-thirds of the world's population projected to live in cities by 2050, this trend could potentially accelerate biodiversity loss and wildlife habitat destruction, ultimately weakening our resilience against the looming planetary ecocide.
10.5281/zenodo.17023592
Using Big Data from Internet to Improve Land Use Transition Effects on Eco-Environment
Liu, T. et al. (2025)
THE intricate relationship between land use and ecological changes is a critical area of eco-environmental research.
However, there is a notable lack of quantitative, analytical studies that explore this relationship in depth.
This study aims to bridge this gap by applying a contrastive learning approach to a practical land use application, utilizing big data.
https://doi.org/10.70003/160792642025012601007
Drivers and Preferences of European Farmers for Agri-Environmental Public Goods Schemes: A Two-Stage Analysis
Tyllianakis, E. et al. (2025)
THE new Common Agriculture Policy intends to give more freedom to countries to manage their budget while increasing funding for income support and provisioning of climate public goods from agriculture and farming.
For the past 20 years this has been operationalised through incentivising farmers’ contract participation in agri-environmental schemes.
In this paper we examine through a two-stage approach, farmer preferences for contract characteristics in a multi-European country Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) and the determinants of land enrolment in contracts.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2025.126912
SDG 15 Life on Land