Dissemination and capacity building on monitoring Sustainable Development Goals 15: Life on Land

Photo credit: Jitendra Bajracharya/ICIMOD

About the event

To strengthen national capacity in using Earth observation, big data, and cloud-computing platforms such as Google Earth Engine for monitoring progress towards SDG 15 – Life on Land in Bangladesh, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and International Research Centre of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS) are organising a three-day capacity-building workshop in collaboration with the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics from 2 to 4 December 2025.

This training workshop is part of the CBAS-ICIMOD partnership project, which aims to build capacity of national institutions in three Hindu Kush Himalaya countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal in carrying out big data analysis for measuring and monitoring SDG 15 – Life on Land.

Background

As the world moves past the halfway mark towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the data gaps continue to hinder efforts to monitor progress across many targets. In this context, the need to adopt innovative, data-driven solutions has become more critical than ever. Earth observation and cloud computing platforms, such as Google Earth Engine (GEE), offers powerful capabilities to address these challenges – enabling the analysis of large-scale environmental datasets, thereby bridging data gaps and supporting consistent, reliable SDG monitoring.

The International Research Centre of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS) and International Centre of Integrated Mountain Development has partnered together to leverage these technologies and platforms to develop data products that support national governments in developing relevant policy and management interventions to achieve SDG 15.

SDG 15, “Life on Land,” is a United Nations goal to protect, restore, and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. It aims to conserve forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and stop biodiversity loss. Key actions include protecting species, ending illegal wildlife trade, and managing forests sustainably.

This capacity building activity will focus on strengthening the capacity of the Bangladesh national institutions in carrying out big data analysis for generating indicators associated to SDG 15.In collaboration with Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), ICIMOD is organising a three-day capacity-building workshop for our partners in Bangladesh. The workshop will deliver hands-on training in the application of geospatial tools and cloud-computing platforms, specifically GEE, for the robust monitoring of SDG 15.

Objectives

The overall objective of this workshop is to disseminate the products and platform developed by CBAS- ICIMOD, and to strengthen the capacity of key national institutions of Bangladesh in leveraging GEE for mapping and monitoring SDGs.

Specifically, the workshop objectives are to:

• disseminate the products and platform developed by CBAS-ICIMOD project on SDG 15 indicators
• equip participants with the skills on GEE to generate the SDG indicators
• generate and analyse geospatial data for key SDG indicators
• develop web based geospatial application to query and visualize data

Expected outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants will be equipped with the practical skills to use GEE for tracking progress on SDG 15.