Dr. Barron Joseph Orr is the Lead Scientist for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona (USA) where he also served as a NASA Geospatial Extension Specialist. As Professor avalista at the University of Alicante (Spain), he helped develop a restoration ecology graduate degree. His career has been focused on coupled human and environmental systems undergoing environmental change and bridging the divides between science, policy, practice and society. In 2014 he was named Marie Curie Fellow and was selected as an independent scientist for the UNCCD Science-Policy Interface (SPI). After a career collaborating with local communities, he is now engaged in global environmental monitoring, including SDG 15 “Life on Land”. He is also co-lead author of the Scientific Conceptual Framework on Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) which was formally endorsed by the 196 country Parties to the UNCCD in 2017.