Land cover assessment and monitoring of its dynamics are essential requirements for the sustainable management of natural resources, environmental protection, food security, humanitarian programmes as well as core data for monitoring and modelling. Land Cover (LC) data are therefore fundamental in fulfilling the mandates of many United Nations (UN), international and national institutions and programmes. Despite the recognition of such importance, current users of LC data still lack access to sufficient reliable or comparable baseline LC data. These data are essential to tackle the increasing concerns in regard to food security, environmental degradation, and climate change. Critically, maintaining and restoring land resources plays a vital task in tackling climate change, securing biodiversity and maintaining crucial ecosystem services, while ensuring resilient livelihoods and food security. Moreover, the fourteen ‘Global Fundamental Geospatial Data Themes’ as developed and adopted by the Committee of Experts of the United Nations, under the auspices of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) have been extensively implemented by the global geospatial community and beyond, with “Land Cover and now a new and evolving standard and metalanguage on Land Use” becoming part of this process.