In almost every country of the world, forest landscape restoration (FLR), which aims for the long-term conservation and sustainable use of forests, can help to reduce land-based emissions. In light of the fact that FLR remains heavily underutilized in practice, this brief elaborates concrete options for ambitious climate and forest protection through FLR that are not only effective and efficient, but also politically desirable and implementable.

The outcome statement for GLF Nairobi 2018, featuring the key insights and takeaways from the event that took place August 29-30th.

This collection of 12 stories from women and men in nine countries in different parts of Africa shines a light on the efforts of communities, some of them decades-long, in restoring degraded forests and landscapes. The stories are not generated through any rigorous scientific process, but are nonetheless illustrative of the opportunities communities create as they solve their own problems, and of the many entry points we have for supporting and accelerating community effort.

Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) aims to achieve ecological integrity and enhance human well-being in deforested or degraded landscapes. Evidence shows that addressing gender equality and women’s rights is critical for addressing this dual objective. Against this backdrop, CIFOR and a number of partners hosted a Global Landscapes Forum workshop on FLR and gender equality in Nairobi, Kenya in November 2017.

Between 2012 and 2017, Vi Agroforestry and partners supported the development and implementation of the Lake Victoria Farmers’ Organisation Agroforestry (FOA) program. Under this program, and in cooperation with 40 member-based farmer organizations spread across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, approximately two million female and male farmers, school children and young people were mobilized to implement agroforestry and sustainable agriculture land management (SALM) practices in different agroecosystems of Lake Victoria catchment areas.

Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) aims to recover ecological integrity and enhance the wellbeing of people living in deforested and degraded landscapes. Within global and national restoration agendas, modern science is viewed by influential actors as the foundation for addressing some of the world’s most pressing ecological challenges.

Many forest landscape projects around the world do not address gender gaps sufficiently. As a result, interventions may lead to outcomes that are not only inequitable, but also unsustainable. In response, the World Bank Group (WBG), Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) and others, in partnership with civil society organizations, local and national governments, are increasingly supporting interventions that explicitly target gender-related inequalities.

Unprecedented is the number of international efforts by governments and private actors alike that seek to foster sustainable landscapes around the globe for the wellbeing of humans and nature. Working towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the Bonn Challenge, the New York Declaration on Forests, the Aichi Targets of the CBD, the Paris Agreement, or regional efforts like the African Agenda 2063, the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn 2018 aims to accelerate and mobilize collective action on the ground.

Increasing global demand for natural resources is intensifying competition for land across the developing world, pushing companies onto territories that many Indigenous Peoples and rural communities have sustainably managed for generations.

Great emphasis is currently being placed on achieving transformational change and paradigm shift through policies and measures to implement the Paris Agreement and the UN 2030 development agenda, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF). There is a need to improve our understanding on how to enable, operationalize, measure and evaluate the intended, lasting outcomes.

Policy reform is required to more accurately value natural capital and incentivize green investments through aligned subsidies, supportive financial measures, and risk mitigation support.

A centralized system that synthesizes evidence and connects projects to investors would both improve awareness of initiatives and funding sources, and build capacity and financial literacy.

Key information gaps persist in reporting, monitoring and impact assessment. Leveraging a centralized system could reduce redundancies, enhance cost-effectiveness and bridge finance gaps.

We are probably at the most crucial crossroad of humanity’s history. We are changing the earth’s climate as a result of accelerated human-made Greenhouse Gases Emissions (GHG) and biodiversity loss, provoking other effects that increase the complexity of the problem and will multiply the speed with which we approach climate chaos, and social too.