The need for large-scale forest landscape restoration has been increasingly recognised, with significant political support globally and locally. Greater investments have been initiated for restoring landscapes through forest protection, tree planting, and other measures as well as livelihood improvements. These efforts seek to achieve the restoration goals expressed by global initiatives such as the Bonn Challenge and the New York Declaration on Forests. Considerable effort has been devoted globally to promote forest landscape restoration (FLR) and its potential to provide desired benefits to nature, climate and society; however, thus far, there is limited evidence that progress has been made on the ground in restoring specific local landscapes. In order to fill this gap, IUFRO with support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety undertook an analysis of FLR implementation in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. An IUFRO team set out to enhance understanding of the ecological, social and economic dimensions of forest landscape restoration, as well as the underlying challenges involved, thus to better judge the progress made in achieving the Bonn Challenge goals.
