Description

Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) aims to regain ecological integrity and enhance human well-being in landscapes that have lost forest cover, forest qualities, and forest-based contributions to people. The Bonn Challenge to bring 150 million hectares into restoration by 2020, and the New York Declaration to restore 350 million hectares by 2030, are both based on FLR concepts, principles and practices.

Global attention is now shifting from committed hectares to actual implementation. Yet, translating high-level national targets and initiatives into practical action is challenging. Realities on the ground, across the globe, can hamper ambitious, occasionally unrealistic, objectives. Likewise, global hectare-based objectives require careful interpretation and adaptation at the landscape or local level in order to provide more than just tree cover. This project is based on the premise that forest landscape restoration is a long-term process that, in theory, aims at permanent land-use change. The question is: what needs to be in place for FLR to become a reality in different biomes and highly diverse sociopolitical environments? The project tackles this question by looking at how permanence and adaptive management impact on effective forest restoration, linking both issues to national climate strategies.

Project activities are implemented in three work packages which collectively aim to understand the essential dimensions that affect the permanence of FLR interventions.