Forest landscape restoration implementation workshop

This workshop, co-sponsored by ITTO, was organized by the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration. It brought together more than 100 experts from 41 countries to take stock of experiences to date in implementing forest landscape restoration.

Forest landscape restoration is a vehicle for delivering on internationally agreed commitments on forests, biodiversity, climate change and desertification. It also contributes to those Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to poverty reduction, access to clean drinking water and environmental sustainability. It links multilateral environmental agreements to the MDGs. Forest landscape restoration is a local mechanism that should be integrated with both sectoral and extra-sectoral national development processes, including poverty reduction strategies and national forest programs.

Forest landscape restoration has a proven track record in restoring key goods and services in degraded or deforested lands and in improving the livelihoods of those who depend on them. It is also a tool for reaching a wide and diverse range of landscape goals by developing a mosaic of complementary land uses which add up to more than the sum of the components.

Forest landscape restoration aims to restore ecological integrity and improve the productivity and economic value of degraded land. It does not aim to reestablish the pristine forests of the past. In more than 120 cases from all around the world, restoration or rehabilitation of degraded lands happened because people were looking for benefits such as income generation alternatives. It is a competitive alternative to degradation.

Experience has shown that successful forest landscape restoration starts from the ground up, with the people who live in the landscape and stakeholders directly affected by the management of the landscape. There is no blueprint for successful forest landscape restoration, since each situation will develop from local circumstances. Forest landscape restoration provides an approach that is gradual, iterative, adaptive and responsive.

Growing the Global Partnership

The Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration is a new way of doing business that brings together governments, organizations, communities and companies who recognize the importance of forest landscape restoration and want to be part of a coordinated global effort. Many members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests are active in the partnership. The Partnership encourages new members to come on board. The partnership will aim to convene a second international implementation workshop within four years to take stock of what will have been achieved by the community of practice during that time.

Building a Learning Network

At Petrópolis, the Partnership committed to further demonstrating the value of forest landscape restoration by launching a portfolio of new landscape restoration initiatives by the end of 2006. These initiatives will provide experiences and learning on the role of forest landscape restoration in poverty reduction, quality of life and biodiversity conservation.

Restore forest landscapes to benefit people and nature and contribute to reversing the trends of forest loss and degradation.