Across the world, companies with a wide range of business models are making money from planting trees. These restoration enterprises are proving that restoring degraded forests and agricultural lands is not only good for the planet, but a good business opportunity as well.
Almost one-quarter of the world’s land area has been degraded over the past 50 years because of soil erosion, salinization, peatland and wetland drainage, and forest degradation. The resulting damage, in terms of lost ecosystem goods and services, costs the world an estimated US$6.3 trillion a year.
Constructive critique. This book provides a critical, evidence-based analysis of REDD+ implementation so far, without losing sight of the urgent need to reduce forest-based emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change.
REDD+ as envisioned has not been tested at scale. Results-based payment, the novel feature of REDD+, has gone untested. International funding (both public and private) remains scarce, and demand through carbon markets is lacking.
As one of the key partners of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR 100), Ghana is committed to restore 2 million hectares of its land by 2030. In this factsheet, the major approaches to forest landscape restoration are outlined and enabling conditions as well as major constraints to forest landscape restoration elaborated.
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.
Given their different roles, responsibilities, access to and control of resources, the costs and benefits of land restoration are likely to differ for men and women. Yet, many restoration projects fail to consider gender dimensions when designing their interventions. Efforts to restore agricultural lands are often knowledge- and labor-intensive, and risk increasing women’s already heavy workloads.
The forest landscape restoration (FLR) approach is a forward-looking and dynamic approach that strengthens landscape resilience while creating opportunities to optimise ecosystem goods and services to meet livelihood needs. The equitable and active involvement of all stakeholders in FLR decision making, goal setting and implementation is fundamental.
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.