The European Union funded Voices for Mekong Forests (V4MF) project conducted a set of forest governance and capacity needs assessments in late 2017 and early 2018 to assess the state of forest governance in five GMS countries: Thailand, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Viet Nam.

The LANDac Conference 2018 looked at land governance through the lens of mobility. Land acquisitions trigger migration and yield other types of mobility such as capital, goods and ideas. Ensuing land claims raise new questions for land governance. So far, the discussion has focused on respecting land rights, informing local residents and offering fair compensation. The conference explored the question: Given the variety of mobility, what are good ways forward in land governance?

The papers in this volume take a city perspective and provide both a critical reflection of and a pragmatic response to what cities are able to do given their current mandate and powers. The first paper begins by considering what the TOD agenda means for the urban poor. It questions whether TOD can adequately address the existing land challenges in South African cities, given the politics of land inequality and the skewed property markets.

Although Tanzania looks back onto a long history of land degradation, it has seen significant restoration efforts even before the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR 100) was launched. Building on this experience, the fact sheet highlights the main landscape restoration approaches employed in the country and elaborates on the major constraints as well as enabling conditions for FLR.

In 2017, Cameroon committed to restore forests and degraded lands over more than 12 million hectares across all ecosystems by 2030 as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR 100). The fact sheet elaborates on the status of the commitments made and highlights key restoration efforts and major constraints to FLR in practice.

Although Tanzania looks back onto a long history of land degradation, it has seen significant restoration efforts even before the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR 100) was launched. Building on this experience, the fact sheet highlights the main landscape restoration approaches employed in the country and elaborates on the major constraints as well as enabling conditions for FLR.

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.

With 22 million hectares, Ethiopia by far made the largest pledge to restore its degraded lands under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR 100). In this fact sheet, restoration efforts are presented including major approaches, key constraints and enabling conditions and steps to achieve FLR in the country.

Land degradation poses a major challenge to sustainable development in Burkina Faso. Against this backdrop, the fact sheet explores relevant Forest and Landscape Restoration approaches as well as enabling factors to overcome pertaining constraints for the country to achieve its varied international FLR commitments.

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

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.