The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares (Mha) into restoration by 2020 and 350 Mha by 2030. Underlying the Bonn Challenge is the forest landscape restoration (FLR) approach. The Bonn Challenge is a voluntary, non-binding initiative launched to advance the restoration movement and in recognition of the importance of forest landscape restoration for meeting national priorities and international commitments. To date 47 contributors have pledged more than 160 Mha to the Bonn Challenge.

Forest landscape restoration (FLR) provides an opportunity to transform degraded lands into productive landscapes that yield numerous ecological, economic, and social benefits. Many countries have made large-scale commitments under the Bonn Challenge, a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land into restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. Achieving this commitment requires decision-makers to address the diverse ecological, sociopolitical, and economic factors that impact restoration efforts at different scales.

The Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM)1 was developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) to assist countries in identifying opportunities for forest landscape restoration (FLR), analysing priority areas at a national or sub-national level, and designing and implementing FLR interventions. FLR is the long-term process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes.

Ecological restoration is a suitable tool to revert land degradation in semiarid areas. Social participation is increasingly considered as a guarantee for the long-term success and sustainability of restoration projects. In rural areas of North African countries, experiences of participatory restoration are still not frequent, and poverty and illiteracy with top-down approaches boost land-use conflicts and raise skepticism toward restoration programs.

We are probably at the most crucial crossroad of humanity’s history. We are changing the earth’s climate as a result of accelerated human-made Greenhouse Gases Emissions (GHG) and biodiversity loss, provoking other effects that increase the complexity of the problem and will multiply the speed with which we approach climate chaos, and social too.

In collaboration with the University of Riau, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has established permanent plots in Tanjung Leban village, Bengkalis regency, Riau province. The site, which is owned by the local community, is about 50 km east of the city of Dumai and easily accessed by car.

The humid tropics are exposed to an unprecedented modernisation of agriculture involving rapid and mixed land-use changes with contrasted environmental impacts. Afforestation is often mentioned as an unambiguous solution for restoring ecosystem services and enhancing biodiversity. One consequence of afforestation is the alteration of streamflow variability which controls habitats, water resources, and flood risks. We demonstrate that afforestation by tree planting or by natural forest regeneration can induce opposite hydrological changes.

This study evaluated the conservation status of tree populations and the impact of illegal logging in the Niassa National Reserve, a huge protected area in northern Mozambique, bordering Tanzania. The Miombo woodland around 8 villages was sampled on 43 transects laid out from log patios showing evidence of felling. Standing trees and stumps of 8 timber species (P. angolensis, A. quanzensis, M. sthulmannii, B. africana, C. imberbe, D. melanoxylon, P. angolensis and S. madagascariensis) were identified, quantified and measured.

In the Ethiopian highlands, church forests have a substantial contribution to landscape restoration, and conservation of endangered indigenous tree species and biodiversity. However, the environmental and economic benefits of church forests are declining due to a combination of economic, environmental, and cultural factors. This study was conducted in Dera district, Ethiopia, to assess the perception of local communities on church forests and investigate the willingness of local communities to pay to manage and protect church forests.

Mozambique's Niassa Reserve contains Africa's best preserved miombo woodlands. Half of the households there gather wild honey from natural hives for consumption and income. However, most collectors used destructive techniques: setting fire to the grasses under the hive tree to create smoke and then felling the tree. Cutting trees to obtain honey was the principal source of tree mortality. Trees grow very slowly, about 0.25 cm diameter at breast hight [dbh] per year, meaning an average hive tree was nearly 200 years old.

Mozambique's Niassa Reserve contains Africa's best preserved miombo woodlands. Half of the households there gather wild honey from natural hives for consumption and income. However, most collectors used destructive techniques: setting fire to the grasses under the hive tree to create smoke and then felling the tree. Cutting trees to obtain honey was the principal source of tree mortality. Trees grow very slowly, about 0.25 cm diameter at breast hight [dbh] per year, meaning an average hive tree was nearly 200 years old.