This session explores the potential of restoration as a way to “build back better,” including opportunities for scaled-up restoration including through the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

It will also examine key implementation challenges for restoration, including the need to better understand how it can address global challenges and to enable policy, finance mobilization, capacity, and knowledge sharing.

Finally, with an eye towards addressing implementation challenges, the event will introduce a new Implementation Hub for restoration.

Could humanity solve the climate crisis by restoring the Earth’s landscapes?

This session will explore the potential of restoration in climate change mitigation and adaptation in the lead-up to COP26.
Speakers will discuss synergies generated between mitigation and adaptation, showcasing a range of successful case studies in Africa, particularly the Sahel region. The panel will emphasize the need to connect on-the-ground monitoring with global commitments and explore the role of community members in restoration initiatives, including gender dynamics and changing social and power relations. It will also examine ways to access and harness forest carbon finance.

Dr. Steve Makungwa, Senior Lecturer at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources and GLFx Lilongwe Chapter Lead highlights the importance of Capacity Building in Forest Landscape Restoration Implementation, such as the FLR mentorship program with IUFRO in Malawi, and the impact it is making for on the ground restoration in Malawi in this short video message.

A video message from Modi Pontio, Associate Director of the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program, on how the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program and the YUS Conservation Area – comprising of 78,000 hectares – have become a national model for conservation within the unique context of Papua New Guinea’s customary land tenure system.

Papua New Guinea’s Huon Peninsula in Morobe Province is an extremely rugged, mountainous area

The world is facing a crisis in the loss of biodiversity. From the genetic and species level to the ecosystem level, nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history.

Restoration can play a significant role in addressing biodiversity loss, such as by helping to restore and mitigate the loss of critical habitat for threatened species and ecosystems. However, many questions remain around the links between restoration and biodiversity conservation. This session will explore this important and timely topic from multiple perspectives.