Healthy ecosystems and the services they provide are a prerequisite to achieving the SDGs. Today, land degradation negatively impacts the livelihoods and well-being of millions of people globally, threatening sustainable development. Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) – ‘the process that aims to regain ecological functionality and enhance human well-being in deforested or degraded landscapes’ – has emerged as a key element to meet these challenges and contribute to realizing the SDGs. An estimated two billion hectares of degraded land – an area larger than South America – offer opportunities for FLR, and the global restoration movement is growing bigger. Under the FLR regime, several countries have committed to restore millions of hectares of degraded land as part of the Bonn Challenge and the New York Declaration on Forests, and the UN General Assembly declared 2021-2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, which aims to massively scale up the restoration of degraded ecosystems. We propose two sessions to cover this theme and challenges entailed. Session 22 (part I) will focus on the theory and some of the research behind FLR, and Session 30 (part II) will highlight some ongoing Swedish development cooperation and capacity development programs around FLR.

We will discuss the potential FLR pathways to advancing sustainable transformation and achieving the SDGs based on research and experiences from across the global tropics. We will also discuss fundamental questions such as ‘What functions to restore and for whom?’ or ‘How can we ensure truly transformative FLR with outcomes that are sustainable over time and FLR processes that put people at the center?’

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Program

Part I. Session 22, 10.45-12.15

Welcome and introduction, Maria Ölund Focali research network Project Manager and Focali – SIANI collaboration at GMV

Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) – Requirements and opportunities for a globally meaningful response to Agenda 2030
Lars Laestadius, adjunct lecturer at the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and director at Eco-Innovation Foundation.

The power of data-driven networks for effective implementation and monitoring of land restoration, Leigh A. Winowiecki, soil systems scientist and the leader of the Soil and Land Health Theme at ICRAF-CIFOR in Nairobi, Kenya.

Natural regeneration as a nature-based solution to restoring degraded lands, Madelon Lohbeck, Assistant Professor at the Department of Forest Ecology and Forest Management at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Transformative trees - Impacts of tree-based restoration on water security, Aida Bargués Tobella, post-doc at the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Focali member

Q&A

Market Driven Afforestation – Charcoal Value Chain Drives Rapid Afforestation, Asmamaw Alemu, Associate Professor of Forest Socioeconomics at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia

Commercial forestry for sustainable development - Catalyzing the forest sector development in Ethiopia, Erik Karltun, Associate Professor at the Department of Soil and Environment at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Restoration that puts people first: It’s the only way to succeed, Dennis Garrity, Chair of the Global EverGreening Alliance, and a Senior Fellow at World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and the World Resources Institute (WRI)

Q&A

Part II. Session 30, 14.15-15.45

Welcome and introduction, Malin Gustafsson SIWI

LoCoFoRest. Locally controlled forest restoration – a governance and market oriented approach to resilient landscapes, Anders Malmer, International Coordinator at the Swedish Forest Agency, and Adjunct professor at the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Focali member

The ‘Good Wood’ value chain model – Transforming the tropical forestry industry to make restorative forest management possible, Rosa Goodman, Associate Senior Lecturer at the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Focali member

The Sow-a-Seed project: Learning from 22 years of rainforest restoration on Borneo, Ulrik Ilstedt, Associate Professor at the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Focali member

REFOREST Africa – a regional research school in forest sciences
Gert Nyberg, researcher at the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the co-coordinator of the REFOREST program and Focali member

Multifunctional land use and food security – examples from AgriFoSe2030, Madelene Ostwald, Associate Professor of Physical Geography at Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development (GMV) and at Chalmers University of Technology, and challenge leader for AgriFoSe2030 challenge 2 (agriculture productivity and ecosystem functions) and Focali member

Concluding discussion with speakers and participants (About 30 minutes)
Expression of interest in continued dialogue and collaboration