Research Project
Full description Ecosystem restoration is one of the main strategies to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss, with recent global efforts, such as the Bonn Challenge, aiming at restoring 350 million hectares of deforested and degraded landscapes by 2030. As a recognition of this potential, the United Nations declared that the 2021-2030 period will be the 'UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'. However, forest restoration initiatives still face bold challenges to up-scale across broad spatial extents. To achieve this, natural forest regrowth has been promoted as the most cost-effective restoration approach, and the pathway most likely to succeed. However, large areas of restored forests are cleared and reconverted to agricultural land uses every year, making this a significant challenge for large-scale restoration. This research will investigate the socio-economic and ecological drivers of long-term restoration success in private and communal lands across several landscapes, as well as the mechanisms and governance structures that could be potentially used to achieve long-lasting restoration. This assessment will allow promoting large-scale restoration in an efficient way.