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On 3 June 2021, FAO’s Forestry Division held a side event at the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF). This year, the Forum celebrated the importance of Drylands and the need for their restoration in order to contribute to the achievement of the rallying call of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. This fully digital event, so close to the launch of the Decade, was a grand occasion to launch the DRIP tool, now hosted by the FERM.

With the ever more rapid technological advancements of restoration monitoring tools, the FERM geospatial platform provides accessible and transparent information for restoration practitioners across all ecosystems. FERM, in turn, builds on the DRIP, which is designed to enable practitioners to compile and analyse data related to their dryland restoration work. Integration and interoperability of monitoring tools and platforms can enhance and simplify the user experience of restoration practitioners. Presenting a single technical solution to both needs reduces duplication of effort and ensures that geospatial data is interoperable between platforms.

This objectives of the session were to spotlight key solutions and highlight ongoing challenges in ecosystem restoration monitoring with a focus on drylands. This was successfully carried out by the highly technical panel featuring our own Ms Fidaa F Haddad, the Director of the Forestry Division of FAO and Co-Lead of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Ms Mette Wilkie, the developing team of the FERM led by Mr Julian Fox and colleagues from the Committee on Forestry Working Group on Dryland Forests and Agrosilvopastoral Systems, the UNCCD and CIRAD.

To read up more on the event please click here and download the White Paper. For now, let this news article conclude with the inspiring words of Mr Barron Joseph Orr, Lead Scientist of the UNCCD:

“The developers of FERM and DRIP are working to ensure that countries can optimize the ‘where’ of their interventions through integrated landscape assessment, and by ensuring project data is fully aligned with LDN and UNCCD national reporting requirements. With 127 countries pursuing LDN targets on 450 million hectares of land, the open source/open access nature of FERM and DRIP will mean that any country can apply what is nationally or locally relevant for more sustainable, nature-positive land use decisions and more sustainable production systems, thereby contributing to the LDN targets. This unprecedented teamwork is dramatically increasing the relevance of what is being reported at local, national and global levels, while simultaneously decreasing the overall burden countries face in environmental monitoring. As the UN Decade is launched, let us do all we can to embrace this model of cooperation and collaboration. We have the commitments from countries. We have the data and the tools. It is time to roll up our sleeves and get to work!”