The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with Turkey’s Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs, is working to support Eritrea, Mauritania and Sudan as they fight land degradation and desertification through sustainable management of their natural resources and by restoring degraded forests and landscapes. Through the FAO-Turkey Forestry Partnership programme, FAO is developing and implementing Boosting Restoration, Income, Development, Generating Ecosystem Services (BRIDGES), a project that contributes to Africa’s Great Green Wall initiative and will work in synergy with the Action Against Desertification project.

The Dryland Restoration Initiative Platform (DRIP) is an interactive web portal with an online tool to support practitioners, project managers, policy-makers and decision-makers in compiling and analysing data and capturing and sharing lessons learned from restoration initiatives, thus advancing the monitoring and assessment of these initiatives globally. DRIP was developed and tested with the active participation of dryland restoration experts and practitioners worldwide.

This publication presents efforts by FAO and partners on mapping the intervention area of the Great Green Wall initiative and restoration opportunities based on data gathered through Collect Earth and in support of presenting FAO's effort at COP22 in Marrakech on 14 November 2016.

Drylands cover about 41 percent of the Earth’s land surface and are home to 2 billion people, the majority of whom depend on forests and other wooded lands, grasslands and trees on farms for income and to meet basic needs. Yet surprising little is known about such ecosystems in drylands, despite widespread recognition of the need to restore drylands to cope with the effects of drought, desertification, land degradation and climate change. This document presents preliminary results of the first global assessment of trees, forests and land use in drylands. It reports, among other things, that the global drylands contain 1.11 billion hectares of forest, which is more than one-quarter of the global forest area. There are also about 13.5 billion trees outside forests in drylands. More than 200 experts with knowledge of the land and land uses in specific dryland regions conducted the assessment, using freely available satellite imagery and a newly developed survey methodology. The pioneering study by FAO and many partners will be fully reported later in 2016.

In 2011 and 2012, FAO member countries requested FAO to conduct a comprehensive analysis, evaluation and documentation of afforestation, reforestation and restoration projects, programmes and initiatives in drylands. In response, FAO launched the FAO Drylands Restoration Initiative with the aim of capturing, evaluating and sharing knowledge on dryland restoration. This publication is an output of this initiative, drawing lessons from the many experiences in dryland restoration worldwide. It is targeted at policymakers and other decision-makers, and dryland restoration practitioners, because both groups have the power to bring about positive change. Well-informed policymakers and decision-makers can be enablers of effective restoration efforts by providing appropriate policies, governance mechanisms and financial and other incentives.

The publication of this issue of Unasylva coincides with two important events for forests. The 196 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have just convened at the Paris Climate Change Conference to broker a game-changing agreement on climate change. Also in Paris, the Global Landscapes Forum 2015 is hosting high-level discussions on the research and policy behind land-use issues. Forest and landscape restoration is a key piece in the puzzle. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “restoration” as the “action of restoring a thing to a former state or position”. Forest and landscape restoration (FLR), however, invests the word with a far greater role than that of simply returning to a past state.

From the 19th to the 23rd of January 2015, in Rome, FAO, WRI and IUCN with funding support of EU-ACP and GEF, organized a workshop on “Monitoring and assessment of drylands: forests, rangelands, trees and agrosilvopastoral systems”. Gathering 80 participants from countries and international organizations. This event led to the “Rome Promise” in which participants agreed to: (i) Form an open-ended collaborative network or community of practice to advance monitoring and assessment of drylands, including understanding of their users, (ii) Communicate the value and importance of drylands monitoring to relevant stakeholders, including policy makers and resource partners, and (iii) Develop a dynamic roadmap for collaborative action

Mediterranean forests are interwoven with the lives of the people of the region. They provide wood, cork and other products, as well as being a source of income for many. They contribute to the conservation of biodiversity, capture and store carbon, protect soil and water, and offer areas for recreation. Yet they are under increasing pressure. This includes pressures from humans, whose needs are growing and shifting, and stresses due to climatic changes including temperature increases, reduced rainfall and prolonged periods of drought.

The primary oblective of this publication is to provide an overview of the actual status and potential of forests and rangelands, their potential contribution to national economies and their impact on dependent populations in the Near East. It examines major issues, challenges and opportunities related to the forests and rangeland sector and provides information to decision-makers, forest and range managers, scientists and wider public, enabling them to think about weaknesses, strengths and opportunities of the sector and to devise adequate strategies to protect and conserve the natural resource base for the present and future generations.

This document is an attempt to provide an overview of the current state and issues related to the growing of oil trees in the Near East. It examines the opportunities from/and benefits of oil trees that are thought of relevance to decision-makers, forest and range managers and other stakeholders and provides the type of information that can facilitate the decision making on policy options and strategies.