“The global tree restoration potential" a new report in Science has been published on 5 July, 2019.

Why is this scientific report of strategic significance for FAO?

The findings of this report are extremely important and they may change our awareness on climate change mitigation. The current tree restoration potential, without including agriculture and urban areas, is three times the Bonn Challenge target with the prospective of an additional 1 billion hectares of canopy cover (the size of China). Moreover, land restoration actions may allow us to store an additional 205 GtC in the natural biomes giving the world the opportunity to gain 20 years in the battle to mitigate climate change. The report emphasizes that there are huge potentials in regions like northern Asia and the Americas, which until now were not identified as priorities areas, but it also confirms that in Africa there are regions with needs of urgent action to prevent large losses of tree restoration potential.  The report results not only validate the FAO work on land restoration within the Global Environmental Facility and the Green Climate Fund, but also provide evidence for new and large funding raise opportunities.

To read the full report, click here!