The Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism

The Restoration Initiative

The Restoration Initiative (TRI) unites ten Asian and African countries and three Global Environment Facility (GEF) agencies – The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) – in working to overcome existing barriers to restoration and restore degraded landscapes at scale and in support of the Bonn Challenge.

HOW TRI WORKS

TRI brings the combined expertise of FAO, IUCN and UNEP, they work in partnership with ten countries where significant restoration opportunities exist, under a flexible framework that addresses common and key barriers to restoration. By bringing these unique stakeholders together under the shared objective of restoring degraded and deforested landscapes, the initiative provides enhanced opportunities for South-South knowledge exchange, capacity development, and cost savings.

For each partnering country, project interventions include work in four key areas:

  1. Policy development and integration enhancing the in-country enabling environment for forest and landscape restoration (FLR);
  2. Implementation of restoration programmes and complementary initiatives providing direct support for implementation of integrated landscape restoration work and providing scalable models for wider uptake;
  3. Capacity building and finance mobilisation supporting efforts to unlock and mobilise additional funding for FLR, and to strengthen and enhance the abilities of countries, institutions and people to plan and manage FLR; and
  4. Knowledge sharing and partnerships providing support for the capture and sharing of innovative experiences and best practices, raising awareness of FLR needs and opportunities and developing and strengthening critical partnerships.

PROGRESS IN ACHIEVING CORE PROGRAMME TARGETS

Area of land under restoration

Programme-level target: 483 245 hectares under restoration
Progress as of 1 January 2021: 164 432 hectares under restoration

164 432 hectares are under restoration, which is 34 percent of the aggregate programme target. The largest share of total hectares under restoration are from TRI China, where more than 157 000 hectares are presently under restoration.

Area of land under improved practices

Programme-level target: 754 451 hectares under improved practices
Progress as of 1 January 2021: 315 432 hectares under improved practices

This indicator captures the total area of landscapes under improved practices, including in production sectors (e.g. agriculture), which lead to improved environmental conditions and/or for which management plans have been prepared and endorsed and are under implementation. To date, 315 432 hectares are under improved management, which is 42 percent of the aggregate programme target.

Number of direct beneficiaries

Programme-level target: 287 239 direct beneficiaries
Progress as of 1 January 2021: 22 098 direct beneficiaries

This indicator captures the number of individuals who received targeted support from TRI activities and/or use the specific resources that the project maintains or enhances. To date, 22 098 individuals (13 119 men and 8 979 women) have directly benefited from the TRI Programme, which is 8 percent of the programme-level target.