The Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism

Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism e-learning courses on forest and landscape restoration

Year published: 15/07/2021

The FAO’s Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM) team has developed three e-learning courses to introduce all interested practitioners to the key principles of forest and landscape restoration (FLR).

The self-paced e-learning courses are available, free of charge, in English and are currently in the process of being translated into French as well.

The FAO e-learning courses support all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular SDG 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” They are all closely aligned with FAO strategic programmes and are peer reviewed by a wide range of experts to ensure content accuracy, quality and coherence.

The three courses that the FLRM has developed so far are:

  • Introduction to FLR: this course aims to introduce the key concepts and steps of FLR. It further presents barriers and success factors of FLR, as well as benefits and important aspects to consider for its implementation, management and monitoring.
  • Monitoring FLR: based on the FAO and World Resources Institute publication The Road to Restoration, this course aims to equip practitioners with the capacity to design, plan and implement monitoring systems for FLR. It examines why monitoring is important for FLR, how to choose appropriate indicators to meet restoration objectives and how to design a restoration monitoring framework.
  • Sustainable financing of FLR: this course aims to strengthen the ability of practitioners to analyse FLR financial needs and opportunities, making them more effective at understanding funding streams and securing funds for their projects and interventions. It also examines the costs and benefits of FLR, barriers to accessing financing, and how to create an enabling environment for restoration.

The FLRM team is currently preparing another e-learning course, which is expected to be available by the end of 2021: Developing bankable business plans for FLR. The aim of the course will be to improve the capacity of producer organizations, small and medium enterprises and local 'champions' to access private investment and finance for sustainable forest-based businesses, so that they are better able to participate in forest value chains and derive increased benefits from them.

All the courses are available through the FAO e-learning Academy. The Academy is adopting the Digital Badges Certification System, a certification granted to those who pass the final performance test. Badges are an official recognition of competencies acquired and are part of the professional profile of learners, who can then incorporate them in their LinkedIn, e-portfolio, curriculum on the web, for employment purposes, education and lifelong learning.

In October, the FLRM team is planning to organize a workshop in collaboration with the FAO e-learning Academy with the purpose of presenting all the available e-learning courses that are part of the FLR series.

Click here to take the e-learning courses developed by the FLRM team.

For more information contact us at: [email protected].

Caterina Marchetta (FAO) and Giorgio Maria Millesimi (FAO)