International Day of Forests: what evaluation evidence tells us about forests, livelihoods and long-term restoration

Forests and economies is the theme of the 2026 International Day of Forests, celebrating the essential roles of forests in driving economic prosperity. These roles go well beyond income and jobs from forest production and the trade of renewable raw materials and foods: forests also sustain family and community agriculture, enhance agricultural productivity, and safeguard healthy watersheds.

A recent evaluation of the project The Paris Agreement in action: upscaling forest and landscape restoration to achieve nationally determined contributions offers a useful perspective in this regard. While the project’s main objective was to demonstrate how forest and landscape restoration could help countries advance their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, the evaluation also shows that restoration efforts are more likely to endure when they are linked to community livelihoods, supported by policy and finance, and followed through with stronger planning for sustainability and inclusion.

1. Restoration delivers more when it is linked to community livelihoods

Forest and landscape restoration is more likely to take root when it is connected to the needs and incentives of local communities. As the evaluation notes, “site work was undertaken in all five main project countries and made contributions to the objectives of demonstrating community-based FLR approaches with livelihood benefits, building technical knowledge and skills of national stakeholders, and inspiring replication”. This matters because it shows that restoration is more likely to gain local ownership when communities are involved in decision-making and when forest and landscape restoration is positioned forests not only as environmental assets, but also as part of local development pathways. “Context-specific achievements in each country have significant replication potential, if attention is given to realizing this potential“.

2. Restoration goes further when it is supported by policy and finance

A key strength of the project was its multi-level design — at regional, national, and local levels — which brought together complementary activities including stakeholder engagement, policy support, capacity building, and site-level FLR initiatives. This enabled context-specific approaches and a broad range of contributions despite a modest budget, further leveraged through co-funding arrangements, active partnership-building and contributions in national level FLR policy framework or programming.

The evaluation highlights the project’s “significant achievements on supporting proposals for additional FLR-related finance”, noting that this support also helped build government capacity, strengthen networks and carry project experience into follow-on work. In other words, restoration can create value not only through what happens on the ground today, but also by helping countries mobilize the resources and institutional support needed to sustain and expand action over time.

3. Restoration lasts longer when clear requirements for monitoring and reporting, sustainability and inclusion are built in

The evaluation found strong sustainability and replication potential overall, while also noting that “explicit planning for sustainability and replication at project closure was limited”. It further observes that the project consistently applied community-based approaches and ensured women’s participation in most activities; however, the absence of systematic gender analysis and a strong monitoring and evaluation framework limited opportunities to advance and document project achievements. These findings suggest that long-term results can be reinforced through clearer follow-up, better monitoring and reporting and more systematic attention to inclusion.