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The aim of this map and complementary tools was to provide a baseline that can be used for a variety of purposes including: 1)integrated interpretation of landscapes and indicate the position of transitions between areas with significantly different environmental conditions, conditions which are most likely to be important determinative factors for agricultural potential; 2) to predict potential distributions of indigenous plant species in the agricultural landscapes and predict possible genetic variation across distributional ranges; 3) to provide a user friendly extension tool for improving the potential options (both from indigenous and exotic species) available to farmers in their quest for improving livelihoods and income generation; 4) to provide baseline data that can be used in forecasts of land use and cover changes, e..g, due to climate change or demographic changes; 5) to provide a management tool for interpretation of historical, current, and future distribution of ecosystems and ecoregions; 6) to provide a tool for ecological restoration and protection of eco-systems.

SEPAL is a big-data processing platform that combines super-computing power, open-source geospatial data processing software and modern geospatial data infrastructures like Google’s Earth Engine to enable geospatial data processing anywhere in the world.

This guide addresses FLR implementation as a whole but with a view toward climate change mitigation and adaptation; only if the landscape is changing and FLR is successful will climate benefits materialise. Implementing FLR in practice goes beyond generalized concepts. Implementing FLR generally requires a group of stakeholders rather than being the responsibility of a single stakeholder. We intend this guide to be a training resource for FLR facilitators who have a broad approach to land management. The guide is also aimed at anyone who implements FLR in a specific country or local context. Thus, policymakers and practitioners considering FLR commitments can use this guide to gain an understanding of the complexities of actual implementation.

Inclusion of improved forest management as a way to enhance carbon sinks in the Copenhagen Accord of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (December 2009) suggests that forest restoration will play a role in global climate change mitigation under the post-Kyoto agreement. Although discussions about restoration strategies often pertain solely to severely degraded tropical forests and invoke only the enrichment planting option, different approaches to restoration are needed to counter the full range of degrees of degradation. We propose approaches for restoration of forests that range from being slightly to severely degraded. Our methods start with ceasing the causes of degradation and letting forests regenerate on their own, progress through active management of natural regeneration in degraded areas to accelerate tree regeneration and growth, and finally include the stage of degradation at which re-planting is necessary. We argue that when the appropriate techniques are employed, forest restoration is cost-effective relative to conventional planting, provides abundant social and ecological co-benefits, and results in the sequestration of substantial amounts of carbon. For forest restoration efforts to succeed, a supportive post-Kyoto agreement is needed as well as appropriate national policies, institutional arrangements, and local participation.

These guidelines are intended to provide knowledge base on key policy, legal, institutional, ecological and silvicultural issues that need to be taken account in the planning and implementation of strategies and options for the restoration of degraded primary forests, the management of secondary forests, and the rehabilitation of degraded forest land, and they constitute an international reference standard. The guidelines are a checklist of prime objectives, principles and recommended actions. Most of the 49 principles and 160 recommended actions are relevant to all forest types in tropical countries. Annex 6 provides additional guidance on the management, restoration and rehabilitation of degraded and secondary forests in the dry tropics.