As part of the project “The Paris Agreement in action: upscaling forest and landscape restoration to achieve nationally determined contributions”, funded in 2018 by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized regional training in collaboration with the groupement d’intérêt public ECOFOR, to build the capacity of Mediterranean countries to restore degraded forest landscapes. The training took place in Montpellier, France, on 16–20 May 2022.

Mediterranean forests are part of multifaceted landscapes strongly marked by centuries of human intervention. Despite an increase in forest area by 1.8 million hectares between 2010 and 2015, there remains 80 million hectares of degraded land, including forests, in the Mediterranean.

There is clearly an urgent need to act to restore these degraded lands and halt further land degradation, and many goals have been set for forest and landscape restoration (FLR) at the national, regional and global level. The challenge is to try to conserve the main cultural landscapes while restoring the most degraded or threatened ecosystems. To meet these global and regional goals, and ambitious new national commitments, it is important to identify and properly implement low-cost, long-term strategies for landscape restoration.

Such practices generally have a positive impact, helping produce many ecosystem services. They limit the impacts of climate change, increase yields and reduce their variability, protect soils, strengthen natural buffers against disasters, recharge aquifers, protect biodiversity, reduce sedimentation, store carbon and generate benefits, livelihoods and employment opportunities for poor people in rural areas.

In particular, the restoration of degraded or deforested lands can significantly increase carbon levels in the soil and rehabilitated vegetation. These carbon gains give rise to tangible economic benefits, and improved livelihoods for communities make FLR attractive to local populations, making it an effective way of sequestering carbon and helping slow the effects of climate change. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) conducted a global analysis in 2011 which found that meeting the Bonn Challenge target of restoring 150 million hectares by 2020, could sequester around 53 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent in 50 years, closing the annual emissions reduction gap by 11-20%.

Several countries have calculated their national carbon sequestration potential. National FLR assessments include an estimate of the amount of carbon that could be captured through the restoration of degraded and deforested lands identified as available and suitable for restoration.

The main objective of the workshop was to build capacity in the restoration of degraded Mediterranean forest landscapes, focusing on topics such as the carbon costs and benefits of FLR, and its contribution to nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

The workshop was attended by five North African and Near East countries, with 11 experts from Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Türkiye. A total of 19 speakers (in person and virtually) took part. 

The workshop also included a field trip to the experimental site of Puéchabon and two practical sessions on the FAO tools EX-ACT and NEXT.  

Private companies involved in the carbon market were given the opportunity to speak about their experiences and explain the possibilities provided by restoration activities. Time was allocated to countries to present their experiences in FLR and in carbon estimation related to FLR and NDCs. Each country presented case studies and current and past projects on the restoration of degraded lands. This allowed countries to discuss experiences and strategies and to better define their needs in terms of support from FAO.

Giovanbattista de Dato