Connectivity, listening, working all together to achieve an extraordinary common goal. 

These were some of the key ideas that underpinned the first plenary of the XV World Forestry Congress, titled “UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration – eight more years to heal the planet”, which took place on 2 May 2022 in Seoul, Republic of Korea. 

Tiina Vähänen, Deputy Director of FAO’s Forestry Division, opened the plenary, stressing that land degradation was rapidly intensifying and had already affected almost 2 billion hectares and more than 3 billion people. A solution to invert this alarming trend needed to be found, she said, and it needed to be found urgently.  

To join forces in order to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2021–2030 as the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the timeline scientists have identified as the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change. 

This plenary, divided into two panel discussions and moderated by journalist James Astill, Chief of the Washington Bureau of The Economist, brought world experts together to discuss the ways forward for achieving the vision of the UN Decade. 

In her keynote speech, Her Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Ali of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan described a future with many opportunities to reforest, emphasizing the importance of bridging science and local expertise. The princess highlighted the fundamental value of actively communicating with, and listening to, Indigenous peoples, local communities and women, to achieve the ambitious restoration goals set for 2030.  

The first panel discussion, titled “Future of forest and landscape restoration – UN Decade leading the way”, included the high-level speakers Her Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Ali, Maria-Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General, Luc Gnacadja, Chair of the UN Decade Science Task Force, and a video message from Angela Coleman, Associate Chief of the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service.  

The panel discussed what was needed to meet the commitments by 2030 and what could realistically be done to tackle the current environmental crisis. 

All of the four panellists stressed that the Decade was a moment where everybody is called to contribute as these were challenges that transcended national boundaries, and only by joining forces would it be possible to successfully address them. 

This implies communication at large scale to spread awareness and knowledge sharing among different partners, scientists and local communities. 

The second panel discussion, titled “Action to scale up restoration on the ground”, saw the participation of Adriana Vidal, Chair of the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration, Christophe Besacier, FAO Team Leader and Lead of the UN Decade Best Practices Task Force, Rémi D’Annunzio, FAO Forestry Officer, Yugratna Srivastava, Lead of the UN Decade Youth Task Force and Gabriel Labbate, Head of the Climate Mitigation Unit and REDD Global Team Leader at the United Nations Environment Programme. 

Members of this panel of leading experts discussed the potential to step up the restoration movement. This includes establishing and strengthening partnerships among various practitioners, developing and integrating policies to enhance the enabling environment for forest and landscape restoration (FLR) at national level, improving available monitoring frameworks, promoting youth inclusion and making investing in FLR more attractive. 

All of the aforementioned were fundamental actions to take, the panel stressed, to address the immense scale of the challenge. 

In his closing remarks, Tom Crowther, Chair of the Advisory Council for the UN Decade, said that, to be successful, global restoration efforts needed to be a bottom-up movement empowered by local communities and the biodiversity they directly depend on. 

“Connections,” Crowther affirmed, “are ultimately what is going to make this movement a sustainable one.” 

Success can only be achieved if institutional actors, civil society and local people join forces. Everybody can play a role in facilitating progress of the UN Decade goals.  

Will you play yours? 

You can watch the recording of the session here. 

Christophe Besacier (FAO), Giorgio Maria Millesimi (FAO)