One of the critical barriers that need to be overcome to achieve the mission of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (UN Decade) is the lack of adequate technical knowledge and capacity across public and private sectors to effectively plan, implement, monitor, and sustain restoration initiatives.

To address this barrier, a Task Force on Best Practices was established under the leadership of FAO. Comprising around 400 members from more than 170 organizations from all continents, this Task Force is a collaborative effort dedicated to support capacity development and knowledge dissemination activities throughout the UN Decade.

Its main achievements include the development of:

1. The principles and standards of practice to guide ecosystem restoration;
2. A Capacity, Knowledge and Learning Action Plan for the UN Decade, based on a global capacity needs assessment; and
3. A framework for disseminating good practices for ecosystem restoration embedded into the Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring (FERM), in collaboration with the FAO-led Taskforce on Monitoring for the UN Decade.

The Task Force on Best Practices is currently focused on three primary ongoing efforts:

1. Implementation of the Capacity, Knowledge and Learning Action Plan;
2. Development of tools to support adoption of the Standards of practice to guide ecosystem restoration; and
3. Collection and dissemination of good practices through the FERM platform.

How to join the UN Decade Task Force on Best Practices?

Strong cooperation with UN Decade partners and stakeholders involved in restoration is key to fulfilling the mandate of the Task Force. Therefore, organizations involved in capacity development and knowledge dissemination for ecosystem restoration can join the Task Force on Best Practices, on a voluntary basis, by sending an expression of interest to [email protected]  and mentioning why the organization would like to collaborate with the Task Force. 

More information on the Task Force