In 2000, WWF collaborated with IUCN (and other conservation and development groups) in defining forest landscape restoration as: “a planned process that aims to regain ecological integrity and enhance human wellbeing in deforested or degraded landscapes”. The concept of forest restoration at a landscape scale emerged in part from recognition that ecological degradation was so advanced in many places that effective conservation already requires restoration. For example, 22 per cent of the 87 WWF Global 200 forest ecoregions (areas selected by conservation planners because of their high biodiversity value) have already lost at least 85 per cent of their forests – sometimes only 1-2 per cent is left – and here long-term survival of biodiversity will only be possible with restoration. However forest landscape restoration also explicitly recognises the social role of forests: on a crowded planet, restoration for conservation must be balanced by other needs including particularly those of people living within the forest landscape.

Type of Case
Printed publication (book, sourcebook, journal article…)

Publisher
WWF International

Region
Global

Biome
All

Forest Type
Degraded forest

Primary Designated Function
All