In response to escalating climate and ecological crises, ecological restoration (ER) has emerged as a key strategy to combat environmental degradation and mitigate climate change. Global initiatives such as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and the Bonn Challenge set ambitious targets to restore degraded ecosystems by 2030, with a strong emphasis on the global South. These programs are frequently financed through public–private partnerships and market-based mechanisms that prioritize carbon neutrality goals. However, such target raises concerns about accountability and justice, and how to assure that restoration efforts support and deliver tangible benefits to local communities.
The rapid pace of global warming, deforestation and soil degradation have positioned forest landscape restoration at the centre of global strategies to reverse environmental destruction. The current UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative and the African Great Green Wall are illustrative examples of globally and regionally concerted interests towards re-establishing tree covers while simultaneously reducing socio-economic vulnerabilities. In Ethiopia, two of the foremost approaches for forest landscape restoration are tree planting and farmer managed natural regeneration.
This policy brief summaries and synthesis the work undertaken in Sonja Rapo's master’s thesis “Forest restoration in Boeny, Madagascar: goals and community perceptions”. She studied the drivers and goals of forest restoration projects in Madagascar as well as the perspectives and experiences of local communities regarding restoration goals and consequences. This research utilized in-depth interviews with ten forest restoration organizations, as well as six focus groups and 154 semi-structured interviews with local communities. In this policy brief, she explains the implications of her thesis and provides recommendations for different stakeholders.