The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) joined forces in 2019, leveraging a combined 65 years’ experience in research on the role of forests and trees in solving critical global challenges.
The Landscape Restoration Transformative Partnership Platform is collaborating with the Society on evidence-based synthesis and decision-making.
CIFOR-ICRAF has entered into a five-year agreement with the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) to work together in the Landscape Restoration Transformative Partnership Platform.
The two organizations will produce, and disseminate, technical documents as well as practical tools and approaches related to evidence-based restoration to promote stronger links between restoration research, policy and practice.
CIFOR-ICRAF and SER, which are both global partners of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, will bring together science, policy and land-restoration practices on the common platform to ensure the restoration agenda is informed by a wide range of evidence.
‘At the continental level, SER actively promotes networking and coordination between people and institutions, thus, providing further opportunities to synergize in countries with active CIFOR-ICRAF presence,’ said Manuel Guariguata, CIFOR-ICRAF principal scientist and co-leader of the Restoration Platform. ‘SER has members in more than 100 countries, including continental-level chapters and student associations that support restoration practitioners and researchers, which aligns with CIFOR-ICRAF’s mandate on enhancing local capacities for research and development.’
CIFOR-ICRAF and SER will conduct joint workshops, webinars, global consultations and other activities related to the role of scientific and practice-based evidence in shaping restoration policy and practice, emphasizing cross-scale approaches to meet their new mandate.
There are also plans to promote information exchange and co-develop stronger links between CIFOR-ICRAF and SER in relation to institutional web-based platforms, virtual databases and other outlets, such as the Transformative Partnerships Restoration Resource Centre.
The Restoration Platform, which seeks to generate and leverage evidence for landscape restoration and resilient livelihoods, will deliver innovations that work across diverse land uses, including forest, agricultural and pastoral production systems. One of the evidence-generating tools is the Regreening Africa App, which integrates research into implementation while providing real-time feedback from, and with, farmers, development partners and policy makers. Another ‘on the ground’, evidence-based, decision-making tool is the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework. This Earth observation tool developed by CIFOR-ICRAF has been key to building land-health databases, including analyses of soils. The Framework aims to improve researchers’ understanding of land-degradation dynamics at multiple spatial scales and is continuously fed by collecting data through a rigorous sampling framework.
The partnership with SER is also expected to help the Platform address gaps in evidence, monitoring and knowledge sharing to strengthen and increase in scale equitable and sustainable landscape restoration action. In addition, it will offer a critical pathway towards using restoration in a holistic manner to transform global agricultural and food systems.
‘The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration provides a critical opportunity for partners to come together to scale landscape restoration,’ said Leigh Winowiecki, Soil and Land Health research leader at CIFOR-ICRAF. ‘The Restoration Platform has a key pillar to generate and leverage evidence of what works where, for whom and at what cost in order to prioritize and scale restoration on the ground.’
The availability of evidence to inform the UN Decade in its mission to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide will be critical to ensure success. Many restoration projects have been failing owing to lack of reliable, accessible, relevant and tested knowledge about what works and what doesn’t work in both specific and general situations.
According to Bethanie Walder, executive director of the Society for Ecological Restoration, the ‘evidence’ in evidence-based decision making comes from both research and the actual practice and implementation of restoration projects.
‘SER is enthusiastically participating in this partnership to support the collection and dissemination of real-world evidence that will improve the effectiveness of future restoration projects,’ said Walder. ‘By increasing restoration effectiveness, we will also improve the beneficial outcomes and impact of all ecological and ecosystem restoration, including in agricultural landscapes. This, in turn, will help achieve the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’s goal of transformative societal change.’
As it develops over time, the Restoration Platform will allow CIFOR-ICRAF and all of its partners, including SER, to influence the decisions of key partners, such as multilateral agencies, development organizations, governments, restoration implementers and farmers’ groups by generating evidence for ecological restoration and agro-ecological implementation in order to provide effective and equitable outcomes in climate mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity recovery and human well-being, including livelihoods.
A quarter of the Earth’s land is degraded and approximately 52% of the land used for agriculture worldwide is moderately or severely degraded. While this directly affects 1.5 billion people, it also exerts pressure on forests and other intact land, causing further degradation.
The Landscape Restoration Transformative Partnership Platform has aligned itself with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration objectives to halt land degradation and restore the planet.
Read more
Visualising data helps people understand choices and make decisions more easily
Shining a light on soils for land restoration
The Landscape Restoration Transformative Partnership Platform (flier)
A mobile application helps African farmers manage and restore their land
The Land Degradation Surveillance Framework
How healthy soils can address the climate crisis
The Landscape Restoration Transformative Partnership Platform Launch video
More about CIFOR-ICRAF's restoration activities
The Landscape Restoration Transformational Partnership Platform is constantly evolving and looking to collaborate with new partners. If you want to learn more about the Platform or wish to collaborate, please contact us: Leigh Winowiecki (l.a.winowiecki@cgiar.org); Manuel Guariguata (m.guariguata@cgiar.org).
World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific and development excellence that harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment. Knowledge produced by ICRAF enables governments, development agencies and farmers to utilize the power of trees to make farming and livelihoods more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable at multiple scales. ICRAF is one of the 15 members of the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. We thank all donors who support research in development through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund.