Forest and landscape restoration: “We need to restore 470 million ha to meet 2030 targets” (FAO report)
"Forest and landscape restoration is more than an environmental priority - it is a strategic investment in resilient agrifood systems and rural development", states a report published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and launched at the 28th session of its Committee on Forestry (COFO 28), which opened in Rome on 28 September 2026.
In "The State of the World's Forests 2026 - Restoring forests and landscapes: The way forward for a sustainable future", FAO presents forest and landscape restoration (FLR) as "an essential response to the global interconnected challenges of food insecurity, climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation".
Under favourable conditions, restoration can yield up to 30$ for every dollar invested, though benefits vary by context. "The cost of inaction exceeds that of restoration, including significant social and cultural losses", the report adds.
Forests cover 4.14 billion ha (32% of land), store 714 gigatonnes of carbon, host up to 80% of terrestrial biodiversity and support the livelihoods of nearly a third of humanity. Yet 489 million hectares have been lost to deforestation since 1990, and fires affect about 127 million hectares of forest each year.
Countries reported nearly 44 million ha of forest under restoration in FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025, but progress remains uneven and insufficient to close the gap between pledges and lasting impact.
Warning that "the window for action is narrowing", the report urges countries to prioritise “long-term, high-quality restoration over quantity alone” and to embed it in national development strategies, since delayed or poorly designed efforts would raise costs, deepen inequalities and lock landscapes into unsustainable paths.
Aimed at FAO Members and partners working on restoration, the report builds on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 and FAO's Strategic Framework 2022-2031.
Main takeaways: restoration pays off, but delivery lags behind ambition
Degradation is worsening: restoration is essential
- Population growth, land-use change and resource demand have degraded over 10% of the world's land (1.56 billion ha), including about 460 million ha of forest.
- Growing demand for forest products and competition for land are widening the gap between what ecosystems can provide and what people need.
- Restoration at scale is urgently needed to achieve climate, biodiversity, land and food security goals.
Restoration is a strategic investment, not an option
- It delivers benefits for climate mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity, food security and socioeconomic resilience.
- In favourable conditions, each dollar invested can return up to $30, though results vary by context, type of intervention and time horizon.
- Inaction, including its social and cultural losses, costs more than restoration.
Restoration boosts economies and resilience
- Healthy ecosystems underpin over half of global GDP and are essential for economy stability.
- Restoration creates jobs, revives production systems and supports growth that can withstand shocks.
- It also improves well-being, strengthens social cohesion and preserves cultural identity and knowledge systems.
People are central, but benefits are uneven
- Local communities' knowledge and participation are essential to success, enhancing livelihoods, biodiversity and resilience when benefits are shared equitably.
- Indigenous Peoples' rights, knowledge and priorities, and the application of free, prior and informed consent, contribute to biodiversity, cultural values and ecosystem resilience.
- Success requires rights-based approaches, equitable benefit-sharing and governance that respects local rights, knowledge and priorities.
Restoration as an integrated, landscape-wide solution
- FLR balances conservation and production across mixed land uses. It is guided by the six Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration (GPFLR) principles and aligned with the ten UN Decade principles.
- Agroecology and agroforestry restore soil health and support livelihoods, while profitable value chains help restoration succeed.
- Trade-offs must be managed, as no single intervention achieves every goal.
- Combining local, traditional and scientific knowledge is essential for context-specific, effective restoration.
Strong commitments, insufficient progress
- FLR is central to the SDGs, the Rio Conventions and other global frameworks.
- Pledges cover more than 1 billion ha. The report estimates that 470 million ha must be restored to meet 2030 targets.
- Constraints in finance, governance, monitoring and technical capacity hold back implementation.
- Lasting results depend on sustained management after the initial intervention, which is often challenging.
Better measurement and standards are needed
- Differing definitions, metrics and reporting systems fragment progress tracking.
- Data focuses on area restored, with too little attention to socioeconomic and long-term biodiversity outcomes.
- Restoration must follow high-quality standards, backed by harmonised monitoring, indicators for ecological outcomes and adaptive learning.
Scaling up requires four linked pathways
- People: secure rights, meaningful engagement and inclusive governance.
- Land: spatial prioritisation and landscape-level planning.
- Finance and business: fit-for-purpose, risk-appropriate financing mechanisms.
- Policy and law: coherent policies and legal frameworks, institutional coordination, land-tenure rights and consistent fiscal incentives.
The four pathways must be combined, since relying on just one risks gaps in inclusiveness, efficiency and sustainability.
In addition, finance should meet long-term needs, reach local actors and shift away from business-as-usual land use, while new standards, geospatial monitoring, blended finance, accelerators and digital platforms are helping, although many efforts remain fragmented or local. Proven models should be expanded using inclusive, investment-ready approaches, backed by robust institutions and skills development.
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