More than 800 members of the online community of practice for forest and landscape restoration attended the knowledge-sharing forum ‘Forest and landscape restoration: Participatory approaches and monitoring’ held between 17 May and 5 June 2018. The FLRM team compiled highlights of the members’ emails and shared other knowledge resources.

Participatory monitoring, sometimes called ‘multiparty monitoring’ is an area of work in which many organizations are gaining experience. Online community members were encouraged to engage in FLR monitoring as there is a need for more data and information to support natural resources management and related policy-making.

Community members also shared  take-away messages at the end of the facilitated exchanges:

• “Monitoring and evaluation must get away from academic theoretical framework ‘overdose’ and be simplified and made accessible to rural stakeholders.”  

• “Academic research and practitioners should collaborate much more intensely to be able to highlight the multi-dimensional, practical effects of FLR.”

Members recommended using locally suitable practices in FLR, chosen together with the local stakeholders, and to prioritize agroforestry, where appropriate.

When feedback on the forum was requested, all respondents but one (N=21) said they learned something new; and 24 percent stated they now know much more on the topic than previously. Community members especially appreciated information sharing on projects and programmes and links for more detailed information on participants’ initiatives in different parts of the world. For future events, members suggested more webinars and diving deeper into the topics of the fora. In addition, they hope to read more success stories. 

As next steps for the online community of practice, these participants were especially interested in FLR’s links with ecosystem services; sustainable land, forest and mangrove management, including agroforestry; local finance options, as well as monitoring of FLR at country scale. Members also suggested topics that they could present to other community members. Stay tuned for an interesting fall of knowledge-sharing.

Read more from the FLRM Newsletter Issue 7 that summarized the webinar content.
Watch the webinar videos and become engaged!

Maria Nuutinen (FAO)

Carolina Gallo Granizo (FAO)