The webinar “Forest and landscape restoration: Participatory approaches and monitoring” on 23 May 2018 gave members of the Online Community of Practice for Forest and Landscape Restoration, which totals 800 members, a chance to share their knowledge in real time, with the larger objective of developing practitioners’ capacity on the topic. The webinar included 220 participants, most of them located in Europe, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Jordi Cortina, from Spain’s University of Alicante, opened the webinar with a call for urgent intervention to help the world’s ecosystems recover from degrading activities, while contributing to human wellbeing and social cohesion. 

Mchich Derak from the Regional Directorate for Water and Forests and Desertification Control in the region of Rif in Morocco presented a case study from Northern Morocco, describing a participatory FLR project developed through cooperation between the Moroccan government, the Unversity of Abdelmalek Essaàdi, Tetouan and the University of Alicante, with local civil society organizations. The project included participatory monitoring activities. Three neighbouring stakeholders continue to oversee monitoring of the restored plot on a voluntary basis. 

Derak, in discussions on lessons learned, highlighted the need for mechanisms to motivate farmers to plant trees, and engage women as participants. As well, those who took part reported that they had learned planting techniques through the project. He and his team proposed a framework to understand and further develop the process of participatory forest restoration.

Manuel Guariguata, from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Peru, stated in his presentation that only a minority of restoration projects establish a monitoring system and a participatory monitoring mechanism. He highlighted the importance of harmonizing global and national aspirations and objectives with local activities. To engage society in forest and landscape restoration, the needs and views of the public must be an integral part of the process, he said. Local participation is especially important because it helps clarify what drives success or failure on the ground. He also suggested a checklist of questions to keep in mind during the planning stage, including: Who will be responsible for monitoring, for building the monitoring system, and paying for it?

Key take-away messages were generated by the webinar, underlining the importance of participatory monitoring for the success of FLR projects. Regular webinars will be organized in the future from FLRM on this and other FLR issues as part of its knowledge-sharing activities within the online communities of practice. 

• Watch the webinar
• Join the online community of practice
• Receive only webinar invitations and summaries

For more information, contact [email protected] 

 Maria Nuutinen - Caterina Marchetta (FAO)