The Restoration Initiative (TRI) programme was featured at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress, held in France on 3–11 September 2021. Speakers at the TRI event, which served to raise the visibility and awareness of TRI-supported work, and restoration efforts more broadly, included Global Environment Facility (GEF) CEO Carlos Manuel Rodriguez and ministers from Kenya and Pakistan. They were joined by representatives from the three partner TRI agencies, IUCN, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

In his opening plenary address, GEF CEO Carlos Manuel Rodriguez stressed both the possibility and urgency of restoration, drawing upon his time serving as environmental and energy minister for Costa Rica. He recounted Costa Rica’s amazing story of recovery from environmental degradation through investment in restoration – moving from just 22 percent of forest original forest cover remaining in 1985 to some 55 percent today – achieved without adverse effects on food production, energy or housing needs. He also noted with some sadness on how today’s young environmental leaders looking to make their mark will do so largely as champions of restoration, rather than conservation.

To provide insights into how TRI is working on the ground to overcome restoration barriers, the event included a conversation with ministers from two TRI programme countries: Hon. Mohamed Elmi, vice-minister of environment and forestry for Kenya, and Malik Amin Aslam, federal minister for Pakistan and adviser to the prime minister for climate change. They were joined by Chris Buss, director of IUCN’s Forest Conservation Programme, Christophe Besacier, coordinator of the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism at FAO, and Benjamin DeRidder, Chief Technical Advisor of The Restoration Initiative project within FAO.

Speaking about the experiences of Pakistan, Minister Amin Aslam noted that Pakistan’s prior success in restoration was underpinned by the engagement and strong participation of local communities, particularly young people, coupled with enabling policies that protect investments in restoration and nature. These approaches are being incorporated in the TRI programme, where project partners in Pakistan are working with local communities to put in place incentives and measures to restore and protect threatened chilgoza pine forests. The approach is already showing returns in the form of increased harvests, income and other benefits.

Similarly in Kenya, where two unique TRI projects are working to restore degraded lands, in the north-western arid region near Mount Kulal and in the Tana River delta area on the southern coast, Minister Elmi was asked to reflect upon Kenya’s restoration ambitions, challenges and lessons learned. He stressed the importance of putting local communities at the centre of restoration efforts, of matching restoration interventions to the particular needs of landscapes and communities, and that partnerships across the landscape and between local and national government are also needed – particularly in enforcing protections for fragile resources such as dryland grazing areas. He noted that while lessons are there, a key challenge is in upscaling these lessons to achieve the substantial restoration ambitions of Kenya (5.1 million hectares committed under the Bonn Challenge) and other African countries. To this end, the TRI programme is working with stakeholders in the business and finance communities to build capacity in identifying restoration-linked businesses and investments, and mobilize capital into restoration.

The event closed with a reflection by the panellists on both the intrinsic power of nature to restore itself if given the chance, and also a warning that has come in the form of the pandemic. As Minister Amin Aslam said: “COVID-19 has shown us what is going to happen if we do not invest in nature, if we don’t restore our relationship with nature. And the answer is very clear: nature will strike back.”

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Joshua Schneck and Temitope Rebecca Abisoye (IUCN Forest Conservation Programme)
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