The United Nations (UN) General Assembly declared 2021–2030 the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, aimed at creating a global movement in support of preventing, halting and reversing the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. A key limitation identified by the UN Decade Strategy is the lack of sufficient technical knowledge and capacity in both public and private sectors to design, implement, monitor and sustain restoration initiatives. To address this barrier and boost actions for the implementation of the Decade, an FAO-led Task Force on Best Practices was established to develop and enhance the required capacities for undertaking effective ecosystem restoration throughout the Decade and beyond. Among its early achievements, the task force:

1. developed ten guiding principles underpinning the full set of ecosystem restoration activities, and;
2. conducted a global capacity needs assessment through the wide dissemination of an online survey to identify key gaps and capacity priorities for achieving global restoration goals at scale.  

For the principles to be applied, however, there is a need for standards of practice (SoPs) detailing specific considerations for the planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting of ecosystem restoration activities. Towards this end, in partnership with the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) and IUCN’s Commission on Ecosystem Management (IUCN CEM), the task force is now engaging in a multistage process to develop SoPs for ecosystem restoration.  

Likewise, to address major gaps identified through the capacity needs assessment, the task force is currently developing a Capacity, Knowledge and Learning Action Plan for the Decade in partnership with Forestoration International. This will define, replicate and upscale key knowledge products and capacity-development initiatives. The action plan is focused on i) developing restoration capacities at all levels by empowering individuals and organizations and strengthening the enabling conditions of restoration; and ii) mainstreaming ecosystem restoration in education and natural resource management programmes at all levels.  

In order to obtain global feedback and raise awareness on the zero drafts for both products, a consultation at the XV World Forestry Congress was held as part of a side event entitled “System-wide capacities needed to enhance ecosystem restoration throughout the Decade and beyond” on 4 May 2022. The consultation included: 

1. An overview of the publications on principles for ecosystem restoration and the global capacity needs assessment. 
2. A description of the rationale and methods used for the development of the SoPs and action plan. 
3. An interactive Mentimeter poll, which allowed participants to provide feedback on each of the products.  

Concerning the development of SoPs, participants were asked about i) the practices they thought should be considered “best practice”, but which are generally neglected in the restoration process; and ii) the extent to which best practices (incorporating all types of knowledge) for restoration, stakeholder engagement, and restoration monitoring and evaluation, should vary by project governance, resources or scale.  

Regarding the action plan, interactions with participants allowed the identification of levels of priority for the proposed capacity-building actions for governments, non-governmental organizations and other organizations at all levels, community groups, educators and researchers (international, national and subnational levels) and extension agents (subnational and local levels), as well as for cross-cutting initiatives. 

Both products will go through additional global and targeted consultation processes throughout the year, including during the thirteenth European Conference on Ecological Restoration (Alicante, Spain), and the twenty-sixth session of the FAO Committee on Forestry (Rome, Italy).  

You can watch the recording of the session here. 

Christophe Besacier (FAO), James G. Hallett (SER), Cara R. Nelson (IUCN CEM), Robin Chazdon (Forestoration International) and Andrea Romero (FAO)