Restoring forest landscapes

The Bonn Challenge, a global initiative to restore 350 million hectares of forest and forest landscapes by 2030, guides the IKI in restoring forest landscapes. It pursues a landscape approach that combines the conservation of biodiversity and climate action, contributes to sustainable development, and reports on progress on the basis of environmental, economic, and political criteria.

Transferable business models related to the near-natural restoration of forests and forest landscapes help to expand sink capacity. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 aims to reverse the destruction of nature. It strengthens restoration initiatives through a high level of political attention, a global movement and technical support as well as diverse cooperation arrangements between indigenous groups, civil society, business, academia and subnational authorities.

The Bonn Challenge

In many countries, deforestation and the degradation of natural forest ecosystems are causing a substantial decline in the effectiveness of these ecosystems to store water, sequester carbon and protect against erosion. Accordingly, measures for the restoration and ecosystem-based adaptation of forests not only make a decisive contribution to climate change mitigation but also work to conserve biodiversity and support sustainable development.

In light of this, the German government and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) organised a ministerial conference in September 2011 to launch the Bonn Challenge as a comprehensive international initiative to rebuild forests. Participating nations set a goal to ensure the restoration of 150 and 350 million hectares of deforested and degraded forest landscapes by 2020 and 2030, respectively (New York Declaration on Forests).

Numerous countries have now pledged to participate. Already in 2017, pledges from countries and the private sector to rebuild forest landscapes stood at 150 million hectares, marking an important milestone. In 2021, pledges already amounted to over 210 million hectares in 61 countries.  

IKI's role 

The International Climate Initiative (IKI) supports the goals of the global Bonn Challenge and finances projects that are piloting innovative approaches to forest ecosystem restoration, and developing measures and funding instruments that ensure the dissemination of these efforts.

Preserving and restoring natural carbon sinks