Restoring Forests and Landscapes: Key Lessons from The State of the World’s Forests 2026 Report
By Martin Fillot, AIFM
As land degradation accelerates and pressure on forest ecosystems intensifies, forest and landscape restoration is emerging as a major driver of environmental and development policies. In its 2026 edition of The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) examines the conditions required to translate international commitments into high-quality restoration capable of delivering lasting ecological, economic and social benefits. For forest managers, researchers and local stakeholders, the report provides a valuable reference for guiding restoration strategies, technical choices and project governance.
An Overview That Calls for Accelerated Action
Entitled Restoring Forests and Landscapes: The Way Forward for a Sustainable Future, the 2026 edition of the FAO’s flagship report focuses on forest and landscape restoration as a response to the interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and food insecurity.
The report paints a worrying picture. In 2025, global forest cover was estimated at approximately 4.14 billion hectares, representing nearly 32% of the world’s land area. Since 1990, around 489 million hectares of forest have been lost due to deforestation. At the same time, more than 460 million hectares of forest and approximately 1.56 billion hectares of land are considered degraded worldwide.
These figures illustrate the scale of the pressures on terrestrial ecosystems and the need for action at a scale commensurate with international conservation and restoration objectives.
Over recent decades, commitments have multiplied, notably through the Bonn Challenge, the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) and the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Target 2 of the latter calls for at least 30% of degraded ecosystems to be under restoration by 2030.
However, the gap between stated ambitions and actual results remains considerable. According to the report, 70 countries and territories reported nearly 44 million hectares of forest undergoing restoration under the 2025 Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA 2025). Other monitoring frameworks report larger areas, but differences in scope, definitions and methodologies mean that these figures cannot be directly compared or added together.
The report therefore highlights a twofold challenge: accelerating action on the ground and improving the ability to measure progress and assess the actual impacts of restoration efforts.
Restoration Means More Than Simply Planting Trees
One of the key contributions of SOFO 2026 is its reminder that Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) extends far beyond tree-planting operations. It is based on an integrated approach designed to halt and reverse ecosystem degradation, restore ecological functions, and reconcile conservation, production and livelihoods at the landscape scale.
Depending on local conditions, interventions may involve natural regeneration, assisted natural regeneration, tree planting or other sustainable land management practices, such as terracing, water resource rehabilitation, and the control of invasive species and pollution. These interventions may concern forests, agroforestry systems, rangelands, wetlands, riparian areas and other interconnected environments.
The choice of interventions must therefore be based on an assessment of the area concerned, including habitat conservation status, the degree of degradation, regeneration dynamics, water availability, human pressures, land use patterns and local communities’ needs.
This approach requires a clear distinction between restoration objectives. The ecological restoration of a natural forest habitat does not necessarily involve the same requirements as an intervention intended to restore certain productive functions or improve the resilience of an agricultural landscape.
For forest managers, this means that the success of a project cannot be assessed solely by the number of trees planted or the area treated. It must also be evaluated in terms of the recovery of ecological processes, the composition and structure of forest stands, biological diversity, resilience to disturbances and the long-term sustainability of results.
The report also emphasises the need to account for interactions between different land uses. For example, an intervention on a forested slope may contribute to hydrological regulation, erosion control and the maintenance of agricultural activities downstream. Restoration should therefore be planned at the landscape scale rather than through a series of isolated operations.
Four Complementary Levers for Scaling Up Restoration
SOFO 2026 identifies four interdependent pathways for developing effective and sustainable restoration:
People. The participation of local communities, Indigenous Peoples and other local stakeholders is essential to designing appropriate interventions, strengthening local ownership and ensuring long-term sustainability. Participatory planning can also help reduce conflicts over land use and promote shared management of natural resources.
Landscapes. Restoration must be planned at the landscape scale, taking into account interactions between forest ecosystems, agricultural land, wetlands and other natural environments. Interventions should be adapted to local ecological conditions and prioritise the recovery of ecosystem functions.
Finance and business models. Scaling up restoration requires sustainable funding and business models capable of supporting interventions over time. The report highlights the opportunities restoration offers to create jobs, revitalise production systems and generate environmental and socio-economic benefits.
Policy coherence and legal frameworks. Long-term national commitments, appropriate regulatory frameworks and better coordination between sectoral policies are essential to creating the conditions needed to scale up restoration.
Assessing Restoration Quality: A Scientific and Operational Challenge
An increase in the area reported as undergoing restoration is not, in itself, sufficient evidence of the effectiveness of the policies implemented.
SOFO 2026 highlights the limitations of current monitoring systems: definitions, indicators and reporting methods vary across international frameworks and countries. Available data often focus more on the areas covered than on the ecological, social and economic outcomes of restoration interventions.
For researchers and managers, this is a central issue. Effective monitoring must make it possible to distinguish between the resources invested, the activities carried out and the results achieved.
Depending on project objectives, indicators may include:
Ecological status: species diversity and composition, stand structure, regeneration, habitats and ecological connectivity.
Ecosystem functioning: soil condition, hydrological dynamics, regeneration capacity and resistance to disturbances.
Resilience: changes in forest stands in response to droughts, wildfires, pests and other pressures.
Socio-economic dimensions: community participation, changes in land use, jobs created, benefit-sharing and the long-term viability of activities.
Governance: institutional capacity, continuity of funding, local ownership and the quality of coordination between stakeholders.
These indicators must be defined according to restoration objectives, ecological context and the scale of intervention. Long-term monitoring systems combining field observations, remote sensing, scientific knowledge and local knowledge are essential for documenting ecological trajectories and adapting practices accordingly.
The report therefore calls for stronger standards, greater data harmonisation, enhanced technical capacities and adaptive learning. The objective is to move from monitoring based primarily on quantitative measures towards a more comprehensive assessment of the quality and impact of restoration interventions.
What Are the Implications for Mediterranean Forests, Particularly in North Africa?
The findings of The State of the World’s Forests 2026 are particularly relevant to the Mediterranean region, where forests face multiple pressures, including climate change, recurrent droughts, wildfires, soil erosion, grazing pressure and changing land use patterns. These challenges are especially pronounced in North African countries, where limited water availability increases the vulnerability of forest ecosystems.
The report highlights the importance of restoration adapted to local conditions, prioritising natural regeneration wherever possible, the use of native species, and the protection of soils and biodiversity. Restoration should form part of an integrated landscape approach that brings together forests, rangelands and agricultural land while involving local communities.
Long-term monitoring is essential to assess not only the areas restored but also the ecological quality of ecosystems and their resilience to disturbances. The challenge is to sustainably restore the functions of Mediterranean forests and the contribution they make to local communities and territories.
Governance is also a key lever for Mediterranean forest restoration. It relies on coordination between forestry, agricultural, environmental and territorial policies, as well as cooperation between countries across the Mediterranean Basin. Clarifying responsibilities, securing land-use rights, involving local authorities and communities, and mobilising long-term funding are all necessary conditions for ensuring continuity of action and embedding restoration within sustainable territorial management
Conclusion: Moving from Commitments to High-Quality Restoration
The State of the World’s Forests 2026 reminds us that forest and landscape restoration is a strategic investment in ecosystem resilience, biodiversity and territorial development. It also highlights the limitations of approaches focused solely on the areas restored and stresses the need to better document ecological and social outcomes.
For forest managers, researchers and decision-makers, the challenge now is to translate international commitments into appropriate restoration programmes that are funded over the long term and evaluated using relevant indicators.
This requires strengthening knowledge, developing skills, improving coordination between stakeholders and placing local communities at the heart of restoration initiatives. Preventing degradation, accounting for ecological dynamics and implementing adaptive monitoring must also be regarded as essential components of any restoration strategy.
The challenge is therefore not simply to restore more, but to restore better: by prioritising ecological quality, local relevance and the long-term sustainability of results
Further Reading
Further Reading
FAO – The State of the World’s Forests 2026: Restoring Forests and Landscapes: The Way Forward for a Sustainable Future
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