In 2011, the Government of Germany in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and supported by the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR) launched the Bonn Challenge. The Bonn Challenge calls for the restoration of 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020, rising to 350 million hectares by 2030. These efforts might include reforestation, afforestation or agroforestry. Forest Landscape Restoration can be defined as a process that aims to regain ecological functionality and enhance human wellbeing in deforested or degraded landscapes (GPFLR, link). By 2025, World Bank funding will aim to deliver support to the integrated landscape management approach for avoiding deforestation and promoting landscape restoration or sustainable forest management for 120 million hectares of forests in 50 countries (https://www.cbd.int/financial/wb.shtml). FLR also goes hand in hand with many Governments’ focus on Protected Areas and Community Forestry, and such synergies are important for the overall rehabilitation of degraded areas.

Earth Observation (EO) has the unique capability of providing historical and current land use maps as well as reforestation and afforestation assessments across large areas. Thus, the EO4SD Forest Management geo-spatial products can be used for supporting Forest Landscape Restoration and Forest Restoration projects.