TRI Global

The policy impacts of the ten country projects of The Restoration Initiative (TRI) are the theme of the new PANORAMA Solutions In Focus publication:

This publication highlights the diverse strategies adopted by country teams to overcome the challenges they faced and to build an enabling policy environment for forest and landscape restoration (FLR). The publication covers the common challenges encountered by TRI countries, the policy-influencing strategies they employed to tackle these hurdles, the success factors, and the long-term impact achieved. The policy-influencing strategies include assisting in formulating and negotiating policy, conducting policy reviews, creating knowledge, and establishing stakeholder platforms to facilitate inclusive engagement in these strategies.

Common challenges at the outset of TRI

TRI is implemented in countries with diverse ecosystems – from arid lands, tropical forests to mangroves – and with particular realities regarding restoration policy, legal and governance structures, information availability, financial and technical resources, and restoration knowledge or awareness. However, there were some notable similarities in the challenges TRI countries experienced at the outset.

The first of these challenges was the need for more political will among government officials to prioritise FLR initiatives. Another common issue was the need for more public awareness about the severity of forest degradation and deforestation and the principles that guide high-quality ecosystem restoration. In Cameroon, for instance, some officials viewed restoration as a measurement of forest surface area, while others viewed it as an ecosystem function.

Lastly, insufficient technical, financial, and administrative resources posed a significant barrier to policy development. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local coordinators and provincial bodies initially lacked the financial, political, and administrative capacity to push policies through the approval process.… Read the rest

In response to the growing crisis of biodiversity loss, The Restoration Initiative (TRI) is making significant progress in restoring ecosystems and promoting sustainable land management practices worldwide. This effort comes as the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will convene from 21 October – 1 November 2024.

The ongoing loss of biodiversity not only threatens the resilience of ecosystems but also the well-being of communities globally. TRI is committed to reversing the impacts of deforestation and land degradation, thereby safeguarding biodiversity for future generations.

Over the next week, TRI will be showcased at a number of events at CBD COP16 (listed below), to demonstrate how ecosystem restoration can be done, while reflecting on the impact of our work and experiences in monitoring, financing and policy influencing. 

Since its inception in 2018, TRI has united ten projects across nine countries, collaborating with three Global Environment Facility agencies—the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)—along with governments and strategic partners to overcome existing barriers to restoring degraded landscapes, in support of the Bonn Challenge.

TRI has implemented projects across Africa and Asia, successfully bringing under restoration over 355,672 hectares of land and placing more than 715,164 hectares under sustainable management. These efforts have further empowered over 810,526 people, mitigated greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 27.4 million tCO2eq, and led to the strengthening and adoption of over 62 policies in support of forest and landscape restoration across various countries.… Read the rest

Two new reports present the practical applications of the STAR metric to drive conservation and restoration efforts in four of The Restoration Initiative’s (TRI) projects. The first is a knowledge brief that builds on an earlier STAR assessment in Kenya and Cameroon, showcasing how the STAR metric has been applied to drive strategies and initiatives for species conservation efforts in three different projects in these two countries. The second report presents the STAR assessment results from four project sites in the Central African Republic (CAR) and provides crucial insights into how the policy integration of forest and landscape restoration (FLR) practices can support national biodiversity goals.

The STAR metric

At the heart of these new reports is the STAR metric, a powerful tool developed to measure the potential and realised contribution of conservation and restoration initiatives to reducing species’ extinction risk. The STAR metric provides a standardised way for a myriad of actors, including governments, policymakers, practitioners, businesses, and investors, to measure the impact of their activities and investments on species preservation.

The STAR metric evaluates two key components: (1) threat abatement – reducing immediate threats to species, such as habitat loss, poaching, or pollution and (2) habitat restoration – restoring ecosystems that support threatened species, creating healthier environments for recovery and long-term survival.

The methodology seeks to estimate the potential contribution of threat abatement and/or habitat restoration activities to the reduction of species extinction risk, calibrate this potential contribution at a location using local data, set target scores quantifying the desired threat abatement and/or habitat restoration to be achieved, and measure progress towards these targets using suitable indicators of threat abatement and/or habitat restoration success.… Read the rest