Eight years after its launch, The Restoration Initiative is transforming degraded landscapes across Africa and Asia, helping communities shift from environmental scarcity to climate resilience.
Led by the United Nations Environment Programme in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the initiative has restored or improved management on more than 960,000 hectares of land since 2018. The effort has also helped capture or prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, with more than 810,000 people expected to benefit.
In northern Kenya, near the Mukogodo Forest, the impact is tangible. Communities living in the semi-arid rangelands stretching from the foothills of Mount Kenya toward Ethiopia and Somalia have seen both ecological and economic change.
For residents like Elizabeth Inkiniwa, restored forests and rangelands have brought wildlife back in greater numbers including elephants. While the animals boost local ecotourism ventures, they also pose risks to farms and livelihoods.
To ease tensions between people and wildlife, the project has worked with four local communities to develop a sustainable land management plan. Measures include rotational grazing, reseeding degraded pasture, removing invasive cactus species, channeling water to accessible points, and constructing swales to retain scarce rainfall.
Livestock access to forest areas is now tightly regulated, tree-cutting for charcoal is prohibited, and community rangers patrol the land guarding against cattle rustling and helping steer wildlife away from settlements.
Beyond conservation, the initiative has sought to diversify incomes. Residents have received training in honey production, seedling cultivation for forest restoration, and ecotourism services such as campsite management and handicrafts.
Globally, The Restoration Initiative spans 10 projects in nine countries, including efforts to reverse forest fragmentation in China, plant bamboo to rehabilitate hillsides in Cameroon, restore mangroves and agroforestry systems in São Tomé and Príncipe, and strengthen community forest management in Tanzania’s Great Ruaha and Lake Rukwa basins.
The programme has been recognized as a World Restoration Flagship under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global campaign to halt and reverse environmental degradation.
Project leaders say the model demonstrates that environmental recovery and economic security can advance together.
By restoring ecosystems and strengthening local stewardship, communities are not only protecting biodiversity but also reinforcing their defenses against drought, climate shocks and land degradation building resilience for generations to come.