About FLR

Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is the ongoing process of restoring the ecological functionality of degraded and deforested landscapes while enhancing the well-being of people who coexist with these places.

How the Bonn Challenge supports FLR

Successful FLR is forward-looking and dynamic. We advance these principles by:

  • Inspiring governments to make pledges
  • Equipping pledgers with the tools and information needed for implementation
  • Providing policy support
  • Tracking progress
  • Linking national and regional processes 



What FLR is and what it is not

This is an image. On the image you can see a landscape in Rwanda and a lake.

It is not just about planting trees

FLR prioritises both biodiversity conservation and human livelihoods. It is about using land sustainably in a variety of ways, such as new tree plantings, protected wildlife reserves, regenerated forests, ecological corridors, agroforestry, riverside plantings to protect waterways, managed plantations, and agriculture.

This mosaic of interacting land uses takes place within and across entire landscapes – a scale where ecological, social and economic priorities can be balanced.

It is not one single restoration formula 

FLR tailors to the local context using a variety of approaches. It relies on stakeholders to identify restoration objectives, and to draw on the latest science, best practices, and traditional and indigenous knowledge to choose intervention types.

For example, one country may only want to strengthen ecosystem resilience by increasing forest connectivity and diversity. Yet, a neighbouring country might prioritise carbon sequestration and water protection, planting trees for climate change mitigation and carbon credits and to protect rivers from sedimentation.

This is an image. On the picture you may see people working the land.

This is an image. On the picture you can see a forest in Armenia with different trees of colors green, red, orange and yellow.

It is not an end in itself

FLR is a process. It seeks to regain, improve and maintain a degraded or deforested landscape’s vital ecological and social functions in the long-term, and build its resilience to ecological and societal changes.

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