International rights-based forest restoration

Putting the rights and the voices of local communities and Indigenous Peoples at the heart of international forest restoration programmes.

The problem with forest restoration that doesn't support the rights of Indigenous Peoples

There’s growing awareness that forests are the single most effective way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But despite the rising popularity of forest restoration as one way of tackling the climate crisis, there are serious concerns about how some schemes are executed.

With no coherent, agreed definition, forest restoration is often conflated with tree-planting initiatives, including creating large-scale monocultural plantations. These do little to restore biodiversity or help the climate. What’s more, so-called “restoration” projects frequently side-line local communities, are used to justify land grabs and result in human rights violations.

Fern's work on this issue

What do Fern and our partners want?

If done with a rights-based approach, forest restoration can not only capture carbon, but also recover life support systems, enhance biodiversity, and support the rights of local and Indigenous Peoples.

Evidence shows that the best types of forest restoration see people as part of forest ecosystems and are therefore designed and implemented in a participatory way, driven by the wellbeing and the respect of the rights of communities.

What are we doing?

Our latest report ‘Restoring More Than Forests’ includes a definition of ‘rights-based forest restoration’, which was drafted with our partners in Ghana. The report outlines five restoration principles, and showcases replicable models. We continue to work with partners to uncover other models and to influence national policy reviews.

In the lead up to the UN Decade of Ecological Restoration we are convening conversations with conservation NGOs, policy makers and funders about this alternative approach to restoration so as to shift the restoration away from profit and greenwashing, towards genuine enhancement of human rights and community participation.

What needs to happen to achieve our goals?

We need policy and financial institutions to adopt our definition of rights-based forest restoration so that money can be redirected away from monoculture plantations towards the scaling up of rights-based community models. We need restoration projects to be led by national experts in partnership with local people, and for these initiatives to take rights-based approaches throughout planning, design, delivery and evaluation.

Restoring more than forests

Fern’s new report ‘Restoring More Than Forests’ explores current restoration practice and makes recommendations for policy mechanisms to support rights-based approaches. Read it to learn more on how rights-based forest restoration can empower communities, recover biodiversity, and tackle the climate crisis.

Read the summary report