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The Restoration Initiative (TRI): Uniting for Nature to Build Climate Resilience and Combat Land Degradation

In response to pressing climate and environmental challenges, The Restoration Initiative (TRI) is advancing conservation, restoration, and sustainable land management on a global scale. With the forest and land-use sector (excluding agriculture) responsible for roughly 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, TRI underscores the potential for nature-based solutions—such as forest and mangrove restoration—to reduce emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere and ensure that these ecosystems’ degradation is halted and recovered to be a harbor of biodiversity.

Since 2018, TRI has launched ten projects across nine countries, collaborating with three Global Environment Facility (GEF) agencies—the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)—alongside governments and strategic partners. These collaborations address biodiversity loss, climate impacts, and land degradation, supporting global restoration targets like those of the Bonn Challenge.

To date, TRI has implemented projects across Africa and Asia, bringing over 355,672 hectares of land under restoration and placing more than 715,164 hectares under sustainable management. These initiatives have positively impacted over 810,526 people, reduced greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 27.4 million tCO2eq, and supported the adoption of over 62 policies to strengthen forest and landscape restoration efforts. “TRI represents a significant advancement in global efforts to combat biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. Through science-based strategies and community engagement, TRI is building resilient ecosystems that can better withstand climate challenges,” said Prof. Lu Zhi, Executive Director of the Peking University Center for Nature and Society and UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Advisory Board member.… Read the rest