The Restoration Initiative named a World Restoration Flagship under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

The announcement of four new World Restoration Flagships was made during a high-level event at the World Food Forum in Rome, ahead of World Food Day, and coincided with the final day of the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The awards are part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-30), led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). They celebrate the world’s most promising and ambitious large-scale restoration efforts to halt land degradation and ensure healthier, more resilient ecosystems for the people who depend on them. Flagships embody the 10 Restoration Principles of the UN Decade.

“TRI’s induction as one of the newest World Restoration Flagships is a testament to its positive impact on the well-being of people, land, biodiversity, and climate. As a Global Partner of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, IUCN is committed to advancing restoration across diverse scales and ecosystems”, said Stewart Maginnis, IUCN Deputy Director General. “We are now at the halfway point of the Decade. This award is a celebration of the progress we have made, but it is also a reminder that there is still work to be done if we want to succeed in meeting global restoration goals.”

TRI's recognition as one of the winning Flagships highlights its significant contribution toward global pledges and efforts to bring one billion hectares under restoration – an area larger than China. Beyond restoring hundreds of thousands of hectares in Africa and Asia, TRI has directly benefited over 420,000 people and mitigated more than 30 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Another 500,000 hectares are set to be brought under restoration by 2030.

“There is an urgent need to scale forest landscape restoration and ensure it reaches the most vulnerable ecosystems and communities”, said Chetan Kumar, Global Head of Forest and Grasslands at IUCN. "Land degradation and deforestation not only threaten our ability to meet climate, biodiversity, and disaster risk reduction commitments, but also affect local communities which depend on land for their livelihoods, health, well-being, and cultural traditions. TRI’s achievements prove that large-scale restoration, when done with partnership and communities in mind, can address many of the challenges facing people and nature across the globe."

“This award honours the collective effort of hundreds of people across TRI countries who have turned forest and landscape restoration into a catalyst of change and a powerful local solution for socio-economic challenges that were impacting biodiversity. Through multistakeholder partnerships, community empowerment and integration of restoration into policy frameworks, each TRI country has achieved tangible results and established a foundation for sustainable impact for years to come”, said Adriana Vidal, Senior Programme Coordinator for Climate Change and Global Manager of TRI at IUCN.

Global estimates suggest that nearly 2 billion hectares of the world’s agricultural land, pasture, forest, and woodland are degraded. Recognising land degradation as one of the defining challenges of our time, TRI is designed to address key and common barriers to expanding and scaling up restoration. It is implemented in Cameroon, Central African Republic, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Pakistan, São Tomé and Príncipe, and the United Republic of Tanzania, spanning 10 child projects, each of which is centred around restoration but unique in its approach. Across its country projects, the programme has facilitated the adoption of 61 policies and regulatory frameworks that enable the implementation of forest landscape restoration.

With USD 54 million in funding from the Global Environment Facility and USD 201 million in co-funding, TRI is implemented by IUCN in partnership with FAO, UNEP and a diverse group of country and non-governmental organisation partners.

Learn more about TRI’s objectives and achievements on the TRI website, and read the full press release on the four new Flagships on the UN Decade website.