Forest restoration connects land and livelihoods
Rank 5 | Climate and nature | Global | SDGs 2, 13, 15
Source publication: 28 September 2026. Clock time not stated by publisher. Evidence status: Global assessment and potential restoration benefits.
AI-generated representative illustration | natural aerial landscape photographic illustration. Credit: Development Connects | Kallol Saha.
The world's forests cover an estimated 4.14 billion hectares, according to FAO's State of the World's Forests 2026 report released on 28 September. FAO estimates that forests hold about 714 billion tonnes of carbon. Yet 489 million hectares of forest were lost between 1990 and 2025, a long-run total that cannot be read as a one-year loss.
The report places forest and landscape restoration alongside food security and rural development. FAO estimates 1.56 billion hectares of land are degraded. It argues that restoring more than one billion hectares could generate up to $1.8 trillion in annual benefits. That dollar figure is modelled potential, not income currently being realized by communities.
Case detail
FAO examined 18 restoration case studies, including the Great Green Wall in the Sahara and Sahel, China's Three North Programme and the Trinational Atlantic Forest Pact covering Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Their inclusion illustrates different settings for restoration; the release does not give a single comparable success rate for those projects. The report identifies four delivery pathways: stronger rights and participation, planning at landscape scale, suitable financing and coherent institutions and laws.
This framing treats restoration as management of working landscapes as well as forests. Planting or pledging hectares alone does not describe whether trees survive, livelihoods improve or ecosystems recover. The report's case approach connects implementation choices with those longer-term outcomes.
Evidence and delivery status
Forest area, carbon stock, historical deforestation and degraded land describe different measures and periods. The financial benefits cited are modelled potential. The report provides a global assessment and implementation examples; it does not establish that pledged restoration hectares have all recovered or that communities already receive the projected annual benefits.
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