Showcasing strategies that will help restore land at large scale

Author: Murat Gungor, Website and Online Strategy Consultant | September 29, 2025

The UNCCD G20 Global Land Initiative will lead training events aiming to help law-makers and universities build the human resources needed to restore degrading land at very large scale globally.

The events take place at the 11th World Conference on Ecological Restoration (SER2025), from 30 September – 4 October 2025, in Denver, Colorado, USA, as the world reaches the midpoint of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

The initiative will also host a booth to further exchanges about these activities and the Initiative’s work more generally.

Trigger Change: Training educators for urban land restoration
Date: Monday, 29 September 2025 | Local Time: 8:30 – 12:30

Trigger Change is a newly developed university-level course designed to equip educators and students with the tools to address urban land degradation and promote sustainable agriculture. Created by a global team of professors and experts under UNCCD guidance, the course includes:

Five adaptable modules on urban land restoration and planning
48 hours of open-access materials, including presentations, a course manual, and 10 global case studies
A focus on eco-preneurship, innovation, and inclusive restoration strategies

This half-day training session introduces participants to the course content and fosters critical thinking through interactive dialogue. It’s ideal for professors, lecturers, and trainers in agriculture, urban planning, and environmental studies.

Restoring land, shaping laws: A global legal perspective
Date: Wednesday, 1 October 2025 | Local Time: 14:00 – 16:00

The workshop, hosted by UNCCD G20 Global Land Initiative and UNSSC as part of the Global Changemaker Academy for Parliamentarians (G-CAP) programme, explores how legal frameworks can drive effective land restoration. Building on the “Lawyers Roundtable on Legislating Land Restoration Roundtable”, it brings together global experts to share best practices, examine legislative gaps, and propose elements of model laws—highlighting milestones like the EU Nature Restoration Law. It’s a key opportunity for legal and policy stakeholders to shape impactful, long-term solutions to land degradation.

Visit the G20 GLI Booth: Explore tools for training on restoration and to scale impact
Date: 30 September – 4 October 2025

UNCCD G20 Global Land Initiative will host the booth throughout SER2025 to showcase the Initiative’s capacity-building efforts, beyond the Trigger Change course and the Global Changemaker Academy for Parliamentarians (G-CAP).

Visitors can also learn about the Restoration Return Grants, the Global Restoration Information Hub – GRIH, and other tools supporting the restoration economy and data-driven decision-making.

Find us at Booth 8 in the Centennial Ballroom FGH of the Hyatt Regency Denver. Stop by during Exhibit Hall hours to connect with the team and explore how you can contribute to global land restoration:

Tuesday, 30 September: 19:00 – 21:00
Wednesday, 1 October: 10:00 – 16:30
Thursday, 2 October: 10:00 – 16:30
Friday, 3 October: 10:00 – 16:30
Saturday, 4 October: 10:00 – 16:30

Join us at SER2025

Attend Trigger Change to explore cutting-edge educational tools designed to empower the next generation of land restoration leaders. Engage directly with global policymakers at the Global Changemaker Academy for Parliamentarians, where legislative solutions for sustainable land management and climate action are shaped. And don’t miss the G20 GLI Booth in the Exhibit Hall—your gateway to learning more about restoration finance, data platforms, and capacity-building opportunities. Be part of the global movement to restore 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030 and help turn restoration commitments into real-world impact.

More information

Director's Message

The year 2024 was pivotal for the Global Land Initiative. Land degradation and restoration remained prominent on the global policy agenda throughout.

The UN Environmental Assembly, G7 Leaders’ Summit, G20 Environment and Climate Change Ministers’ meeting, and BRICS Leaders’ Summit addressed land degradation and committed to scaling up land restoration efforts.

The European Union passed a new Restoration Law mandating quantitative targets for land restoration. The UNFCCC, UNCBD and UNCCD Conferences of the Parties (COPs), held during the last quarter of the year, reinforced land restoration as a crucial solution to combat land degradation, biodiversity loss and climate change.

Building on this favorable policy momentum, the Global Land Initiative continued to develop and deliver a robust program. In collaboration with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), we completed a database on Global Restoration Commitments by countries under the UNCCD, UNCBD, UNFCCC and the Bonn Challenge.

Representing a significant increase in global commitments since 2021, the total global commitment now stands at 1.2 billion hectares, with 30 countries, including 11 G20 members, pledging to restore over 10 million hectares each.

The UNCCD, with financial support from the Global Land Initiative, published the first global restoration economy international report, titled, Investing in Land’s Future: Financial needs assessment for UNCCD. The report defines the private sector’s growing role in land restoration and its potential for creating green jobs.

The study outlines key recommendations to support the growth of the restoration economy, which has an associated market survey valued at $37 billion globally, growing at 8.2% annually and is projected to reach $70 billion by 2031. Together, these studies stressed the need for focused policy action to encourage private sector investment and engagement in the restoration economy.

Working with the International Trade Centre (ITC), the Global Land Initiative launched the first cohort of the “Global Ecopreneurs Program,” training 100 young entrepreneurs from restoration startups. These entrepreneurs received training on improving business plans and pitching to investors. We plan to scale this program regionally to reach 10,000 ecopreneurs by 2029.

Training remained a cornerstone of the Global Land Initiative, with programs on the restoration of mining areas, of urban lands, of lowland-based systems, of drylands and with biosaline agriculture. These trainings consistently attracted more applications than available slots. To accommodate this high demand and broader participation, we also conducted online webinars on these topics, in English, Arabic and French.

The first University Curriculum Course on Sustainable Agriculture for Land Restoration was launched this year. It reached over 400 university teachers, with over 100 trained on implementing the curriculum. A university module on urban land restoration is in its final stages.

Representatives from 25 countries attended the second Global Changemaker Academy for Parliamentarians held in Bonn. With the European Union Restoration Law’s passage, global best practices can now be discussed and adapted to national contexts.

The Global Land Initiative’s visibility surged with participation in the G20 Environment and Climate Change Working Group meetings in Brazil, the COPs of the UNCBD and UNCCD and 7 other international exhibitions. In December, the Initiative, in partnership with Germany’s Federal Museum of Arts and Sciences, opened the Save Land: United for Land Museum Exhibition, the first museum exhibition on land restoration, which will run until June 2025.

Online engagement grew, reaching over 35,000 newsletter subscribers and over 14,000 followers across social media platforms, and a global reach of nearly 400,000. The Global Photography Festival, which attracted 17,000 entries from 154 countries, further boosted visibility.

The Global Restoration Information Hub was launched in July 2024. It is a compilation of globally available data on land restoration from credible sources. The site provides information on global best practices, restoration commitments, best practice legislations, documentaries, restoration actors and other databases.

The Initiative issued a global call for communities and NGOs to submit their restoration projects for small grant support, receiving over 600 submissions from 100 countries. Forty-one projects from XX countries were selected for funding.

[Statement on faith, if the faith report is finalized]

The G20 Global Land Initiative Steering Committee was kept informed of developments through regular communication. It met in July and continues to provide guidance on program implementation. It received the work plan for 2025-26; an exciting period of action is ahead.

Executive Director's Message

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