A record turn up to learn about “Forest Futures”

Author: Murat Gungor, Website and Online Strategy Consultant | March 24, 2026

Close to 1350 of the 1500 registered participants turned up at the latest session of the monthly Generation Restoration Dialogues, and close to half stayed through the discussion. The speakers received more than 41 questions about forest futures.

This surge of record-breaking energy was palpable from concerned citizens across the world who tuned in for the “Forest Futures: Guardians of Our Green Planet” conversation hosted by UNCCD G20 Global Land Initiative (G20 GLI).

A sharp message came through: forests are at the heart of our climate and biodiversity future and the next generation has a crucial part to play.

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Co‑hosted by Jiamian Wang of UNCCD G20 GLI and Jennifer Hong, a youth leader in biodiversity conservation, the event mixed expert insight with practical guidance, giving students, early‑career professionals, activists and the professionals in attendance a clear look at how land restoration is unfolding on the ground and where they can plug in.

A global story, told through local action

Professor Dr Tony Simons, a Senior Fellow at the G20 GLI, offered a sweeping tour through the history of forests, from the ancient evolution of trees to today’s urgent need to restore damaged ecosystems. His talk landed particularly well with youth participants, connecting science with the choices people are making right now. Simons emphasized that forests have sustained life on Earth for millions of years and that protecting them is central to any livable future.

Christophe Besacier from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shifted the spotlight to real-world restoration. Through examples from Ethiopia to Latin America, he showed that degraded land can – and is – being revived through community leadership and smart planning. He also introduced FAO’s growing set of tools, including restoration registries and monitoring platforms, which anyone can explore to understand where restoration is happening and how to get involved.

Clear takeaway: restoration is working and youth are needed

What made this session stand out was its sense of possibility. Instead of focusing on challenges only, both speakers emphasized the progress that is already underway. Communities are returning vegetation to eroded hillsides. Countries are committing millions of hectares to restoration. Local knowledge, Indigenous leadership and scientific monitoring are converging in new ways.

For younger viewers, the message was encouraging: you don’t have to wait to be part of environmental change, restoration is happening now and there is room for new hands, new ideas and new leadership.

A growing hub for young environmentalists

With its goal of reducing degraded land by 50 per cent by 2040, the G20 GLI is a meeting point for anyone exploring a future in food and water security, climate and biodiversity, and various forms of restoration and conservation that are taking restoration to scale and nurturing new economic opportunities.

The monthly Dialogues offer something rare: honest conversations that link global policies to on‑the‑ground efforts, plus practical tools and stories that help turn inspiration into action.

Participants gain exposure to:

techniques like assisted natural regeneration
examples and lessons in land restoration from around the world
emerging data and monitoring tools and
policy frameworks that are shaping restoration efforts today.

For youth trying to find their footing in a fast‑moving environmental landscape, the series acts as both a learning platform and a source of motivation.

Next up: young entrepreneurs restoring the planet

The next webinar in the series will spotlight “Earthprenuership”—young entrepreneurs building businesses that regenerate, rather than deplete, natural systems. From climate‑smart agriculture to forest-based value chains, this session will showcase how innovation and restoration increasingly go hand in hand, and what investors are looking for.

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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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