Restoring Land, Reconnecting with the Earth: Reforest Fest 2025 at the Halfway Point of a Decade on Restoration

Author: By Ephraim Ozabor, Greenpop Senior Campaign Manager (PR & Media Relations) | May 21, 2025

A young girl digs in the soil to plant sapling

Age doesn’t matter when it comes to making a difference—at Reforest Fest, everyone’s got the spirit of restoration!
Credit: UNCCD/G20 / Doniyor Umarkhujaev

At the southern tip of Africa, deep in the Uilenkraal Valley, an extraordinary occasion unfolded. Over a thousand people came together, not for a concert or conference, but for a celebration of restoration. Trees were planted, meals were shared, stories were exchanged, and a reconnection with nature was forged. Now in its 14th year, Greenpopʼs Reforest Fest has become much more than a tree-planting event, and much, much more than a festival. The annual gathering has grown into a movement, rich in culture and restorative action, seeking to serve as an antidote to local biodiversity loss. This year, Reforest Fest has arrived at a defining moment, the halfway mark of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and the beginning of South Africaʼs G20 presidency, where land restoration sits prominently on the agenda.

The gathering was a melting pot of local energy and global influence, executing hands-on land restoration as a part of the Uilenkraal Forest Restoration Project, a collaborative initiative between the Greenpop Foundation, Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat, Blomerus, Platbos Forest Reserve and Kleinbos. Reforest Fest is a testament to the joys of reconnecting with the natural world, and giving back, proving that environmental action need not be a chore or laborious process, but one full of fun, creativity, and celebration. Throughout the Saturday of the Fest, participants fanned out across the Uilenkraal Valley to plant indigenous tree species to restore previously degraded land.

A man with Planting Team text on the back of his t-shirt in a discussion group at Reforest Fest 2025

Lively conversations spark connection and creativity at ReForest Fest 2025, uniting people and ideas in a vibrant exchange.
Credit: UNCCD/G20 / Doniyor Umarkhujaev

Greenpopʼs restoration team, alongside local ecologists and community leaders, facilitated the planting of a massive 5,021 trees.

The significance of Reforest Fest is not just derived from the local-scale forest restoration and tree-planting, however. The experience is curated to create a long-lasting impact on the ground as well as in the hearts and minds of all attendees. Through workshops, discussions and informative talks, there is access to a wealth of knowledge courtesy of various restoration experts. At this yearʼs rendition, the Restoration Tent became the beating heart of the festivalʼs knowledge sharing. Here, UNCCD–G20 Global Land Initiative representatives sat shoulder-to-shoulder with grassroots practitioners from across the globe, indigenous leaders, and curious volunteers to share ideas and visions for the future.

“There is no green transition without Africa,” noted Kofi Debrah, Co-Founder & Partner at OKO Forests and member of Reforest Festʼs UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative cohort, underscoring the urgency of elevating African leadership in broader restoration conversations. With the Global Landscape Initiative gaining momentum, the exchanges in the tent mirrored the mission: bridging global frameworks with tangible, local action.

For Misha Teasdale, Greenpopʼs Co-Founder and Chief Executive Director, Reforest Fest has always been about more than just trees. It’s about healing people as well as ecosystems. “In a world where so many of us feel overwhelmed by environmental grief,” he shared, “Reforest Fest oﬀers something rare: agency, joy, and community. Itʼs a cure for eco-anxiety.”

The theme – Think Global, Act Local – echoed through every aspect of the Restoration Tent.

Panellists from across Southern Africa and beyond shared powerful and inspiring stories of on-the-ground restoration, highlighting community-led forestry efforts in Ghana, Lebanon, and Zambia, to name a few.

Participants posing for group shot

Festival-goers come together to network, celebrate sustainability, and champion the spirit of restoration at ReForest Fest 2025.
Credit: UNCCD/G20 / Doniyor Umarkhujaev

Restoration as Celebration

What makes Reforest Fest unique is its ability to effortlessly combine celebration with restoration. Planting sessions were followed by live music, performances, storytelling and an array of delicious sustainable food and drinks. This was by no means a break from the work, it’s a part of the whole experience.

“Whatever the problem, community is the answer,” said John D. Lui, the internationally renowned Founder of Ecosystem Restoration Communities, and member of UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative cohort, reflecting on the radiant communal spirit and togetherness that has fueled the event since its inception. From a policy lens, the festival offered a glimpse into how restoration can be scaled through cross-sector collaboration. The presence of the UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative took this conversation to new heights at this yearʼs Fest, giving attendees access to a wealth of knowledge on a variety of elements of restoration.

A woman digs into the soil to plant a sapling.

Planting trees transforms promises into action at ReForest Fest 2025, as eager hands dig in to restore the planet together.
Credit: UNCCD/G20 / Doniyor Umarkhujaev

“Whatʼs happening here is more than symbolic—itʼs a prototype,” said Dr. Wagaki Wischnewski, a UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative delegate. “When grassroots communities lead and global frameworks support, restoration becomes not only scalable, but unstoppable.”

The blueprint to sustainable ecosystem restoration doesnʼt live in documents and folders alone – it lives in the delicate dance between local action and global intention. As we move into the latter half of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the world is watching for promise: restoration efforts that are scalable, socially inclusive, and biodiverse. Reforest Fest is exactly this. It doesnʼt promise silver bullets, it acts and achieves. The Restoration Tent’s collaboration with the

UNCCD-G20 Global Land Initiative not only brought international visibility to local efforts but also positioned Reforest Fest as a launchpad for a much bigger vision: scaling restoration festivals globally.

Soaring Over ReForest Fest: Where Nature and Community Take Root

Building the festival venue… the calm before the festivity storm.
Video courtesy of Danel Wentzel, and Greenpop’s Reforest Fest

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.

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