Forests for People

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Restoring and managing

forest landscapes for better lives

Stephen Kelleher, Deputy Head, Forest Conservation Programme, International Union for Conservation of Nature

e can now begin to look back upon the International

Year of Forests, 2011 (Forests 2011). Throughout

the year, we witnessed an unprecedented level of

attention placed on the world’s forests and the challenges and

opportunities that confront them. Along with its partners, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) took

advantage of this unique focus on forests to amplify and build

on our work and progress.

Forests 2011 commenced with a dynamic meeting of the UN Forum

on Forests in New York, where our team was joined by the IUCN

Director General to highlight some of IUCN’s significant contribu-

tions to sustainable forest management and forest-based livelihoods

around the world.

At this event, the Rwandan Government committed to border-

to-border restoration of its natural ecosystems, upon which a vast

majority of its population already depends for liveli-

hoods. This bold step has served as a catalyst for other

Governments to adopt a similar scale of ambition.

Along with the Government of Rwanda and the United

Nations Forum on Forests, IUCN was a major partner

in supporting Rwanda’s Forest Landscape Restoration

Initiative.

Significant outcomes

At the time of Rwanda’s announcement, IUCN

predicted that Rwanda’s commitment might mark the

beginning of the largest restoration initiative the world

has ever seen – and it is beginning to look as though

we were right. In September we co-hosted, along with

the German Government, a high-level meeting of

ministers and executives of major organizations and

Harvesting seedlings for Mangrove restoration, Limpopo River, Mozambique

Mangrove seedlings in a tree nursery, at the mouth of the Limpopo,

Mozambique

Image: IUCN/Daniel Shaw