To support and scale up efforts to restore degraded ecosystems worldwide, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2021–2030 as the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (UN Decade), co-led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). To help achieve the vision of the UN Decade, an FAO-led Task Force on Best Practices was established to enhance knowledge dissemination and capacity development efforts. Among its main activities, the Task Force has developed i) ten principles to create a shared vision of ecosystem restoration and increase the likelihood of achieving the highest level of recovery possible; ii) standards of practice to facilitate application of the ten principles to restoration projects by providing key recommendations for the entire restoration process; iii) a Capacity, Knowledge and Learning Action Plan for the Decade that is based on a global capacity needs assessment and proposes eight capacity development initiatives tailored to different stakeholder groups; and iv) a platform for dissemination of good practices for restoration, integrated within the Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring (FERM), that enables the documentation and sharing of good practices in all types of ecosystems.
In celebration of the 2023 International Mountain Day theme "Restoring mountain ecosystems", this event – co-led by FAO-led Task Force on Best Practices and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat – will focus on showcasing and sharing good practices for the restoration of mountain ecosystems derived from:
- The Restoration Initiative (TRI), which unites ten African and Asian countries and three Global Environment Facility agencies – the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), FAO and UNEP – in working to overcome existing barriers to restoration and restore degraded landscapes at scale in support of the Bonn Challenge;
- The multi-country initiative on ecosystem restoration in mountain regions, which was recognized as a World Restoration Flagships from the first call for nominations launched by the UN Decade in January 2022;
- Acción Andina, which aims to protect and restore 1 million ha of critical high Andean, native Polylepis forest ecosystems over the next two decades, spanning the seven Andean countries; and
- The Mountain Partnership, the United Nations voluntary alliance of partners dedicated to improving the lives of mountain peoples and protecting mountain environments around the world.