Studies on forest landscape restoration in hilly and mountainous regions of Asia and Africa - an introduction to the Special Issue

The field of forest landscape restoration (FLR) is quickly gaining traction now that national commitments to restore degraded lands under the 2011 Bonn Challenge have reached upwards of 160 million ha. While the growing literature on FLR and associated methodologies being proposed emphasizes the importance of including stakeholders in decision making and implementation, local communities in hilly and mountainous regions often face particular challenges. The papers in this Special Issue of the International Forestry Review shed light on some of the approaches incorporated in FLR design and its outcomes in cases from China, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. These include direct subsidies or PES, land distributions and devolution of resource rights, engagement of communities in participatory management, and other approaches. Taken together, the studies in this Special Issue bring together a range of insights into the diversity of approaches favoring the implementation of FLR, particularly in sloping landscapes, under varying social and ecological conditions.