Forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is an imperative economic and environmental investment to secure global food systems, combat biodiversity loss, and mitigate climate change, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) flagship report The State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) 2026.
Released at the 28th Session of the Committee on Forestry (COFO 28) in Rome, the report warns that over 1.56 billion hectares of global land are degraded—including 460 million hectares of forest ecosystems. Deforestation claimed 489 million hectares between 1990 and 2025, driven by expanding agriculture, population growth, and escalating demand for natural resources. Inaction incurs a staggering annual global economic cost ranging from $878 billion to $6.3 trillion.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu underscored that forest restoration is a strategic necessity for rural development and food security, noting that nearly one-third of humanity relies on forests for livelihoods. Under favorable conditions, landscape restoration delivers extraordinary financial returns, generating up to $30 for every $1 invested, while an investment of $2.6 trillion over 15 years in drought and land degradation mitigation yields an eight-to-one societal benefit.
India’s Strategic Focus on Seed Systems and Agroforestry
The report singles out India and South Asia for critical restoration frameworks. Highlights include India’s focus on native tree seed systems to ensure high-quality, climate-resilient ecological recovery rather than relying on monoculture plantations. India’s active alignment with Targets 2 and 10 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) reinforces its commitment to restoring degraded ecosystems and driving sustainable land management.
Furthermore, South Asian agricultural landscapes, particularly in India, showcase agroforestry and integrated land-use systems as prime models. These practices rebuild soil organic matter, enhance microbial health, and revitalize degraded pasture and cropland while sustaining local food production.
To bridge the gap between global pledges (exceeding 190 million hectares across 91 nations) and implementation, the report outlines four core pathways: prioritizing people’s rights, scaling land-use planning, mobilizing long-term blended finance, and ensuring policy coherence. Achieving sustainable outcomes by 2030 will depend on transitioning from simple tree-planting targets to science-backed, community-centered restoration.