Since its launch in 2011 by Germany and IUCN, the Bonn Challenge has galvanised global action, advancing global efforts to address climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation. To date, over 210 million hectares have been pledged by more than 60 countries, subnational governments and private partners, demonstrating unprecedented political will and collective ambition for Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR).
Dr Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN), Germany, said: “Fifteen years ago, Germany launched the Bonn Challenge with IUCN as a call to restore the world’s degraded lands. Today, we see the growing power of restoration to unite climate, biodiversity and development goals — and we remain fully committed to supporting countries and partners on this journey toward 2030.”
At COP30, Ministers and senior representatives from Germany, Guatemala, Brazil, Mongolia, Burkina Faso, Armenia and Switzerland, alongside IUCN and partners, underscored the pivotal role of restoration in achieving the Paris Agreement, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality targets. Speakers emphasised that FLR as a climate solution is an investment in resilient ecosystems, sustainable livelihoods and public health.
Dr Chetan Kumar, Global Head of the IUCN Forest and Grasslands Team, stated: “The Bonn Challenge has proven that restoration works – for people, for nature and for the planet. As we enter the next phase, our focus is on scaling what works and ensuring that restoration delivers lasting impact at the landscape scale.”
The discussion reaffirmed the Bonn Challenge as a country-driven process rooted in national priorities and local action. Restoration was recognised as essential to integrating land, water, agriculture and biodiversity objectives in a coherent policy framework, enabling countries to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and sustainable development targets.
As the initiative approaches its 15-year milestone, participants identified priorities for the next five years to accelerate progress toward the 2030 global restoration target of 350 million hectares. These include:
- Expanding implementation through landscape-scale restoration that benefits people, nature and the economy.
- Mobilising finance by aligning public and private capital and creating de-risking mechanisms for long-term investment in restoration.
- Enhancing regional cooperation, building on successful platforms such as AFR100 in Africa and Initiative 20×20 in Latin America.
- Strengthening monitoring and accountability through national systems and global frameworks like the IUCN Restoration Barometer and the FAO Framework for Ecosystem Restoration Monitoring (FERM), ensuring transparency and measurable impact.
- Ensuring inclusion, particularly of women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, whose leadership is vital to sustaining restoration outcomes.
Dr Eckart von Hirschhausen, Founder of the Healthy Earth – Healthy People Foundation, added: “Our human health is closely linked to a healthy planet. We all need air to breathe, water, food and protection from overheating. Forests provide all of this: oxygen, rain, fruit and Medicine, as well as shadow and Cooling. Helping Nature to restore means helping to restore ourselves.”
Looking ahead, governments and partners called for continued international solidarity to turn commitments into action. Restoration, they agreed, must become a cornerstone of global climate and development policy, linking forests, food, water and finance under one shared goal: healthy, resilient landscapes that sustain life on Earth.
As the Bonn Challenge enters its next phase, the collective message from COP30 was clear: the world has the knowledge, partnerships and tools to restore ecosystems at scale. What is needed now is continued political will and investment to make restoration a defining success story of this decade.