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There has never been a more crucial time to ensure forest restoration activities occur as efficiently and effectively as possible. On June 5th, 2021, during the launch of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the Institute for Capacity Exchange in Environmental Decisions (formerly International Institute for Sustainability Australia) and the International Institute for Sustainability Rio (IIS-Rio) will lead a launchpad to present PLANGEA/WePlan-Forests, a spatially explicit, user-friendly, forest restoration planning platform developed by IIS-AU in partnership with the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (FERI) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and with the support of the European Union and the Korean Forest Service of the Republic of Korea. WePlan-Forests uses the PLANGEA framework to support developing countries in setting forest ecosystem restoration targets and plans that achieve cost-effective climate and biodiversity objectives, based on solutions that optimize multiple outcomes.

Spatial restoration planning is complex; restoring forest in an inappropriate place can lead to wasted resources, missed opportunities, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and project failure – risks that we simply cannot afford to take. WePlan-Forests solves complex restoration planning problems with multiple benefits and constraints using robust mathematical quantitative methods and best available global data, to assist decision making. It evaluates a range of alternative restoration scenarios, and reports results to users in the form of maps, graphics, and a downloadable report. Users can easily access information about the potential benefits for carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation, the estimated costs, and the spatial distribution of restoration priorities for each scenario.

In this Launchpad, we demonstrate how spatial restoration planning can result in better outcomes for biodiversity and carbon sequestration objectives, while unlocking the potential of natural forest regeneration and minimizing implementation and opportunity costs. The program will cover:

• Introduce WePlan-Forests 2.0, which integrates the potential for natural regeneration in the prioritization of cost-efficient forest restoration,
• Discuss some of the key messages and lessons learnt through the International Institute of Sustainability’s history of informing policy through global spatial prioritization, and
• Present two national-level case studies, Colombia and Mexico, where WePlan-Forests results are being designed to inform forest restoration decisions.

The launchpad will take place in the Zoom platform, on June 5th, 4pm UTC. Register here to get the link to join sent directly to you and receive news from the event.

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