RESTAURacción: Wildfire Restoration in Latin America financed by Global Affairs Canada and led by the Canadian Forest Service through the International Model Forest Network Secretariat invested an initial Can$2.318 million in 2021 in the Latin American Model Forest Network and seven Model Forests spread over six countries of Latin America (Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru). Those strong first year results unlocked an additional investment by Canada of Can$1.423 million in Fiscal Year 2021/22 in the Latin American Model Forest Network, based out of Costa Rica, and in one Model Forest in one country of Latin America (Bolivia). A further Can$2.787 million was invested in in Fiscal Year 2022/23, in the Latin American Model Forest Network and seven Model Forests spread over seven countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and now Brazil). A further Can$1.47 million will be committed in Fiscal Year 2023/24 bringing Canada’s overall investment in RESTAURacción to nearly Can$8 million.

In response to the numerous wildland fires that occurred in Latin America in 2019 and 2020, and delivering on Canada’s commitment at the 45^th G7 Leaders’ Summit in Biarritz, France, RESTAURacción aims to:

• Advance women’s leadership in post-fire and degraded landscape ecosystem restoration;
• Plan and cost post-fire restoration; and
• Promote longer-term investments in sustainable land use.

RESTAURacción continues to make use of our long standing, mature and proven partnerships within the International Model Forest Network. With the same overarching objectives and goals as 2021, future years further focus financing actions on:

1. Advancing and incorporating women’s leadership and technical training in ecosystem restoration and landscape level governance decision-making;
2. Implementation of forest and landscape restoration plans via action research and advancement of natural, assisted, and active restoration of forests accompanied with monitoring systems and public awareness;
3. Playing a catalytic role in knowledge sharing on post-fire & degraded landscape ecosystem restoration and promoting associated longer-term investments in sustainable land use.

From April 2022 to March 2023, eight NRCan partners successfully accomplished the following:

• Over 1500 hectares under the process of forest landscape restoration;
• 9 long-term monitoring plots created and 4 weather and/or monitoring stations installed and equipped;
• 3060 people trained on various topics such as forest fire management and prevention; gender equity and inclusion, leadership and governance; forest landscape restoration implementation and agroforestry. 52% were women and girls;
• 246 knowledge sessions (in-person or virtual workshops, trainings, webinars, exchange sessions) and 4 academic technical training courses delivered;
• 8 future restoration leaders provided with a scholarship, bursary or awards to pursue research related to forest landscape restoration in degraded areas (75 % of the scholarship holders are women);
• Enabled results-on-the-ground through 108 seeds for change, including diagnostics, action plans, financial and restoration proposals, studies, protocols and monitoring reports; and
• 59 testimonials, podcasts and/or multimedia interviews recorded, 71 outreach videos and 10 drone videos

RESTAURacción’s formula for success directly relates to the established governance platforms — the Model Forests — fostering close cooperation with local stakeholders, eager to contribute to the restoration of their landscapes. RESTAURacción results are scalable to all Model Forests that make up the Latin American Model Forest Network, and more broadly throughout the 60+ Model Forests in 30+ countries of the International Model Forest Network.

RESTAURacción is about putting forest restoration into action. Keeping with Canada’s response to natural disasters, ambitious commitments to climate action and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, RESTAURacción has engaged local stakeholders and created synergies with national and sub-national government political commitments such as forest and landscape restoration (FLR) targets as part of the Bonn Challenge, the 20×20 Initiative, and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030.

Learn more here