Locally controlled forest restoration programme targets market access for community-led management
- Editorial Team SDG15
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
The Locally Controlled Forest Restoration (LoCoFoRest) programme is approaching the end of its current phase in 2025, positioning itself as a bridge between high-level environmental objectives and the economic realities of people living in forested landscapes. Rather than centring on tree planting alone, the initiative frames forest recovery as a governance challenge, arguing that long-term restoration depends on who controls land, who benefits from trees, and who holds the skills to manage complex ecosystems.
LoCoFoRest is designed to turn small-scale organisations and communities into professional “Landscape Managers”, combining technical support with commercial and policy tools. Its approach reflects a view that restoring forests in degraded regions requires durable institutions as much as seedlings, and that sustainable management can only be maintained if local people have incentives and authority.
Landscape governance over tree planting
At the programme’s core is a “landscape approach” that prioritises land rights and tenure clarity as preconditions for lasting forest survival. LoCoFoRest argues that communities are more likely to sustain restored forests when they can demonstrate control over land and receive tangible economic benefits from trees.
The initiative sets out to build technical capacity for managing ecosystems, shifting away from traditional top-down models where external actors determine species, timelines and land use. By treating restoration as governance, it seeks to integrate forests, farms and community decision-making into a single planning framework.
Building bio-businesses and value chain links
LoCoFoRest’s implementation is organised around three pillars intended to professionalise local actors. One pillar focuses on entrepreneurship, training small-scale farmers and cooperatives to develop “bio-businesses” tied to restoration. This includes sustainable timber production, non-timber forest products such as nuts and medicinal plants, and agroforestry systems that combine trees with crops.
A second pillar targets market barriers by supporting access to value chains. The programme identifies market reach as a major hurdle for small organisations, and aims to connect producers to national and international supply chains that place a premium on sustainability.
The third pillar centres on policy and advocacy. LoCoFoRest trains local leaders to negotiate with governments so that national forest policies support, rather than obstruct, community-led management. The work is framed as a way to align local practice with wider goals, including the sustainable development goals, while keeping decision-making grounded in community control.
Where the programme operates and who it serves
The programme’s focus is on global south regions where forest degradation is high and community-led restoration is seen as scalable. It targets small-scale forest owners, community forest organisations and local NGOs.
LoCoFoRest describes significant footprints across Africa, south-east Asia and Latin America, with an emphasis on expanding what it terms a restoration economy. The aim is to increase the number of local groups able to operate restoration as an economic activity, rather than a short-term project dependent on external funding.
Equity concerns and the next phase after 2025
LoCoFoRest links its model to SDG 15 sub-targets, including sustainable management of all forest types and mobilising resources to finance sustainable forest management. It also positions local control as a safeguard against “green grabbing”, in which outside actors take over land for carbon credit activity, potentially displacing communities or weakening customary rights.
With the current phase concluding in 2025, the programme is synthesising lessons learned with the aim of shaping the next cycle of global forest funding. Its emerging focus is on digital monitoring, using mobile apps to track forest growth and verify carbon sequestration, which it says could help small organisations access voluntary carbon markets directly.
Practical implications may include greater demand for basic digital infrastructure, training and verification systems that small organisations can manage without losing control of data or land. If the shift proceeds as intended, it could also reshape how restoration outcomes are measured, funded and enforced at community level.
Further reading
International Union for Conservation of Nature on forest landscape restoration
FAO on sustainable forest management
World Resources Institute on restoration and land rights
Verra overview of voluntary carbon markets and standards