In Madagascar's highlands, where ring-tailed lemurs cling to fragmented forests and the red soil tells a story of centuries of erosion, something is changing. In February 2026, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) officially launched large-scale implementation of the FLR Hub—a initiative that had spent years in planning and is now finally getting its hands dirty on the ground.
The shift from blueprints to backhoes matters enormously. Forest landscape restoration has long been plagued by what practitioners call the "planning paradox": endless strategies, assessments, and roadmaps that never quite translate into trees in the ground. But across three continents, that pattern is breaking.
Uganda marked its own turning point on April 14, 2026, when Permanent Secretary Alfred Okot Okidi officially opened the country's FLR Implementation Hub in Kampala. Speaking at the Ministry of Water and Environment, Okidi underscored what the initiative represents: not just tree planting, but a coordinated assault on degraded landscapes that integrates biodiversity protection, sustainable livelihoods, and long-term ecosystem resilience. Uganda's restoration focus will begin in the Northern Moist Farmlands and Western Mid-Altitude Farmlands—two regions identified through national Rapid Assessment of Forest Landscape Restoration Opportunities (ROAM) assessments as having enormous potential.
That potential is staggering. Uganda holds an estimated 8 million hectares available for restoration, one of the most significant opportunities in Africa. The country is also establishing a National Forest Landscape Restoration Multi-Stakeholder Platform, bringing together government agencies, civil society, the private sector, and development partners to coordinate efforts and develop bankable investment proposals.
Meanwhile, on March 26, 2026, Peru launched its own hub in Lima, led by the World Resources Institute (WRI) with support from IUCN and WWF. The initiative prioritizes Madre de Dios and San Martín—regions where Andean cloud forests meet the Amazon basin, creating some of Earth's most biodiverse ecosystems.
These national launches form part of a coordinated global effort. The FLR Hub supports seven countries across Africa and Latin America: Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar, Mozambique, Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. Over the next five years, the initiative aims to bring 200,000 hectares of degraded forest landscapes under active restoration and develop roadmaps for sequestering 500,000 tons of CO₂ equivalent—a meaningful contribution to climate mitigation. The initiative is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI), the German Federal Ministry for Environment, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
The work ahead is immense, but the coordination architecture now in place suggests these countries are no longer working in isolation. In Madagascar, the IUCN is anchoring restoration within the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development while supporting agroforestry, assisted natural regeneration, and community engagement including youth participation. In Uganda, the multi-stakeholder platform is designed to move beyond fragmented interventions toward the kind of sustained, investment-driven approach that can actually reverse decades of degradation.
The forests that remain in these countries are global treasures. What happens in their restoration will matter far beyond their borders.