In a world grappling with the challenges of food insecurity, climate change, landscape degradation, and rural poverty, regreening offers a path forward, especially in dryland areas. The transformation of degraded landscapes—restoring productivity and increasing resilience through the widespread adoption of agroforestry and sustainable land management practices—can deliver food, climate, and livelihood benefits.
Table of contents:
Part I. Introduction
Part II. How and Where is Regreening Happening?
Part III. The Impacts Of Regreening

These guidelines have been developed based on FAO’s and WOCAT’s extensive experience. The book draws, in particular, on WOCAT’s network and its database of SLM knowledge - as well as on WOC AT’s first overview book entitled ‘Where the land is greener’. These guidelines were implemented in the framework of the TerrAfrica partnership, whose main objective is to mainstream and upscale SLM in SSA, through the leveraging and harmonising of multisectoral investments at the local, country, subregional and regional levels.

‘Over the past three decades hundreds of thousands of farmers in Burkina Faso and Niger, on the fringes of the Sahara Desert, have transformed large swathes of the region’s arid landscape into productive agricultural land, improving food security for about three million people. Once-denuded landscapes are now home to abundant trees, crops, and livestock.'

Valuable lessons can be learned from smallholder farmers who have successfully protected and regenerated tree cover across agricultural landscapes in Senegal, with minimal reliance on tree nurseries, seedling distribution or tree planting. In the process, they have restored soil fertility to sustainably increase agricultural production.

In the above initiatives, self-motivated populations increased food security and reduced vulnerabilities to climatic shocks by restoring and sustainably managing local forest resources. To regenerate agroforestry parklands, farmers built on traditional systems to increase on-farm tree density and convert degraded lands to densely wooded savannas. These actions increased crop yields and produced new sources of livestock browse. The population of Sambandé restored the local forest and managed it to sustainably produce fuel and fruit.

Agroforestry as a model of community-based forest management generally does not develop and is mostly in the form of traditional management. In West Sumatra, sustainability relates to the status of land tenure as communal property (communal land). Communal interests that appear on the communal rights to land and trees are able to direct the management of agroforestry to be sustained. Lack of security of land tenure does not affect the appearance of agroforestry, but the level of management or management of land use is more important for the purpose.

Agroforestry as a people base forest management commonly not well developed and almost in a traditional management. The most problem in West Sumatera concern to land tenure status as communal property (ulayat land). The need of clearly land tenure mechanism will support this system for sustainable land use. The less security of land tenure do not affect to agroforestry performance, but the management of land use is more important to that effect

It is widely believed that land tenure insecurity under a customary tenure system leads to a socially inefficient resource allocation. This article demonstrates that the practice of granting secure individual ownership to tree planters spurs earlier tree planting, which is inefficient from the private point of view but could be efficient from the viewpoint of the global environment. Regression analysis, based on primary data collected in Sumatra, indicates that an expected increase in tenure security in fact led to early tree planting.

Agroforestry as a people base forest management commonly not well developed and almost in a traditional management. The most problem in West Sumatera concern to land tenure status as communal property (ulayat land). The need of clearly land tenure mechanism will support this system for sustainable land use. The less security of land tenure do not affect to agroforestry performance, but the management of land use is more important to that effect

Planting trees on public lands are often considered unsustainable due to the rights of individuals arc weak. Therefore it is important to know the individuals tree rights to promote tree planting. The study aims to conceptualize tree tenure system to encourage better management of agroforestry at the farm level. The result showed variation on tree tenure rights can be separated from land tenure rights, but attached to a custom or habit which is a local setting (customary).

Tree planting on public lands is often hampered due to low or no security of tree tenure rights. Uncertainly over who will take advantage of tree crop will make a reluctance in the planting of trees. This study aimed to observe the tree tenure security in the traditional agroforestry systems in West Sumatra. The results showed different tree tenure security across the study area, where the collateral is determined by the degree of clarity of the rule of local institutions. This has an impact on the selection of tree species and patterns of agroforestry.

Land-use planning is an important policy instrument for governing landscapes to achieve multifunctionality in rural areas. This paper presents a case study conducted in Na Nhan commune in the northwest montane region of Vietnam to assess land-use strategies toward multiple ecosystem services, through integrated land-use planning.