Chile at COP25: Fighting climate change by restoring degraded land

December 9, 2019

by the Initiative 20x20 Secretariat

Chile at COP25: Fighting climate change by restoring degraded land

The Government of Chile has stepped up its ambition to restore land and fight climate change. At COP25, the country revealed the progress it has made toward restoring 500,000 hectares of degraded land and fighting climate change through developing its comprehensive National Landscape Restoration Plan, which is under public consultation.

Chile seeks to restore 1.5 million hectares of landscapes that are a priority for the country by 2030. By revitalizing this land, Chile will cut emissions, protect vital biodiversity, decrease the vulnerability of its people to extreme weather events, and facilitate investment to restore more land.

With the support of Initiative 20x20, an alliance of 17 countries dedicated to restoring rural economies by revitalizing land and anchored by the World Resources Institute and other partners, the Chilean National Landscape Restoration Plan will focus on:

  • Creating a shared vision of landscape restoration across the country, including government agencies like the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, the private sector, and research organizations;
  • Learning from the experiences of other Latin American countries, including El Salvador, the sponsor of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and Costa Rica;
  • Working with the country’s regional governments to scale the National Plan down and identify local priorities and challenges for implementation;
  • Hosting workshops on how restoring land can prevent forest fires, protecting communities and reducing air pollution;
  • Identifying how the government can incentivize private investors to fund landscape restoration throughout the country.

By taking the challenge to restore degraded land seriously, Chile will continue to move forward to both meet its commitments to fighting climate change under the Paris Agreement and land degradation under the Bonn Challenge.

Chile will formally present its National Landscape Restoration Plan in 2020.

For making this impressive progress, the Initiative 20x20 Secretariat congratulates the Government of Chile, especially its Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, the National Forest Corporation (CONAF), and the Forestry Institute (INFOR).