This article was originally shared by CIFOR-ICRAF

Regreening Africa, a World Restoration Flagship, reached over 650,000 households across eight countries in its first phase. As the initiative starts its second phase, a process of analysis, reflection and lessons learning has been underway. Through a grant from FAO under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the team was able to undertake research and produce a series of products to share what the partnership has learnt.

Regreening Africa prioritizes ‘learning while doing’ and bringing the knowledge of scientists together with that of practitioners and local communities. We wanted to know if evidence is integrated into restoration actions in general and what more could be done.

Evidence can be understood as “the diverse sources of data and knowledge that help to assess progress, identify opportunities or challenges, and define future interventions.” (Mansourian et al. 2025)

An example of evidence that can be used for restoration planning is recently released results on enhancing adoption of tree-based restoration practices using data from Regreening Africa. Insights from 7,214 households shine light on the social, economic, and environmental factors that influence whether farmers adopt restoration practices and why. For example, tailored training and advisory support are the most consistent drivers of adoption across contexts and access to financial resources through assets, remittances, or off-farm income strongly influenced adoption. To find out more, read the full brief here.

Based on a recent study, we know that evidence comes from diverse sources and is valuable across all stages of the restoration project or initiative process but that it is not sufficiently integrated. While multiple challenges exist, seven recommendations to enhance evidence integration were provided:

1. Enhance adaptive or iterative management in ecosystem restoration.
2. Broaden the evidence base, recognizing the value of integrating socio-economic and biophysical data, and better considering Indigenous, local and practitioner knowledge.
3. Engage donor and investor responsibility so that they can create better conditions to enhance evidence integration in programmes they support.
4. Strengthen multistakeholder platforms that can identify and collect locally relevant evidence.
5. Institutionalize a learning culture so that restoration practitioners and decision-makers can seize opportunities to learn from related projects and experiences.
6. Strengthen capacity to collect, analyze and interpret data and knowledge around restoration.
7. Invest in stakeholder engagement processes to integrate diverse evidence sources in ecosystem restoration policymaking and practice.

Evidence integration is important as it can enhance the quality of actions on the ground as well as provide knowledge to support an enabling policy environment and greater investment.

Stakeholder engagement, when well designed and facilitated, can transform the integration of evidence in restoration and shift decision-culture. A research study exploring stakeholder engagement with evidence process and outcomes within Regreening Africa included online semi-structured interviews with participants in key decision-making roles across the partnership. Changes in knowledge, attitude and skills, practices, and institutional and policy shifts – many of which were linked to decision-making in the programme were recorded. The study highlighted the critical role of leadership, skilled facilitation and presentation of evidence in accessible ways, where people explain their insights as well as creating opportunities for discussion were important for evidence integration. For more information read the full brief here.