Second Bonn Challenge progress report

In 2011, the government of Germany and IUCN together launched the Bonn Challenge as a global commitment to bring under restoration 150 million hectares (Mha) of land by 2020.  IUCN has developed the Bonn Challenge Barometer: a progress-tracking framework and tool to support pledgers in meeting the critical need to assess and report on the implementation of national and subnational forest landscape restoration (FLR) pledges made under the Bonn Challenge. The Barometer protocol was launched in 2017 and further refined with in-depth application in five countries – Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, Rwanda and the United States – in 2018. Additionally, in-depth application has begun in Sri Lanka. A rapid application of the protocol was undertaken in 13 additional countries to provide a broad snapshot of progress. Altogether, these 19 countries have collectively pledged a total of 97 Mha, representing 57 % of current commitments. The Barometer is now available as an online tool for data visualisation and reporting by pledgers. This report includes key messages from the results of the 2018 application, and several lessons and challenges that were identified.