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Landowners / Practitioners

3. Learning from restoration practices

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Successful restoration is not a one-time action, but a journey that takes time, care, and flexibility. It’s about learning by doing and staying engaged over the years. Successful restoration combines ecological know-how with social and economic understanding – and works best when landowners, neighbours, and local communities are part of it. Every site is different, so what works in one place may not work in another. By sharing experiences and learning from others, you can find what fits your land best. Restoration is also a great way to connect with people, exchange ideas, and make your forest part of something bigger. Don’t be afraid of trial and error – every step teaches you something new.

Restoring a forest is not something that happens overnight – it’s a long-term journey that combines patience, resourceful care, and curiosity. Every piece of forest land is unique, so there is no single recipe for successful restoration. 

From past decades, and even centuries, we have learned that what works well in one forest might need a completely different approach in another. Of course, restoration requires financial resources and political support, but even more important are you as practitioners and forest owners who know their land and are curious to learn. Those who engage with others, exchange ideas, and are open to learning from both success and failure make the biggest difference. That’s why restoration is about learning by doing, adapting as you go, and taking time to understand how your forest responds to change. 

Good restoration means thinking beyond trees. It’s about how the forest fits into the wider landscape – how wildlife, water, soil, and people interact – and how your decisions today shape the land for future generations. Community engagement often starts simply: talking with neighbouring landowners, local hunters, or experts. Restoration is more like a marathon than a sprint, and it’s easier and more enjoyable when you seek support and act together. When landowners, neighbours, and local groups share their ideas and experiences, projects become stronger and more rewarding for everyone involved. 

From sometimes painful experiences in previous restoration efforts, we have learned that you don’t need to get everything right the first time. Restoration often involves some trial and error, and that’s perfectly normal. Each attempt provides valuable lessons that make the next step more effective. Take time to visit other sites, talk to experts, and share what you’ve learned – others will benefit from your experience, too. To help you learn from past or ongoing restoration project, we describe in the following sections some key resources from the project SUPERB and the wider restoration community.

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3.1 Lessons learnt from SUPERB demos

In SUPERB, 12 large-scale restoration demonstration areas were set up in 12 countries to test different restoration approaches. During the restoration process, the demos gained important insights and valuable experiences on all parts of the process, from stakeholder engagement to restoration methods, and from governance to upscaling. Some of these lessons are similar across Europe, others are more applicable regionally or even locally. The lessons are important learnings for further forest restoration activities in the future.

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3.2 UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration good practices

To enhance learning and knowledge sharing among restoration practitioners, Good Practices are being made available by the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration on the FERM (Framework for ecosystem restoration monitoring) platform. A global search engine lets users access practices from the Forest Knowledge Gateway, FERM Registry, LIFE GoProFor, Panorama, and WOCAT.