PR:  Khyber Pakhtunkwa (KP) province of Pakistan announced a new pledge of restoring 252,000 ha of forest which has been accepted under the world Bonn Challenge. This was announced by Mr. Malik Amin Aslam in his capacity as the Chair of KP Green Growth Initiative (and IUCN Vice President and Regional Councillor, Asia) during the 3rd International High Level Roundtable held from 16-17 March 2018 in Foz do Iguaçu, city of Brazil.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had previously been a trailblazer by becoming not only the first sub-National entity to take up a pledge under the Bonn Challenge in 2014 but also became the first entity to successfully meet its pledge in 2017.

This new announcement also made it the first entity to significantly renew and enhance its pledge. The Bonn Challenge is a global forum aiming to restore 350 million ha of global forests and, todate, has successfully attained 160 million ha commitments from 47 entities. The participants at the High Level Bonn Challenge roundtable including Germany and the hosts Brazil welcomed this renewed commitment by KP province.

During the 3rd International Roundtable on the Bonn Challenge, the prominent restoration leaders from around the world moved the Bonn Challenge agenda into the next chapter along the path to its 350 million hectare restoration goal.

The 3rd international high level Bonn Challenge roundtable has selected the theme of “Local to International Innovations in Forest Landscape Restoration”. While the 1st Bonn Challenge international roundtable agreed on the global goal of 150 million ha and the 2nd roundtable initiated the regionalization of the Bonn Challenge platform, the 3rd Bonn Challenge international roundtable will focus on implementation on the ground, building and reinforcing the importance of local engagement and leadership. This will include consideration of real world examples of local level implementation including the successes and implementation bottlenecks they encounter and opportunities for capturing and reporting on this progress.

The event washosted and co-organized by the Federal Government of Brazil and Federal Government of Germany, supported by IUCN and Itaipu Binacional.