Summary/Abstract
Initiative 20×20 is a country-led effort to bring 20 million hectares of land in Latin America and the Caribbean into restoration by 2020. The initiative—launched formally at COP 20 in Lima—supports the Bonn Challenge, a global commitment to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030, and the New York Declaration on Forests that seeks to restore 350 million hectares by 2030. The initiative will support reforestation (natural and assisted) and the conservation of forests, as well as avoided deforestation as elements of an integral restoration process. Cognizant of the various degrees of land degradation in the region, the initiative will also support efforts to recover land functionality (soil conservation and recovery; carbon storage; water retention and stable hydrologies; biodiversity conservation and recovery) through agroforestry, silvopasture, and other sustainable land use schemes.