GUIDE: Assisted Natural Regeneration

A guide for restoring tropical forests

Innovative and cost-effective ways of restoring forests are urgently needed to meet global restoration and climate targets, and provide forest benefits at scale. Assisted natural regeneration (ANR) works with natural recovery processes to reforest degraded landscapes. Where the conditions are right, it holds great promise to restore biodiverse forests at scale.

This guide focuses on using ANR to restore forests at scale to mitigate and adapt to climate change, provide benefits to landholders and communities, and conserve biodiversity. It is intended to help project developers, practitioners and decision-makers assess whether ANR is a good fit in a given social and ecological context. It also provides guidance on designing, implementing and monitoring ANR approaches that are socially and ecologically appropriate, driven by stakeholders, and balance competing environmental and social benefits. This guide focuses on the environmental conditions of the tropics and subtropics, and includes case studies in ANR from East Timor, Niger, the Philippines and New Caledonia.