Prof. Dr. Joern Fischer (Leuphana University, RESTORE coordination – SP1, SP8), Prof Dr. Stefan Sieber (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin/ZALF – SP7) and Dr. Katharina Löhr (ZALF/HUB – SP4) jointly chaired two sessions on social-ecological restoration in the Global South at the landscape2024 conference in Berlin (16.-20.09.2024).

The first session kicked off with a keynote by Joern Fischer on the pathway towards social ecosystem restoration research and was followed by a mix of presentations on diverse aspects of restoration and sustainable land use in different countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. This included for example presentations on sustainable land management practices in the context of ICRAF’s work in Tanzania, the Great Green Wall, and in the Oronoquia region of Colombia, as well as a presentation on grazing landscapes of the Gran Chaco, relating to research by RESTORE members Matthias Baumann and Tobias Kümmerle (SP2). Later presentations highlighted how a social-ecological perspective can also help to focus on factors related to communities and their diverse members – including issues like social cohesion, equity, and inclusion of frequently marginalised groups such as migrants or women. We learned that a landscape approach is very much compatible with a social-ecological systems approach. And that how we think about interactions within a particular place shapes how we deal with the place.

Overall, the session highlighted that understanding social-ecological connections can help us on the one hand to understand and solve problems in specific places or landscapes. And on the other hand, it can help us understand the big-picture problems that characterise our current era. Although a social-ecological systems lens cannot directly solve these problems, it sheds a new light on them, such that concrete recommendations for decision-makers can be made. In the same vein, then, our collaborative and integrating works and dialogue meetings need to continue to jointly learn and carry on fruitful discussions such as those at landscape2024 and in other RESTORE activities.