Presentation short abstract

Restoration is widely implemented in the tropics, but with little understanding of how local people perceive restoration scaling. Through interviews with local landowners and practitioners, we find that scaling is viewed favourably, but mismatches in expectations among actors could misdirect scaling

Presentation long abstract

Large-scale restoration efforts focus on the tropics and sub-tropics, yet it remains unclear how these regions will respond to and implement restoration at scale. Several global and meta-analyses have mapped restoration potential areas, but their applicability has been critiqued at finer scales. Our research offers a qualitative exploration of local perceptions among landowners and practitioners regarding the scaling of forest restoration initiatives in two sites with active restoration work in the states of São Paulo, Brazil, and Gujarat, India. Through open-ended interviews with local landowners (n=65) and restoration facilitators (n=12), we present the opportunities and challenges to scale restoration initiatives across larger areas. Our findings showed that while most respondents agreed on the need to scale restoration, more than half at both sites expressed concerns about issues that must be addressed beforehand. Practitioners cited limited capacity and funding constraints, as well as the perception that smallholders often lack awareness of the benefits of restoration—potentially assuming that the benefits alone should motivate widespread adoption. In contrast, landowners understood the benefits, but smallholders lacked the autonomy to restore their lands, hindered by insecure land tenure in Brazil and rent-seeking practices in India. Across multiple actors, priorities differed: landowners prioritised long-term benefits, whereas many practitioners concentrated on short-term goals due to organisational constraints. Overall, although scaling restoration is generally viewed favourably, differences in priorities between landowners and restoration facilitators may misguide future scaling strategies. Our study demonstrates how qualitative analysis of local scaling priorities can be used to redefine future restoration goals.