Accelerating forest landscape restoration monitoring in Africa: informing tangible actions from a practical perspective

Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is purported to achieve socio‐ecological outcomes in addressing the interlinked crises of deforestation and land degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate change. While several instruments exist to substantiate progress toward such outcomes and the effectiveness of FLR interventions, various challenges hinder monitoring. This study uses a proposed analytical framework that articulates elements of restoration monitoring feasibility to examine the realistic application and convenience of proposed restoration monitoring instruments, focusing on Africa, where continental‐level flagships are scaling up restoration actions. We applied a critical content analysis guided by our analytical lens to secondary data collected from top‐down and bottom‐up monitoring instruments. A survey was also used to explore the level of knowledge and identify the tools and guiding frameworks used by restoration practitioners, which we analyze using descriptive statistics. Our analysis reveals 34 restoration monitoring indicators spanning biophysical, socio‐economic, and institutional realms, along with 196 related metrics. The strong emphasis on biophysical metrics relative to socio‐economic and institutional ones reflects unbalanced attention to sustainability dimensions. Our analysis of the identified 39 monitoring tools and guiding frameworks indicates that most require essential (super)infrastructural capacities, appropriate knowledge, and tailored skills for their effective use. Confirming this, the survey reveals low awareness and use of these monitoring instruments, with the three most cited limiting reasons being inadequate funding, infrastructure deficits, and inadequate technical expertise. Overall, the results reaffirm the need for pragmatic, low‐cost, and accessible instruments to advance FLR monitoring in Africa, and we offer actionable suggestions for some limiting challenges.