Restoring forests can create good rural jobs, reduce disaster risks, and secure water supplies—while helping close the gap between booming cities and left behind countrysides.
Forest restoration in Asia and the Pacific is no longer only the work of conservationists; it’s fast becoming central to economic development and how communities cope with increased flooding, heat, and other impacts from changing weather. A major bonus is that it can also create significant employment and bring social benefits to rural areas.
The region’s economic success story is well known, but that big picture hides a deep divide between rural and urban areas. Take almost any modern city in developing Asia and it will stand in stark contrast to the surrounding countryside that’s often struggling with unemployment, poverty, and a lack of basic services.
Many development initiatives struggle to take root beyond booming cities. Poor infrastructure, difficult geography, limited local capacity, and scarce financing often hold back rural projects. While there are many national initiatives to correct this imbalance, the region would benefit from a more unified strategy that taps into its extraordinary concentration of forests and other natural resources.
One way to do this is to shift from exploiting forests and landscapes to managing them in a way that allows them to regenerate. New data from the Asian Development Bank’s Basic Statistics 2026 provides a snapshot of the top 30 countries in terms of forest cover as a share of their land area.
With more than 500 million hectares of degraded land across the region, large-scale programs show what is possible. For example, the Returning Farmland to Forest Program of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has helped raise forest cover from about 10% 70 years ago to around 25% today.
The rest of the region is stepping up too: the RESULT (Restoring and Sustaining Landscapes Together) Asia-Pacific program was established in 2024 to support 20 countries in restoring 100 million hectares of degraded forests, agricultural land, and urban areas.
Forest Area as a Proportion of Total Land Area, Top 30 ADB Economies, 2025
Here are four reasons why nurturing forests and other natural resources can support rural communities and narrow the urban–rural divide in many of the region’s developing economies.
First, when done well, reforestation is a powerful way to create steady, decent jobs in rural areas, ranging from planning to planting, maintenance to security, and accounting to marketing. Successful agroforestry and forest restoration create a mix of unskilled, semi-skilled, and whiter-collar jobs, which are often missing in many rural communities.
A good example is in Viet Nam, where small farmers have played a central role in reforestation. Ambitious tree-planting and restoration programs have expanded forest cover from around 9.4 million hectares in 1990 to an estimated 14.8 million hectares in 2025. This included policy reforms that allowed households to use government-owned forests through land-use agreements, devolving forest management to locals. Later programs funded by the government and international organizations gave cash payments to communities for managing and protecting forests in their local area. About five million smallholders now manage somewhere between 40% and 70% of the country’s newer wood plantations.
Initiatives like this can deliver large social and economic gains and contribute to reducing rural poverty. By contrast, when local needs and rights are not prioritized in large reforestation projects, forests may be restored but at the expense of local people’s lands and livelihoods.
Second, forests are not only important for prosperity; they also play a key role in managing weather-related risks in rural areas. Many rural communities face frequent typhoons, floods, landslides, and storm surges. Reintroducing forests, mangroves, and other forms of tree and shrub cover provides natural barriers that help shield exposed communities.
Third, new forests and grasslands also combat desertification by stabilizing soil, restoring water cycles, and creating vegetation cover that prevents erosion. The PRC, India, and Mongolia all have large initiatives to combat desertification and land degradation. Mongolia has committed 1% of its annual gross domestic product to its “One Billion Trees” program, with more than 41 million trees planted between 2021 and 2024. Partnerships between the government and international organizations have created forest nurseries near planting areas to raise tree survival rates. Community members frequently receive training to operate these nurseries, providing jobs for residents. This program shows how restored forest cover supports local communities and contributes to national development.
Fourth, reforestation is critical for water security, another cornerstone of rural development. Forests act as natural sponges: they store, slow, filter, and regulate water flows, making water supplies for farming and daily use more reliable. These functions help buffer communities from erratic and changing weather, with more frequent droughts and damaging downpours.
Beyond these economic and environmental benefits, restoring indigenous trees and plants can help people reconnect with their surroundings and traditional land‑based practices, while also providing spaces for recreation, reflection, and better mental health for all—including people living in cities.
Brad Earvin T. Zuniga
Statistician
Stefan Schipper
Principal Statistician, Data Division, Economic Research and Development Impact Department
Sean Crowley
Communications Consultant
Reproduced from adb.org.
