In recent years ecological restoration has gained both national and international renown as a complementary strategy for conservation. Although Colombia has gained expertise from initial attempts, many challenges must yet be overcome.

to such extent that concerns about the subject have surpassed the environmental sector and reached national and international politics. This situation calls for complementary conservation strategies that allow for an integrated management of natural resources. One of these strategies is ecological restoration, which is the process assisting the reestablishment of structural and functional properties of a degraded, ruined, or destroyed ecosystem using previous knowledge and its natural recovery potential2,3. Colombia has the experience of 50 years in ecological restoration and continues to include this strategy to manage its natural resources, as shown by large increases in projects and publications produced about the subject since the nineties. This trend is also evident in the recent commitment to the Latin American and Caribbean Initiative 20x20, which set the goal of restoring 20 million hectares in the region for 2020 and plans to reach ambitious restoration targets like 3.2 million hectares for Peru and 1 million for Colombia4. These goals, besides recovering degraded ecosystems, are opportunities to strengthen restoration practices because they allow for improving conceptual frameworks, developing new techniques, and consolidating collaboration networks between countries.

Despite the signed agreements, implemented programs, and investments, it is estimated that the restored number of hectares has not been enough to meet set objectives or compensate for deforestation rates. On the other hand, restoration is currently encouraged by the national government, the private sector, and NGOs, but disengaged from academia5 and local communities, causing a significant scattering of concepts, countless information gaps in ecosystems such as tropical dry forests, wetlands, and savannas, and a lack of belonging in the population6.

Based on biotic and physical parameters, national cartography indicates that the areas with restoration priorities are the Andes and the Caribbean. However, in order to make restoration efforts more precise, knowledge about altered ecosystem ecology, intrinsic species characteristics, territory conditions, and land ownership must increase. Also, the responsible entities should put forth more resources for restoration projects. Finally, albeit significant progress by networks such as the Ibero-American Society of Ecological Restoration and the Colombian Restoration Network, and the Restoration Plan of the country5, additional efforts should be made in order to strengthen policies related to restoration.