Post-Conflict Forest Restoration Planning for Borno State: Challenges, Opportunities, and Institutional Requirements

The prolonged armed conflict in Borno State has disrupted forest management institutions, displaced forest-dependent communities, and created complex overlapping governance voids in the management of forest resources, yet transition from conflict to durable forest restoration presents both challenges and opportunities that require systematic professional planning analysis. This study examines the challenges, opportunities, and institutional requirements for post-conflict forest restoration in Borno State, integrating assessment of forest cover impacts, institutional capacity, community readiness, and financing options. Forest cover change was assessed through analysis of Landsat imagery over the conflict period. Institutional capacity was evaluated through interviews with 38 forest sector officials and non-governmental organisation staff. Community readiness assessments were conducted in twelve internally displaced person return communities through participatory appraisal workshops. Financing landscape analysis reviewed applicable national and international funding mechanisms for conflict-affected forest restoration contexts. Forest cover analysis reveals heterogeneous impacts: conflict-period abandonment of agricultural land contributed to natural regeneration in some areas, while displacement-induced fuelwood pressure degraded forests near humanitarian settlement concentrations. Institutional capacity is severely depleted, with estimated staffing and operational resource gaps of over 70% below pre-conflict benchmarks. Community interest in participating in restoration activities was high where land tenure security was assured. Applicable financing includes the Great Green Wall Initiative, NDC Partnership Fund, and bilateral environmental restoration grants. The study proposes a phased institutional reconstruction and community forest restoration framework for the first five years of post-conflict transition, with explicit linkages to broader state development planning. Keywords: post-conflict restoration, Borno State, forest governance, institutional capacity, peacebuilding