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In Southeast Asia, 8.5% of the global human population lives on 3.0% of the land area. With 7.9% of the global agricultural land base, the region has 14.7% and 28.9% of such land with at least 10% and 30% tree cover, respectively, and is the worlds’ primary home of ‘agroforests’. Landscapes in the region include the full range of ‘forest transition stages’, as identified in global analysis. A long tradition of top-down national reforestation and tree planting programs has not had success proportional to the efforts and resources allocated. By contrast, farmers in the region have a long tradition of retaining (and managing natural regeneration of) useful trees among planted trees (e.g. tree crops or timber) and annual crops to prevent degradation and avoiding the labour costs of weed control. Meanwhile, state-controlled forests have lost a lot of their diverse tree cover, both legally and illegally. The restoration agenda …