Since 1999, China has restored forest landscapes across more than 28 million hectares of farmland and land classified as barren or degraded. As global efforts turn to restoration as a way to mitigate climate change – led by the Bonn Challenge, with the goal of restoring 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded land by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030 – researchers are looking to China for lessons on how to achieve this. A major driver of China’s success has been the ‘Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program’ (CCFP), also known as ‘Grain for Green’. The program pays farmers to plant trees on their land and provides degraded land to rural families to restore. CCFP has so far cost more than USD 40 billion, including direct payments to more than 32 million rural households.