this thesis compares the biggest human forest restoration project, return farmland to forest project (rffp), in china to natural forest restoration (nfrp) in canada. these two countries have the third and second largest territory in the world respectively. however, the forest coverage rate in canada is much larger than china. due to this situation, chinese government and canadian government have different forest restoration policies and projects. both rffp in china and natural forest restoration projects in canada are led by the governments. they were based on a voluntary scheme which make people aware of the benefits. they are both led to an improvement in the environment. there is a huge difference in government funding between rffp and nfrp. based on historical forest cover area, the forest strategies are different which rffp is focusing on increasing forest cover area and nfrp is focused on keeping forests sustainable.