The paper reviews forest restoration and rehabilitation efforts as well as the contributing factors to up-scaling successful restoration practices in eastern Africa. It discusses the main forms of restoration measures which include both traditional and modern measures (agroforestry, plantation and woodlot establishment). Furthermore, the paper discusses joint forest management (JFM) and/or participatory forest management (PFM) as potential strategy in facilitating restoration and sustainable management of the forest resources in eastern Africa. Lastly, the need for review of forestry and environmental policies in the region to make them more enabling for up-scaling of forest restoration and land rehabilitation practices with opportunity for development of forest enterprise has been discussed.