The forest is clothing for the ancestors: A rapid cultural assessment tool for forest landscape restoration policy processes

•A new methodology for restoration practitioners allows for the collection of cultural data that can be integrated with the Restoration Opportunities and Assessment Methodology and the Restoration Diagnostic.•Inclusion of cultural information in restoration policy processes opens the space for cultural inputs and raising cultural voices seldom heard in technical policy dialogues.•Inclusion of cultural knowledge in restoration processes can provide both cultural opportunities and barriers to restoration.•New cultures of restoration can be informed by past traditional cultures and forest relationships and current cultures within which national restoration targets have been developed.