Forest Landscape Restoration—What Generates Failure and Success?

Sixty-five years of forest restoration in Nepal: Lessons learned and way forward

Active versus passive restoration: Recovery of cloud forest structure, diversity and soil condition in abandoned pastures

A spatially explicit index for mapping Forest Restoration Vocation (FRV) at the landscape scale: Application in the Rio Doce basin, Brazil

Studies suggest that the restoration of degraded land through planting bamboo could be a viable strategy for forest landscape restoration. As part of more extensive landscape restoration, planting bamboo in degraded and marginal landscapes have the potential to restore its productive use and ecosystem services, thus improving the adaptive capacity and resilience of such systems under the accelerated climate change phenomenon. However, using bamboo in landscape restoration has yet to receive significant attention primarily due to data scarcity, scattered or even missing in the literature, and general poor perception, thus contributing to less attention at policy and development planning levels. The lack of adequate information has hindered the potential usefulness of bamboo in landscape restoration and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Therefore, this chapter aims to review and assemble existing knowledge on bamboo resources related to its ability to restore the degraded forest landscape and its contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The chapter, therefore, also aims to highlight promising practices deemed viable to inform decision-makers and to upscale in Africa, which has a bamboo potential of about 115 species covering 7.2 million ha. We highlighted specific key characteristics of bamboo in forest landscape restoration, such as rapid growth, soil binding, and erosion control properties, adaptive capability, nutrient and water conservation, and the provision of a continuous and permanent canopy. Furthermore, we examined its contributions to direct and indirect human well-being through ecosystem services. It is concluded that bamboo has enormous potentiality in landscape restoration vis-a-vis climate change adaptation and mitigation. Finally, it is suggested to initiate an action call for good practices to restore degraded forest landscapes in Africa within frameworks of initiatives such as the REDD + strategy, Bonn Challenge, Afr100 initiative, and the Great Green Wall incorporating bamboo as one of the essential components.

Many natural forests in Southeast Asia are degraded following decades of logging. Restoration of these forests is delayed by ongoing logging and tropical cyclones, but the implications for recovery are largely uncertain. We analysed meteorological, satellite and forest inventory plot data to assess the effect of Typhoon Doksuri, a major tropical cyclone, on the forest landscapes of central Vietnam consisting of natural forests and plantations. We estimated the return period for a cyclone of this intensity to be 40 years. Plantations were almost twice as likely to suffer cyclone damage compared to natural forests. Logged natural forests (9-12 years after cessation of government-licensed logging) were surveyed before and after the storm with 2 years between measurements and remained a small biomass carbon sink (0.1 ± 0.3 Mg C ha-1 yr-1) over this period. The cyclone reduced the carbon sink of recovering natural forests by an average of 0.85 Mg C ha-1 yr-1, less than the carbon loss due to ongoing unlicensed logging. Restoration of forest landscapes in Southeast Asia requires a reduction in unlicensed logging and prevention of further conversion of degraded natural forests to plantations, particularly in landscapes prone to tropical cyclones where natural forests provide a resilient carbon sink. This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'.

Forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is a powerful strategy for large-scale tropical forest recovery, and payment for ecosystem services (PES) is used to support FLR programs and projects on privately-owned land. In this article, we discuss the lessons learned from the Water Producer Project, a pioneer, multiple-stakeholder, and PES-supported FLR project in the Atlantic Forest, south-eastern Brazil. The project was implemented in four landscapes located in two municipalities. Altogether, 41 PES contracts with landowners were signed, resulting in various FLR practices being implemented in a total of 342.4 ha (64.2 ha for riparian forest restoration, 90.8 ha for soil conservation, and 187.4 for forest conservation) of land, which represents 39% of the project goal. As of the end of the project, only 50% (USD 49,250) of the available PES funds had been spent. However, funds spent on project planning, implementation, communication, and monitoring were 12 times greater than those spent on PES. Several challenges restricted the progress and monitoring of the project. The main issue was landowner participation and/or engagement. In terms of lessons learned, we highlight that PES schemes are more complex than initially thought, and that sufficient funding does not guarantee the success of FLR projects. It is essential to promote landowner participation and engagement by considering them key players in FLR projects. Finally, acceptance from landowners was higher and implementation was easier for forest conservation practices that required no land-use changes. Thus, we suggest that similar future projects should focus on targeting private properties in marginal agricultural lands with a high probability of natural regeneration. Alternatively, future projects could focus on lands with remnant forest cover of high conservation value.

Ethiopia has pledged to restore 22 million ha of degraded and deforested lands by 2030. With the massive Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) efforts underway, however, there are no sufficient empirical studies that signify the effectiveness of FLR in the country. Therefore, the study evaluated the impact of the FLR program on rural households’ livelihoods in Sodo, Southern Central Ethiopia. A two-stage random sampling technique was followed to draw the sample households, and 260 sample households (120 households from FLR participating and 140 households from non-FLR participating) were chosen randomly. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, head of household assets, access to credit, land size, household income and related expenditures were considered. In addition, data was gathered through key informant interviews, focus group discussions, direct field observations, and reviewing project documents and activity reports. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) technique. The results showed that FLR participants are likely to gain higher total and crop income than non-FLR participants. The average off-farm income of FLR participants also increased by 10252.4 ETB (200 USD). The number of beehives and the amount of honey produced was higher with FLR participants. FLR participants received more training and had better access to credit. Moreover, several households benefited from the FLR initiative's program offer to sustain their livelihoods by producing sheep and poultry. In conclusion, FLR initiatives should be combined with agricultural intensification and diversification as well as business-oriented forest development for better impact. Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 13(2): 14-21, Dec 2023

Wildfires have the potential to add considerably to the already significant challenge of achieving effective forest restoration in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. While fire can sometimes promote forest restoration (e.g. by creating otherwise rare, early successional habitats), it can thwart it in others (e.g. by depleting key patch types and stand structures). Here we outline key considerations in facilitating restoration of some tall wet temperate forest ecosystems and some boreal forest ecosystems where the typical fire regime is rare high-severity stand-replacing fire. Some of these ecosystems are experiencing altered fire regimes such as increased fire extent, severity and/or frequency. Achieving good restoration outcomes in such ecosystems demands understanding fire regimes and their impacts on vegetation and other elements of biodiversity and then selecting ecosystem-appropriate management interventions. Potential actions range from doing nothing (as the ecosystem already maintains full post-fire regenerative capacity) to interventions prior to a conflagration like prescribed burning to limit the risks of high-severity fire, excluding activities that impair post-fire recovery (e.g. post-fire logging), and artificial seeding where natural regeneration fails. The most ecologically effective actions will be ecosystem-specific and context-specific and informed by knowledge of the ecosystem in question (such as plant life-history attributes) and inter-relationships with attributes like vegetation condition at the time it is burnt (e.g. young versus old forest). This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration'.

Challenges and opportunities for large-scale reforestation in the Eastern Amazon using native species

This study investigated the effects of biotope, substrate and coarse woody debris (CWD) shelter on Populus tremula L. regeneration from seed when restoring mature, managed, spruce-dominated stands on mesic sites. The stands were harvested using partial cuts, leaving 50 m3 ha−1 of standing retention trees and 30 m3 ha−1 of CWD, and burned. A direct seeding experiment was carried out 1 year later. Sowing areas were delimited on burned organic matter and mineral soil substrates, in open areas and in the shelter of CWD, on both paludified and upland biotopes. Seedling establishment was highest on mineral soil on the upland biotope, and intermediate on burned organic substrate on the paludified biotope. No seedlings established on burned organic substrate on the upland biotope. The shelter of CWD was both beneficial and detrimental to seedling emergence and establishment. Seedlings were taller on mineral soil than on burned organic substrate. The results suggest that biotope variation is important and partly explains the patchy existence of P. tremula in forests. Biotope variation should therefore be taken into account when planning forest management and restoration activities.

Land and water management approaches that address environmental and social challenges, such as land degradation, food insecurity, water scarcity, health, climate change and the decline in biodiversity, have been gaining importance in recent years. Several of these approaches are well known, while others have been only recently developed. These approaches have different names, specific objectives and principles and may employ different methods and technologies. At their core, however, all have the potential to address land degradation and desertification, to mitigate drought and to deliver many other environmental, economic and/or social co-benefits. The well-known concepts of land degradation neutrality (LDN) and sustainable land management (SLM) offer benchmarks against which land and water management approaches can be assessed. Understanding how well aligned these approaches are with SLM and LDN can help different communities that solve similar problems to work together to remedy global environmental challenges. To explore this opportunity more systematically, the Parties of the UNCCD requested an assessment of approaches that may contribute to the sustainable management of land and water resources and to the achievement of LDN (UNCCD Decision 19/COP.15/23/Add.1). Accordingly, this report assesses the alignment of seven selected land and water management approaches with SLM and LDN: agroecology, climate-smart agriculture, conservation agriculture, forest landscape restoration, integrated agriculture, regenerative agriculture and rewilding. The alignment assessment is structured along the SLM and LDN pillars of ecosystem health, food security, and human-wellbeing, each comprised by several criteria, as well as selected cross-cutting socioeconomic criteria that span all pillars. The results indicate that each of the approaches contributes to SLM and the achievement of LDN in different ways and to varying degrees, with none of the approaches embracing principles or practices that directly conflict with the criteria of SLM and LDN. A higher degree of alignment was identified for the ecosystem health and food security pillars, while most gaps in alignment concern criteria of the human well-being pillar along with certain cross-cutting criteria. The results of the assessment led to the identification of entry points for addressing gaps in alignment via supplementary activities that directly target the gaps during project planning and implementation, as well as through adhering to principles and established guidelines. Importantly, conclusions about the degree of alignment or about gaps in alignment of an approach with SLM and LDN criteria are conceptually indicative, but may change in actual practice depending on where and how projects are implemented. Notwithstanding, clarifying the approaches’ contribution to SLM and the achievement of LDN can help overcome the lack of formal intergovernmental recognition of the approaches, prevent misinterpretation, and ensure their strategic inclusion in broader efforts to remedy land degradation.

Building on different bodies of the governance literature, we propose a conceptual framework specifying nine scale-sensitive governance arrangements that aim to (1) create cross-scale fit between the governance and ecological scales, and/or (2) foster cross-level alignment between different governance levels. To understand how scale-sensitive governance has played out in practice, our systematic review builds on 84 peer-reviewed empirical journal articles, which represent 84 cases of forest and landscape restoration governance. In the case studies, we identified eight out of nine scale-sensitive governance arrangements: moving tasks to other governance levels; task-specific organisations; polycentric governance; multilevel coordination; multilevel collaboration; multilevel learning; bridging organisations; and multilevel networks. These arrangements constitute important elements of the multilevel environmental governance landscape, and we analysed their role in promoting forest and landscape restoration. By using the proposed conceptual framework, a better understanding is created of how different scale-sensitive governance arrangements can support existing and future restoration efforts that are implemented as part of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

This study aimed to evaluate above and below ground carbon stocks in three different forest restoration methods with native species, Eucalyptus and an area of semi-deciduous seasonal forest (as control) in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. The restoration methods evaluated were active restoration without Eucalyptus (RAS), active restoration with Eucalyptus (RAE) and passive restoration (RPE) and compared to a secondary forest fragment (REF). The evaluation reservoirs were: trees, roots, herbaceous, litter and soil (layers of 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm). The estimates show that the total carbon stock was higher in REF (64.68 Mg C ha⁻¹), followed by RAE (62.06 Mg C ha⁻¹), RPE (50.23 Mg C ha⁻¹) and RAS (33.84 Mg C ha⁻¹). The results show that a forest restoration with a greater diversity of native forest species does not imply having a greater carbon stock in the different compartments. The soil was the compartment with the largest carbon stock. The use of Eucalyptus plantations in forest restoration of native forest species can contribute to increase the capture and the storage of carbon in the different reservoirs of the ecosystem.

The southern United States with over 600 native freshwater fishes supports one of the richest freshwater fish faunas on Earth, but many fishes in the region are imperiled. Historic and current land use dramatically altered the region’s landscape and its streams and rivers and consequently disrupted important linkages between forests and fishes. Impacts to the stream and river systems occurred in three overlapping developmental eras, each of which had unique and often profound effects on forests, fishes, or aquatic habitats: the era of agricultural and timber exploitation; the era of dam building and channel modification; and the era of population growth, industrialization, and urbanization. Benefits to fishes that could emerge from restoration of forest landscapes including: wood as habitat and cover for fishes, a substrate for fish food production, and a fish spawning substrate; the role of streamside forests in moderating water temperature; and use of floodplain forests by fish to forage and reproduce. Many fishes in the region derive multiple benefits from instream wood. The region faces major challenges in conserving not only native fishes but the entire richly diverse system of streams, rivers, and wetlands and the fauna they support. I believe forest landscape restoration could be an extremely positive tool in meeting these challenges and that rehabilitation of warmwater streams is possible with current knowledge but not without major shifts in stream corridor management strategies. However, implementing forest restoration in these settings is a major challenge given their past and current uses and management, regardless of the potential ecological services restoration could provide. The long-term challenge, if restoration is accomplished, will be managing riparian forests sustainably in a landscape composed of highly differing land uses overlain by a highly fragmented matrix of landownership and attitudes about the land.

Restoring forest landscapes is a necessity as we face the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, both of which are exacerbated by ongoing forest loss and degradation. Several public and private actors are engaging in initiatives on forest landscape restoration (FLR). Together with partners, WWF has been carrying out FLR pilot projects since the co‐definition by experts convened by WWF and IUCN in 2000 of the term FLR. A series of retrospective reviews and analyses undertaken on its portfolio of field projects have recently helped WWF to better draw lessons, understand what worked in practice and what did not work. Taking stock of this experience, the purpose of this article is to review the metrics of success from seven WWF projects from Latin America, Asia/Pacific, Africa, and Europe that were set up as large‐scale, multi‐objective, forest restoration projects. We highlight and illustrate quantifiable indicators independently defined by these projects and identify current monitoring weaknesses. We then propose a typology of ecological, social, and economic key performance indicators (KPIs) inspired and illustrated by metrics from real projects. We highlight the urgent need to develop a common framework for monitoring FLR, well designed but simple enough to be used by FLR practitioners. It is crucial to help practitioners to improve and carry out effective monitoring, enabling projects to better fine‐tune and adapt restoration interventions, better report back to donors, and inspire story‐telling far beyond numbers of trees or hectares planted.