Resource Database

Sustainable financing for forest and landscape restoration: The role of public policy makers

Relevance for the Short Term Action Plan for Ecosystem Restoration:
This publication and its recommendations can help develop a framework for resource mobilization and the setting up of financing instruments for restoration, in line with activity B9.

Synergies between climate mitigation and adaptation in forest landscape restoration

This study entailed extensive literature review of linkages between adaptation and mitigation at the global policy level, through analysis of relevant policies and protocols in the context of climate change in general and forest landscape restoration (FLR) in particular. This was followed by literature review regarding the current discourse and understanding of adaptation and mitigation options and the synergies between the two, specifically in the context of FLR. An important aspect of the study was to develop case studies to explore linkages between national policies on mitigation and adaptation in 7 priority countries. The final section provides recommendations for integrated mitigation-adaptation options at international and national policy levels.

The restoration diagnostic

When applied prior to initiating a restoration
process, the diagnostic can help decision makers
and stakeholders focus their efforts on getting the
missing key success factors in place—before large
amounts of human, financial, or political capital are
invested. When applied periodically as landscape
restoration progresses, the diagnostic can help
decision makers and implementers sustain restora
–
tion progress through adaptive management. As a
result, application of the diagnostic may increase
the likelihood that forest landscape restoration
processes will be successful.

Zero net deforestation: Status Report, How far do current national targets get us?

This report catalogues and analyses forest-related commitments and pledges made by 14 countries which together represent over half of current and projected tropical forest area loss. We seek to draw attention to the ambitious targets of some countries and the need for greater international support for meeting them, as well as to identify opportunities where additional ambition is possible. In selecting the 14 countries, we focused on those
that fall within 11 global ‘deforestation fronts’ identified by WWF in 2015.

Consejos para plantar árboles en zonas áridas / Tips for planting trees in drylands

En este vídeo se describen técnicas sencillas y económicas, pero científicamente comprobadas, para mejorar los resultados de la plantación de árboles y arbustos en medios sometidos a sequía estacional. Este el resultado de años de experimentación en restauración ecológica y lucha contra la desertificación.

This video describes simple low cost yet scientifically tested techniques to improve the performance of tree and shrub plantations in areas subjected to seasonal drought. This is the result of years of experimentation in ecological restoration and the fight against desertification.

Restoration of impaired ecosystems: An ounce of prevention or a pound of cure?

A workshop on Restoration of Impaired Ecosystems was held in Jackson, Wyoming, in June 2014. Experts from Australia, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States in ecotoxicology, restoration, and related fields from both the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry and the Society for Ecological Restoration convened to advance the practice of restoring ecosystems that have been contaminated or impaired from industrial activities. The overall goal of this workshop was to provide a forum for ecotoxicologists and restoration ecologists to define the best scientific practices to achieve ecological restoration while addressing contaminant concerns. To meet this goal, participants addressed 5 areas: 1) links between ecological risk assessment and ecological restoration, 2) restoration goals, 3) restoration design, 4) monitoring for restoration effectiveness and 5) recognizing opportunities and challenges. This special series includes 6 articles resulting from the workshop.

Wetland Mitigation: Planning Hydrology, Vegetation, and Soils for Constructed Wetlands

The A to Z of wetland construction and restoration. As Dr. Paul Keddy writes in the Foreword: “Half of the challenge, as Wetland Mitigation tells us, is simply getting the water right. Too much flooding, or too little flooding, can have disastrous effects on the survival of populations and emergence of communities. Now note the first two words in the sub-title. Planning hydrology. Get the hydrology right, this book says, and you are well on your way…This book has four entire chapters on water, all dealing one way or another with the hydrograph, …an essential tool for getting the water right.” Also included: setting goals for construction planning, preparing hydrographs and managing substrate and subgrade, models for wetland construction, plants to include, and how to plant them, and access to an Excel program to prepare annual hydrographs based on monthly data sets.

4 returns,3 zones, 20 years: A holistic framework for ecological restoration by people and business for next generations

With the ‘4 returns, 3 zones, 20 years’ approach presented in this paper, a collaborative effort is created to envision a comprehensive and integrated way in which humanity can bring to bear its best awareness, management, capital and technical capacity to ensure human survival and sustainability by restoring fundamental ecological functionality to degraded landscapes on a planetary scale. This effort is urgently needed to stimulate and catalyse the monumental efforts that are required to show that humanity can act as a species on a planetary scale.

Assessing the ITTO guidelines for the restoration, management and rehabilitation of degraded secondary tropical forests

This report presents a review of restoration activities in project sites in Africa, Asia and Latin America. ITTO tasked forestry professionals in Ghana, Indonesia and Mexico to assess sites according to the ITTO Guidelines. The report presents a summary of the main lessons learned and recommendations for the development of a revised framework.

Costs of restoration measures in the EU based on an assessment of LIFE projects

At global and European level the target
is to restore 15% of degraded ecosystems. Identifying sites that should be considered for
restoration in order to achieve the target requires spatial information on where degraded
ecosystem are, on the kind of mitigation measures that are needed to restore ecosystems to a good condition, and on the costs and benefits of restoration in order to prioritise investments. At all these levels, detailed spatial information is lacking. This report contributes to the ecosystem restoration knowledge base by providing cost estimates of specific restoration
measures.

Dry woodlands in Pakistan’s Punjab Province: Piloting restoration of unique yet vanishing natural assets

This document highlights several pilot studies to restore areas of dry woodlands in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Enhancing food security through forest landscape restoration: Lessons from Burkina Faso, Brazil, Guatemala, Viet Nam, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Philippines

The case studies from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, the Philippines and Viet Nam highlight how forest landscape restoration (FLR) interventions enhance food security. They illustrate the ‘win-win’ solutions that can enhance land functionality and productivity, develop resilient food systems and explore the long-term potential outputs and enabling conditions for FLR interventions. A greater emphasis on the impacts of degradation and deforestation and other indicators are exemplified throughout these case studies in order to better understand the results from FLR interventions and their relationship to land productivity.

Forest landscape restoration as a key component of climate change mitigation and adaptation

Drawing on state-of-the art scientific knowledge through analysis of restoration case studies and review of scientific literature, IUFRO scientists developed a framework to demonstrate how forest landscape restoration (FLR) can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. One of the major results of this study was the identification and detailed description of the many different ways in which FLR contributes to both mitigating climate effects and helping ecosystems and society to adapt to adverse effects of a changing climate.

Forest landscape restoration enhances food security in Sahelian landscapes

This case study provides evidence that small-scale
reforested lands offer an appropriate strategy and
means of diversification of food sources to help
curb food deficits in the months before the major
harvest of food grains.

Global guidelines for the restoration of degraded forests and landscapes in drylands

This publication, “Global guidelines for the restoration of degraded forests and landscapes in drylands”, is an output of the FAO Drylands Restoration Initiative, drawing lessons from the many experiences in dryland restoration worldwide. It is targeted at policymakers and other decision-makers, and dryland restoration practitioners, because both groups have the power to bring about positive change.

Habitat fragmentation and its lasting impact on Earth’s ecosystems

We conducted an analysis of global forest cover to reveal that 70% of remaining forest is within 1 km of the forest’s edge, subject to the degrading effects of fragmentation. A synthesis of fragmentation experiments spanning multiple biomes and scales, five continents, and 35 years demonstrates that habitat fragmentation reduces biodiversity by 13 to 75% and impairs key ecosystem functions by decreasing biomass and altering nutrient cycles.

How reliable are your restoration data?

We discuss similarities and differences in assessing precision and accuracy for field and laboratory data. Although the concepts for assessing precision and accuracy of ecorestoration field data are conceptually the same as laboratory data, the manner in which these data quality attributes are assessed is different.

Is local best? Examining the evidence for local adaptation in trees and its scale

This review will examine the evidence for local adaptation and its scale in a number of native
tree species from di erent trial sites across the globe (e.g. tropical, Mediterranean, temperate). These trials have been measured and in some cases results published in a range of formats.

Avoiding failure in forest restoration: the importance of genetically diverse and site-matched germplasm

The likelihood of success of forest restoration can be improved by choosing genetically diverse forest reproductive material that is well adapted to the planting sites.

Challenges and prospects for scaling-up ecological restoration to meet international commitments: Colombia as a case study

The field of ecological restoration (ER) is now challenged by the need to achieve recovery at large spatial scales. Such scaling up requires technological expertise, inclusiveness and clarity of goals, and correct governance schemes and monitoring protocols, which are often absent from ER projects in most countries. We analyze the case of Colombia by assessing the planning, governance, and monitoring practices of 119 ER projects, and discuss them in the context of scaling up efforts to meet international commitments.

Committing to ecological restoration

The authors advocate considering four principles when planning restoration in the face of recent global commitments to large-scale restoration: Ecological integrity, long-term sustainability, informed by past and future, and benefits and engages society.

Defining and evaluating the ecological restoration economy

For decades, industry groups and many media outlets have propagated the notion that environmental protection is bad for business. However, missing from this public debate has been a detailed accounting of the U.S. economic output and employment that are created through conservation, restoration, and mitigation actions, which we call the “Restoration Economy.” In this paper, we review related literature, including 14 local and state-level case studies of privately funded environmental restoration projects. We also review federal and state government programs that fund restoration throughout the United States, revealing the complex nature of this sector.

Estimating the size and impact of the ecological restoration economy

Domestic public debate continues over the economic impacts of environmental regulations that require environmental restoration. This debate has occurred in the absence of broad-scale empirical research on economic output and employment resulting from environmental restoration, restoration-related conservation, and mitigation actions — the activities that are part of what we term the “restoration economy.” In this article, we provide a high-level accounting of the size and scope of the restoration economy in terms of employment, value added, and overall economic output on a national scale.

Birds that eat nonnative buckthorn fruit ( Rhamnus cathartica and Frangula alnus , Rhamnaceae) in eastern North America

The buckthorns Rhamnus cathartica and Frangula alnus are nonnative invasive species in North America whose seeds are primarily dispersed by birds. This paper presents the first major compilation of the bird species that eat R. cathartica and F. alnus in eastern North America, where these buckthorns are most invasive and have few common congeners. Using fecal samples, observations, and an extensive literature search, I document 46 bird species that consume R. cathartica and F. alnus, and discuss which are the most competent dispersers of the seeds. I also correct a frequently-repeated belief that “blackbirds” are efficient dispersers of R. cathartica and F. alnus.

National seed strategy for rehabilitation and restoration: 2015-2020

The “National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration 2015-2020″ will provide a more coordinated approach for stabilization, rehabilitation, and restoration treatments. It provides a framework for actively workig with the private sector in order to build a “seed industry” for rehabilitation and restoration.

Plan Nacional de Restauracio_n: Restauracio_n Ecolo_gica, Rehabilitacio_n y Recuperacio_n de A_reas Disturbadas

Restoration handbook for sagebrush steppe ecosystems with emphasis on greater sage-grouse habitat – Part 1. Concepts for understanding and applying restoration

This restoration handbook is the first in a three-part series on restoration of sagebrush ecosystems. In Part 1, we discuss concepts surrounding landscape and restoration ecology of sagebrush ecosystems and greater sage-grouse that habitat managers and restoration practitioners need to know to make informed decisions regarding where and how to restore specific areas. We will describe the plant dynamics of sagebrush steppe ecosystems and their responses to major disturbances, fire, and defoliation.

Restoration handbook for sagebrush steppe ecosystems with emphasis on greater sage-grouse habitat—Part 2. Landscape level restoration decisions

We have developed this landscape restoration decision tool within this context of sites functioning within the larger regional mosaic. The tool relies on the user’s understanding of space and time relationships in sagebrush steppe ecosystems and habitat needs for animals that in some cases exclusively use sagebrush-dominated communities for their survival and
reproduction.

Prioritization of forest restoration projects: Tradeoffs between wildfire protection, ecological restoration and economic objectives

The implementation of US federal forest restoration programs on national forests is a complex process that requires balancing diverse socioecological goals with project economics. Despite both the large geographic scope and substantial investments in restoration projects, a quantitative decision support framework to locate optimal project areas and examine tradeoffs among alternative restoration strategies is lacking. We developed and demonstrated a new prioritization approach for restoration projects using optimization and the framework of production possibility frontiers.

Restoration of logged humid tropical forests: An experimental programme at Harapan Rainforest, Indonesia

We present an overview of research, including three planned experiments designed to test
the economic viability of large-scale restoration treatments, in a former logging concession at Harapan Rainforest (98,455 ha),
Indonesia. These experiments will address the following questions: (1) Can the selective removal of pioneer trees, including an invasive
species, be used to accelerate succession; (2) how does the functional diversity of the planted matrix affect growth and survival of a
high value target species; and (3) how does seed density affect recruitment success in direct seeding treatments?