Forest landscape restoration: where to start?

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Forest landscape restoration is currently gaining momentum as a means of jointly addressing reforestation, climate change and future agricultural demands. There are several international initiatives aiming to promote forest landscape restoration at scale. International targets have been set, such as the CBD target of restoring 15% of degraded ecosystems by 2020, and the Bonn Challenge, which aims to restore 150 million hectares of lost forests and degraded lands worldwide by 2020.

Without denying the importance of these initiatives, the big question is where are these hectares to be found? And more importantly, who is to take up responsibility for its restoration? In other words, how are these global targets going to be translated into tangible action on the ground?

There are many ways in which forested landscapes can be restored, depending on the biophysical characteristics of the landscapes, but even more so on the interests of a landscape’s stakeholders, and the way in which they negotiate and make landscape decisions.

Read the full story by Cora Van Oosten on the Agriculture and Ecosystems blog.

Photo: A. Erlangga (CIFOR)