Increase carbon content
Promotes biodiversity
Respects local people’s rights
Promotes food security
Lars Laestadius from the swedish university of agricultural science had two questions over-arching his presentation which were straight forward:
Restore forest where and how?
To answer the where question, he presented a map that showed the potential forest extend if only climate and soils decided in contrast to the actual forest extent. He highlighted the need and opportunity to restore forest as well as constraints due to population and croplands. According to him, there are restoration opportunities all over the world, especially in Africa. The study he presented sees the biggest opportunity (74%) in mosaic restoration which means that the forest landscape will be a mix comprised of people, farmland and other land uses and not only forests.
Source: http://www.bonnchallenge.org/content/global-opportunity-map
To answer the how question he first raised the point that in the past, there were large scale planting and restoration projects that didn´t go so well. He elaborated several points to show how future project could take into account errors from the past to build better futures.
His points were the following:
- Focus on landscape -> think and plan in terms of large scale and long time and have a diverse set up within the mosaic.
- Restore ecological functionality –> preserve and enhance ecosystem services
- Allow for multiple benefits
- Recognize that a suite of interventions are possible and needed
- Involve stakeholders –> not command and control but have a two way dialogue to ensure equity
- Tailor projects to local conditions
- Manage adaptively
- Avoid conversion of natural ecosystems
He strongly emphasized the point that in order for these projects to be successful, benefits and incentives for the local population are needed. These benefits could for example be:
- Enhance food security
- Prosperity increase
- Clarify rights to land trees
- Long term focus -> design landscapes and build resilience
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