Guiding Principles are Needed to Avoid Negative Consequences and Reach the Scale and Potential of Forest and Landscape Restoration
Forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is a long-term, multidimensional process that incorporates biophysical, socioeconomic and governance dimensions. Guidelines for planning and implementing restoration and monitoring outcomes should integrate the ecological and the social, dimensions and clearly reflect the underlying principles that define the FLR approach. But to date, developing guiding principles is impeded by a lack of clarity in the terms used and the widely recognized gap between research, policy, and practice.
Frameworks based on guiding principles, criteria, and indicators are urgently needed to help decision makers and practitioners create strategies to engage local communities in the process, define no-go zones for reforestation, select appropriate reforestation approaches, and establish baselines needed to adequately quantify restoration outcomes. Guiding principles can increase transparency and accountability in program management and decrease risk for private and public investors. Guiding principles focused on social and ecological considerations, and clarity of definitions and vocabulary are urgently needed to reach the scale and the full benefits of forest and landscape restoration.
SUPPORTING PAPERS
- Forest Definitions Influence Approaches and Outcomes of Reforestation (Chazdon et al. 2016)
- Dialogues Between Scientists and Policy Makers to Develop a Shared Vision and Vocabulary for Forest and Landscape Restoration (Chazdon & Laestadius 2016)
- Guiding Principles to Align Reforestation with Forest and Landscape Restoration (Brancalion & Chazdon 2017)
- A Research Agenda to Bridge Gaps in Knowledge and Know-how to Implement Forest and Landscape Restoration (Chazdon et al. 2017)
- Practical Guidelines Aid in Setting Global Restoration Targets in the Lowland Most Tropics (Brancalion et al. 2019)
- A Transformative Criteria and Indicators Framework Anchored in the Forest and Landscape Restoration Principles Can Bring Many Benefits to Actors and Different Sectors Involved in Restoration (Chazdon et al. 2019)