Rehabilitation and Restoration Of Degraded Forests (PDF) - IUCN

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Chapter 5: When and where to intervene In many deforested rural landscapes the focus of treatment is on the provision of goods (such as firewood or medicinal plants) and ecological services. Rehabilitation in the form of small farm woodlots or the protection of regrowth areas near to the homes or villages of the rural communities might be the best option. Where biodiversity is the primary focus then protected areas, established to conserve significant areas of biodiversity, are obvious targets. Some of them may contain degraded areas because of land-use practices prior to their establishment. Restoration will restore the integrity of the whole protected area and prevent it from being a source of weeds or pests. Protected areas may have boundaries with large populations of invasive weeds or pest species. Restoration can improve the effectiveness of these buffer areas and perimeters. Habitats of particular endangered or vulnerable species are another high priority. An increase in the availability of such habitats may allow the populations of these species to increase as well. In some cases the endangered species may need to have habitat restored in specialised conditions, such as isolated offshore islands, to avoid naturalised predators that are impossible to remove from the mainland (Towns and Ballantine 1993). Of course the habitats required by some species may not be necessarily suitable for other species; some deliberate tradeoffs may be needed. A balance must be struck between fostering the populations of one particular species and maximising the overall species diversity at a site. Restoration might also be carried out to facilitate the movement of plants and animals across a landscape. This could be done by using existing forest fragments as starting points and establishing additional small forest patches to form a series of “stepping stones” between larger forest areas. Alternatively, corridors could be created to link isolated remnants of natural forest. Corridors are clearly preferable for those species unable to cross non-forested areas. Both approaches have value in facilitating genetic or demographic interchange, and may be especially useful in linking remnant forest areas at different altitudes to facilitate movement of elevational or 27
REHABILITATION AND RESTORATION OF DEGRADED FORESTS seasonal migrants. There has been some debate about whether corridors achieve the benefits assumed by their proponents (e.g. Simberloff et al. 1992). Much of this debate concerns animals rather than plants and centres on the width of the corridors that are needed to avoid edge effect. There is general agreement that linkages enhance conservation outcomes (Bennett 1999). Linkages and landscape heterogeneity can also be fostered by the development of buffer strips or corridors within and around industrial timber plantations. In these situations they are commonly created as firebreaks or to help protect watersheds but they can bring significant biodiversity benefits as well. Often, a number of different approaches might be used (see Chapter 6). In general it is preferable to treat large areas rather than small ones because of the significance of edge effects and because many species need large areas to achieve viable population sizes. The shape of the areas may also matter; it is usually preferable to treat large broad areas rather than long thin areas, again because of the edge effect. But there are many circumstances where these generalisations may be incorrect. Small restoration projects, if they are strategically situated, often have considerable value. Likewise, long but comparatively narrow riparian strips are often key targets for ecological restoration. 5.2 Socio-economic factors It is always difficult to choose where to invest limited resources, particularly when so many areas deserve attention. Is it better to devote a lot of resources to a small but highly degraded area, or to a much larger area that is not so severely degraded? Fertilisers can improve soil fertility and herbicides can eradicate weeds. But the more resources used, the more expensive the operation becomes. It may be preferable to use these resources to treat a larger but less degraded site. There is a certain irony in this; the most degraded areas may never get treated. Because of the importance of integrating both biophysical and human well-being aspects into forest landscape restoration, there must be a strategic focus in deciding where to take action. It is best to focus — at least initially — on areas where there is a degree of local interest in restoration, particularly if success will depend on aspects under the control of local people, such as protection from grazing animals. 28
Page 1 and 2: Issues in Forest Conservation Rehab
Page 3 and 4: The designation of geographical ent
Page 5 and 6: IUCN’s Forest Conservation Progra
Page 7 and 8: REHABILITATION AND RESTORATION OF D
Page 15 and 16: Chapter 2 Degradation REHABILITATIO
Page 21 and 22: Chapter 3 Addressing degradation RE
Page 37: REHABILITATION AND RESTORATION OF D
Page 89 and 90:
REHABILITATION AND RESTORATION OF D
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Chapter 10 Promoting Forest Landsca
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
show all

Rehabilitation and Restoration Of Degraded Forests (PDF) - IUCN

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?