[en]+[zh]Study on Forest Landscape Restoration - ITTO

190 <strong>Study</strong> on Forest Landscape Restoration
planting. Meanwhile, residual tree seedlings should be protected as much as
possible. Most of degraded forest lands are characterized as low soil fertility
and poor soil structure, soil erosion and subjected to frequ<strong>en</strong>tly human disturbance.
In such situations, restoration activities are better focused on the recovery
and maint<strong>en</strong>ance of primary processes. Firstly, pioneer trees were selected
as nurse crop, important silvicultural characteristics of species suitable
for nurse crop include fast-growing, tolerant to drought and diseases, if necessary,
exotic species can be selected. Th<strong>en</strong> valuable native species are planted
understory. The sites will be logged in a few years to increase the lighting needed
by native species. In this way, both rehabilitation of degraded forest ecosystem
and income of local villagers will be improved. Because the degraded
forest land is waste land after developm<strong>en</strong>t for other uses and the use right belongs
to the villagers who developed first, the species selection and decisionmaking
for restoration activities should give full consideration to the value ori<strong>en</strong>tation
of the villagers and implem<strong>en</strong>ted by local villagers.
Restoration forest functions on agricultural land (Agroforestry)
Farmland shelterbelt forest can be developed in c<strong>en</strong>trally distributed agricultural
land, so that on-farm trees can play an important part in improving the
microclimate of farmland, sand-fixing, resisting natural disasters, and improving
ecosystem connectivity, etc. as well as providing forest products to local
communities. As to agricultural land in special ecological position, including
in river banks, roadsides, around the reservoirs, in hill slopes above 25 0 ,
they were ind<strong>en</strong>tified as priority sites for restoration and would be converted to
forest lands gradually through agroforestry. Because Agroforestry aims to balance
the developm<strong>en</strong>ts of agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry, rare and
valuable native tree species were selected for planting and interplant crops and
understory cash crops were grown in the first few years of planting to increase
economic b<strong>en</strong>efits.
5. 8 Monitoring and evaluation
FLR initiatives face major technical, economic, social, cultural and institutional
chall<strong>en</strong>ges. Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) provides information of
changes. M&E needs to be prepared during the initial planning phase of the
restoration and based on a good understanding of the context of the FLR inter-