rainforest restoration - Ministry of Environment and Forests

8restoration: principles and guidelineson sites as they were prior to disturbance is usuallylacking. Therefore, more frequently, reference sites areselected as relatively undisturbed sites located in the samegeographical and environmental setting. These may benearby locations with similar elevation, rainfall, and soiltype, containing complete or near-complete communitiesof native plants and animals. For instance, many degradedareas can be restored keeping as a reference relativelyundisturbed sites within nearby protected areas such asNational Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.When is restoration necessary?It is a common misconception that if we strictly protect anyarea, it will naturally recover because ‘Nature knows best’.This may be true for large areas of little disturbed forests, orfor smaller patches of disturbed vegetation adjoining morecontinuous undisturbed tracts. But we now know that manyareas will not recover even after decades of protectionor if we ignore the effects of continuing disturbances. Insuch areas carefully planned intervention in the form ofrestoration becomes necessary because:• natural recovery of the original vegetation andassociated animal communities will not occur evenunder strict protection following the removal orcurtailment of disturbance factors,• natural recovery may take an enormous amount oftime (decades to centuries) unless we intervene toTop: The unbroken canopy of a rainforest—a reference siteBottom: In fragmented landscapes restoring degraded fragments can aid in biodiversity conservation