A practice-led assessment of landscape restoration potential in a biodiversity hotspot

Abigail R. Wills; Deo D. Shirima; Olivier Villemaire-Côté; Philip J. Platts; Sarah J. Knight; Robin Loveridge; Hamidu Seki; Catherine E. Waite; Pantaleo K. T. Munishi; Herman Lyatuu; Blanca Bernal; Marion Pfeifer; Andrew R. Marshall

doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0070

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A practice-led assessment of landscape restoration potential in a biodiversity hotspot

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A practice-led assessment of landscape restoration potential in a biodiversity hotspot

Abigail R. Wills, Deo D. Shirima, Olivier Villemaire-Côté, Philip J. Platts, Sarah J. Knight, Robin Loveridge, Hamidu Seki, Catherine E. Waite, Pantaleo K. T. Munishi, Herman Lyatuu, …

Royal Society of London. Philosophical Transactions B. Biological Sciences, Vol.378(1867), pp.1-13

2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0070

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Abstract

Above-Ground Biomass

Assisted Natural Regeneration

Biodiversity Conservation

Climate Change Mitigation

Forest Landscape Restoration

Part Ii: Restoration Planning And Evaluation

Tree-Planting

Effective restoration planning tools are needed to mitigate global carbon and biodiversity crises. Published spatial assessments of restoration potential are often at large scales or coarse resolutions inappropriate for local action. Using a Tanzanian case study, we introduce a systematic approach to inform landscape restoration planning, estimating spatial variation in cost-effectiveness, based on restoration method, logistics, biomass modelling and uncertainty mapping. We found potential for biomass recovery across 77.7% of a 53 000 km2 region, but with some natural spatial discontinuity in moist forest biomass, that was previously assigned to human causes. Most areas with biomass deficit (80.5%) were restorable through passive or assisted natural regeneration. However, cumulative biomass gains from planting outweighed initially high implementation costs meaning that, where applicable, this method yielded greater long-term returns on investment. Accounting for ecological, funding and other uncertainty, the top 25% consistently cost-effective sites were within protected areas and/or moderately degraded moist forest and savanna. Agro-ecological mosaics had high biomass deficit but little cost-effective restoration potential. Socio-economic research will be needed to inform action towards environmental and human development goals in these areas. Our results highlight value in long-term landscape restoration investments and separate treatment of savannas and forests. Furthermore, they contradict previously asserted low restoration potential in East Africa, emphasizing the importance of our regional approach for identifying restoration opportunities across the tropics. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Understanding forest landscape restoration: reinforcing scientific foundations for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’.

Details

Title: A practice-led assessment of landscape restoration potential in a biodiversity hotspot
Authors: Abigail R. Wills (Author) - University of York
Deo D. Shirima (Author) - Sokoine University of Agriculture
Olivier Villemaire-Côté (Author) - Université Laval
Philip J. Platts (Author) - University of York
Sarah J. Knight (Author) - Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York YO10 5NG, UK
Robin Loveridge (Author) - University of York
Hamidu Seki (Author) - University of York
Catherine E. Waite (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research Institute
Pantaleo K. T. Munishi (Author) - Sokoine University of Agriculture
Herman Lyatuu (Author) - Reforest Africa
Blanca Bernal (Author) - GreenCollar US
Marion Pfeifer (Author) - Newcastle University
Andrew R. Marshall (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research Institute
Publication details: Royal Society of London. Philosophical Transactions B. Biological Sciences, Vol.378(1867), pp.1-13
Publisher: The Royal Society Publishing
Date published: 2023
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0070
ISSN: 1471-2970; 0962-8436
Copyright note: © 2022 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Grants: Understanding the importance of lianas for forest health and management, FT170100279, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Grant note: United Bank of Carbon (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100017893) IUCN Sustain Rainforest Trust (http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100016497) Flamingo Land
Organisation Unit: Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99690998302621
Output Type: Journal article