Research Article

Selecting tree species to restore forest under climate change conditions: Complementing species distribution models with field experimentation

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Trade-offs at applying tree nucleation to restore degraded high Andean forests in Colombia

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A cautionary note for forest landscape restoration in drylands: cattle production systems in northwest Madagascar’s dry forests

BACKGROUND

It is evident that land tenure security is crucial for successful restoration. Unfortunately, in Madagascar, dry forests are considered unoccupied and unowned even when communities have long-established claims under customary tenure systems. The authors stated that collective tenure recognition efforts were underway in Madagascar, but limited knowledge of agropastoralist cattle production strategies impeded the efforts to develop tenure reforms. The authors examined how cattle raisers in the Boney Region in northwest Madagascar organize pastoral spaces and cattle production strategies in the area’s dry forest.

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Filling a void: Analysis of early tropical soil and vegetative recovery under leguminous, post-coal mine reforestation plantations in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

BACKGROUND

Surface mining is a common practice for obtaining coal, the world’s leading energy source. Surface mining removes vegetation, soil, and rocks to extract resources. In Indonesia, the world’s fifth largest coal producer, coal mining companies are required to rehabilitate mined sites. Companies typically plant exotic legume tree species because they quickly achieve canopy closure, limit invasive weeds, improve soil nitrogen, and create a light environment that helps with the recruitment of woody plants. This article looks to see whether natural forest succession occurs under leguminous plantations at rehabilitated coal mines in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. 

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The political ecology playbook for ecosystem restoration: Principles for effective, equitable, and transformative landscapes

Background

Globally, land degradation and forest loss continue despite an increasing number of projects working towards ecological restoration. The authors of this paper argue that one of the reasons that restoration projects have been unable to achieve their goals and ensure ecological resilience is that they ignore the underlying issues of political inequity and injustice that drive ecological degradation.

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Adopt a carbon tax to protect tropical forests

Background

International investments in natural climate solutions such as conservation, restoration and land management remain low in many tropical countries. The authors point to research which shows that only 3% of global finance for climate change mitigation went towards natural climate solutions in 2017-18. They recommend constituting a national level carbon tax on fossil fuel companies to generate revenue to fund natural climate solutions.

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Carbon-focused conservation may fail to protect the most biodiverse tropical forests

Introduction

The authors examine the relationship between carbon and biodiversity at the landscape-level across four gradients of disturbances and offer insight on optimizing carbon conservation projects with biodiversity conservation.

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Carbon-focused conservation may fail to protect the most biodiverse tropical forests

Introduction

The authors examine the relationship between carbon and biodiversity at the landscape-level across four gradients of disturbances and offer insight on optimizing carbon conservation projects with biodiversity conservation.

Open access copy available

Potential for low-cost carbon removal through tropical reforestation

background

The UNFCCC COP21 (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties) created the Paris Agreement in 2015, which pledges to “limit global warming to well below 2, preferably 1.5 °C.” For this to happen, we must both reduce how much carbon dioxide (CO2) that is released and find ways to capture CO2 that is already in the atmosphere. This study explores two ways this might happen using Nature-based Solutions: tree planting in the form of reforestation and afforestation, and the prevention of deforestation. 

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Ecologies of the colonial present: Pathological forestry from the taux de boisement to civilized plantations

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