General
Strengthening the national restoration strategyBackgroundIn response to the launch of the Bonn Challenge, El Salvador committed to restoring one million hectares. The country's Ministry of Natural Resources and IUCN applied Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology (ROAM) to El Salvador in order to determine and analyze restoration options based on biophysical, social and economic criteria. The paper summarizes the main results generated in the ROAM application. Open access copy available |
Strategies and innovations for capacity building on ecological restorationBackgroundOpen access copy available |
Leaders in Action: Achieving Forest Landscape Restoration Through Online LearningBackgroundBetween May 2016 and March 2017, the Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative and IUCN conducted six online courses titled “Forest Landscape Restoration in the Tropics.” These courses were in response to the emerging trend of countries committed to restoring millions of hectares of land via the forest landscape restoration approach, which aims to achieve ecological, economic, and social benefits simultaneously. This paper highlights numerous success stories of individuals who participated in these courses. Open access copy available |
Ecological Restoration and Sustainable Agricultural LandscapesBackgroundThis paper summarizes the talks of 2013 symposium held in Bogota, Colombia titled Ecological Restoration and Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes. The talks center around the pressing issue of balancing agricultural demands and the need to conserve biodiversity. They discuss current initiatives throughout Latin America that seek to both conserve and restore productive landscapes. Five talks in total are summarized touching on subjects ranging from agroforestry to silvopastoral systems to capacity building. Open access copy available |
Impact of Forest Management on Species Richness: Global Meta-Analysis and Economic Trade-offsBackgroundThis study is a meta-analysis of data from forests managed for timber harvest to assess the conservation value of these forests. From processing data from 287 published studies they rank the following forest management systems from best to worst in terms of conservation value: selection and retention systems, reduced impact logging, conventional selective logging, clear-cutting, agroforestry, timber plantations, fuelwood plantations. They also conducted analysis of net present value in these same systems and found unsurprisingly that the ranking for net present value was different. Open access copy available |
From Target to Implementation: Perspectives for the International Governance of Forest Landscape RestorationBackgroundThis article describes the international landscape of governance structures and institutions focused on promoting restoration. It aims to understand how the activities of these institutions with overlapping objectives can align and complement each other in order to create a more effective governance approach. Open access copy available |
Agroforestry: a refuge for tropical biodiversity?BackgroundThis paper provides a literature review on the role of agroforestry in conserving biodiversity within human-dominated landscapes. Available with subscription or purchase |
Birds of the Man Made Ecosystems: the PlantationsBackgroundThe authors compare bird diversity in Uttara Kannada, India, comparing intact evergreen and secondary moist deciduous forests to teak, eucaplypts and betelnut plantations with the intent of addressing two questions: what level of diversity can a plantation support and how to species compositions compare to nearby forests? Available with subscription or purchase |
Using Plantations to Catalyze Tropical Forest RestorationBackgroundThe article discusses the benefits and drawbacks of tropical forest restoration via monoculture tree plantation, using exotic species. The research references Parratto, Turnbull and Jones (1997) and five other specific articles from different regions that have prescribed different treament methods, with particular interest in the monoculture tree plantation, using exotic species, treatment option. Open access copy available |
Regional and global concerns over wetlands and water qualityBackgroundThis paper examines the ecological role of wetlands in agricultural cachements and examines the dymamics of nutrient loading in wetlands at a local and watershed scale. Available with subscription or purchase |

