Approaches to Classifying and Restoring Degraded Tropical Forests for the Anticipated REDD+ Climate Change Mitigation Mechanism
background
Forest degradation from logging and fires has impacted millions of acres of tropical forest around the globe, reducing the ability of these forests to provide ecosystem services, sequester carbon, and provide habitat to endangered species. This report focuses on the UN’s REDD + initiative (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) and calls for more attention to the potential for restoration initiatives of degraded forests to act as carbon sinks.
conclusions & takeaways
This report discusses the scale of restoration methods, ranging from natural regeneration to active silvicultural treatments and finally enrichment planting. In order for these strategies to be implemented under REDD+, long-term political incentives and local participation are crucial.
Reference:
. Approaches to classifying and restoring degraded tropical forests for the anticipated REDD$\mathplus$ climate change mitigation mechanism. iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry. 2011;4:1–6. doi:10.3832/ifor0556-004.
Affiliation:
- Graduate School of Applied Informatics, University of Hyogo, Kobe (Japan)
- Harvard Forest, Harvard University, MA (USA)
- Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, CA (USA)
- QUEST, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol (UK)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok (Thailand)
- Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor (Indonesia)
- Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp (Sweden)
- Department of Biology, University of Florida, FL (USA).