Creating space for large‐scale restoration in tropical agricultural landscapes

Background

The large-scale degradation and land-use conversion of ecosystems around the world has led to a global push to restore critical environments in order to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. One of the biggest challenges to these efforts though, is ensuring that preexisting land-uses are not simply displaced elsewhere. This article explores this problem, turning to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest as a case-study. The authors examine if restoration will lead to a discplacement of cattle production due to land-shortage. 

Conclusions & Takeways

The authors conclude that while discplacement is a possibility, the risk of it can be minimized through intentional efforts. Specifically, they suggest increasing productivity of cattle ranching, employing regional restorations plans, and prioritizing marginal lands for restoration. The article concludes stressing that a range of stakeholders, including farmers, agricultural institutions, and local and national authorities, will play crucial roles in the success of these integrated efforts and that more research is required to understand the relationship between large-scale land restoration and land-use.