Ecosystem Services Approach to Landscape Restoration and Sustainable Livelihoods

Background

This report summarizes the proceedings of symposium held in 2014 in Queensland, Australia titled "Ecosystem Services Approach to Landscape Restoration and Sustainable Livelihoods".  Global trends of deforestation, degradation, and large scale land cover change continue, causing not only a loss in biodiversity but also a decrease in forest's capacity to supply critical ecosystem services. Large-scale landscape restoration has been presented to slow and change these trends, yet there are limited resources detailing successes or challenges of this approach. In response, ELTI brought together practitioners to discuss their practitioners to discuss opportunities and challenges regarding landscape restoration. The paper summarizes seven presentations from all over the tropics. 

Conclusions & Takeaways

Both the symposium sought to raise awareness about and increase understanding concerning the complexity of a landscape approach to restoration and using ecosystem services as a means to gain leverage in terms of social support and envionrmental and ecological impacts. By publishing summaries of the presentations, ELTI aims to support policy makers, researchers, and practitioners and other stakeholders in restoration activities.