Ten principles for restoring campo rupestre, a threatened tropical, megadiverse, nutrient-impoverished montane grassland

Background

In the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, one of the most overlooked ecosystem types is tropical grasslands. Studies on these ecosystems are lacking, as are the foundations for restoration. These foundational points of policy, practice, and governance in addition to science need to be addressed. The authors provide 10 principles to restore the campo rupestre, a tropical grassland that is threatened by human activities including mining.

Conclusions and Takeaways

The principles to restore campo rupestre include project phases of planning, implementing, and monitoring. Some of the principles are socioeconomic dimensions, active restoration techniques, restoring ecological interactions, and long-term monitoring. These principles are geared at providing a holistic approach to restoration in order to upscale grassland restoration. The authors conclude that these principles are not exhaustive but are a dimensional initial attempt that may also apply to other suffering ecosystems in the Global South.