Restoration and Management Strategies

Charaterization and Impact Assessment of Water Harvesting Techniques: A Case Study of Abreha Atsbeha Watershed, Tigray, Ethiopia

Background

This report gives a comprehensive overview of water harvesting techniques in a community called Abreha we Atsbeha in Tigray, Ethiopia.  This community was awarded the UN Equator Prize for their restoration work in 2012.  In addition to providing a detailed historical, demographic, ecological, and hydrological description of the site, the authors also detail the major water harvesting techniques employed, including: bench terracing, stone bunds, stine bunds with trenches, soil bunds with trenches, semi-circular stone bunds, percolation ponds check dams, shallow wells, diversion heads, and hand dug wells. 

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Using artificial canopy gaps to restore Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata) habitat in tropical timber plantations

Background

This study tests whether or not man-made canopy gaps can restore native tree diversity as food sources for the endagered Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata). The site is located within a non-native blue mahoe (Hibiscus elatus) plantation in the Río Abajo forest in central Puerto Rico, where the researchers planted native species in assisted natural regeneration. The gaps were created in 20m x 20m plots by girdling and applying herbicide on non-native trees and by clearing leaf litter and vegetation, creating space for planted and naturally established advance regeneration seedlings.

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Lattice-work corridors for climate change: a conceptual framework for biodiversity conservation and social-ecological resilience in a tropical elevational gradient

Background

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Using Plantations to Catalyze Tropical Forest Restoration

Background

The 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. 

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Combining ecological, social and technical criteria to select species for forest restoration

Background

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Agro-Successional Restoration as a Strategy to Facilitate Tropical Forest Recovery

Background

Abandoned agricultural lands have been increasingly around the world, forcing a recent drive to restore and reforest these lands. Yet, in the tropics there is often limited funding to meet the needs of restoration and the activities conflict with the uses of natural resources that contribute to human livelihoods. This paper outlines agro-successional restoration as a solution to these issues.  

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Imitating Natural Ecosystems through Successional Agroforestry for the Regeneration of Degraded Lands - A Case Study of Smallholder Agriculture in Northeastern Brazil

Background

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Case Study: Community Based Ecological Mangrove Rehabilitation (CBEMR) in Indonesia

Background

Mangrove plantings in Indonesia have typically failed for a number of reasons including inappropriate site selection, inappropriate species selection, and/or conflict over land tenure. The authors discussed ecological mangrove rehabilitation (EMR) and its use in Indonesia, which required a more socio-cultural-political apprach as compared with EMR in the United States.

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Prioritizing sites for ecological restoration based on ecosystem services

Background

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Local ecological knowledge of trees on farms, constraints and opportunities for further integratino in Tigray Region, northern Ethiopia: A Case Study of smallholder farmers in Abreha Wa Atsbeha and Adi Gudom

Background

The paper compared two Ethiopian sites with differing levels of on-farm tree adoption: Abreha we Atsbeha (high adoption) and Adi Gudom (low adoption). The author used a knowledge-based systems approach involving participatory rural appraisal, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews.  In both sites, farmers planted trees on their holdings for income generation, user rights, and direct benefits, and they planted trees on communal lands to comply with government policies, improve soil fertility and water harvesting, improve land for redistribution, and improve aesthetics. 

Open access copy available
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