How to get tree planting—and growing—right

Africa has the potential to restore 700 million hectares of degraded and deforested land, but experts caution that to transform lands and livelihoods over the long term, tree planting initiatives must be bolstered by strong strategies grounded in science.

During the digital forum Can tree planting save our planet? hosted by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) on 29 September, researchers, forestry experts, community leaders, investors and policymakers discussed the keys to successful reforestation and forest landscape restoration.

Here are some top tips on how to get tree planting right:

1.   Don’t think tree planting, think tree growing

The real challenge is not planting seedlings, but nurturing them so they grow to realize their potential contribution environmental, social and economic benefits over the long-term. “It is essential to choose the right tree for the right place and the right purpose – this is our mantra,” said Ramni Jamnadass, the co-leader of ICRAF's Tree Productivity and Diversity program. The purpose can be linked to products --fruit, fodder, timber -- or services such as shade, erosion control and carbon sequestration. Taking local knowledge, evidence-based approaches and community engagement into consideration are keys to successful forest landscape restoration, according to the experts.

2.   Watch out for the most common mistakes

“Planting monocultures, introducing invasive species, and ignoring water use and soil water balance are three of the most common pitfalls in tree planting,” cautioned HarrieLovenstein, head of research and development at the Land Life Company, a reforestation firm headquartered in Amsterdam. Other mistakes include failing to prepare the soil or tailor the approach to the biophysical and cultural realities  in a specific location. One more piece of advice from forum participants: Be climate smart, experimenting and selecting variants of Indigenous species that are more tolerant to drought.

3.   Put local communities at the center of your strategy

Engaging communities and ensuring they benefit from restored forest landscapes is crucial to ensuring long-term success.  "Restoration ultimately takes place at the local level, and must take into account the social and economic dynamics in each community,” said Susan Chomba, ICRAF Project Manager. Considerations should include gender, power and age-group dynamics, she added.

4.   Make the most of mobile applications

New tools that are adapted to local contexts can reduce costs, improve survival rates and support community engagement by helping farmers and restoration practitioners make better decisions. The CIFOR-ICRAF vegetationmap4africa app, for example, allows users to determine which trees and shrubs are native to a location. This information, combined with local knowledge about species that would be most suitable for a particular area and purpose, makes it easier to select the right tree.

 

Another addition to the toolkit is the Regreening Africa app, presented by CIFOR-ICRAF experts Tor-Gunnar Vagen, Roeland Kindt and Muhammad Ahmad. The application is based on assisted crowdsourcing for monitoring of land restoration at scale. “This tool makes it possible to record, track and improve the performance of restoration efforts,” said Vagen, citing examples from such countries as Rwanda, Senegal, Kenya, Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia and Niger.

 

5.   Keep an eye on emerging technologies and ventures

 

Spatial data, artificial intelligence and drones could transform the future of tree planting. “Manual tree planters will continue being part of the solution, but technology is a way to help us reach the scale we need, faster,” said Lauren Fletcher, founder of BetaEarth.global. “Drones can plant 400,000 seeds per day, versus a few hundred through a manual approach; also, they can access places where we can’t get people.”

Land Life Company is tracking thousands of planted trees through GPS locations, drones and satellites. “This data will allow us to create tree planting maps that can be used by our tree planting machines, and it also feeds into a portal that allows our customers to check in on the trees,” Lovenstein said.

Technology has a role to play, but there will always be a need for the human component, Fletcher said, adding: “I love technology, but you must see it as a tool to be used at the right place and time and for the right purpose.”

6.   Let nature do the work

In some cases, instead of tree planting, natural forest regeneration can be a solution: “It is a low-cost strategy with no need for nurseries or a large working force, but it is important to assess when and where it is possible,” said Joice Ferreira, a researcher at Brazil's Embrapa Amazônia Oriental (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corp., Eastern Amazon).

Discussing her research in the Brazilian Amazon, Ferreira explained that secondary forests have recovered 80 percent of their primary forest levels of carbon and biodiversity in only four years. This has been possible due to optimal temperatures and rainfall, and the fact that land use change in the area is relatively recent, occurring within the past 30 years, and not always intensive – agricultural activities often consist in extensive pastures.

“Among policy-makers, there is much more enthusiasm about tree planting, even when it is not necessary at all,” she said. “Globally, there are many opportunities for natural regeneration; we should take advantage of them.”

This article was originally published by Forests News

 

CIFOR redoubles efforts to promote sustainable Ghanaian landscapes

Ghanaian landscapes are marked by multiple and competing resource frontiers, from the cocoa-forests and oil palm belts in the high-forest zone (HFZ) to converging shea parklands and pastoral lands of the northern savannah. 
 

Widespread mining and complex tenure arrangements overlay, and sometimes further undermine, efforts to design long-vision resource management plans.

With the aim to address these issues, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has launched two new projects to support collaborative and multi-stakeholder approaches to landscape planning in Ghana.

Presented during an event held at the Global Landscapes Forum in Accra, these initiatives will operationalize the landscape approach and support better governance.

The first project, Operationalizing the Landscape Approach for Biodiversity Benefit: Policy, Practice and People (COLANDS) is expected to close the gap between strong scientific theory about landscape approaches and weak implementation.

“This is a pioneering program, as its five-year time frame means that we can establish a long-term engagement by facilitating the use of landscape approaches, observing stakeholders – especially people living in these landscapes – and then reporting on the results”, said James Reed, CIFOR Scientist.

COLANDS aims to capture successful elements of landscape approaches to develop a scalable model for adoption elsewhere.

The second project, Governing Multifunctional Landscapes (GML) takes an alternative, jurisdictional approach to landscape governance at agro-commodity and resource frontiers.

“We are working through partnerships to mobilize multi-stakeholder platforms and negotiate jurisdictional priorities for forest protection and climate-smart agriculture for multiple commodities, including cocoa, oil palm, citrus, and rubber”, explained Emily Gallagher, CIFOR Scientist.

GML will convene platforms in two jurisdictions adjoining the Atewa Range Forest Reserves in southeastern Ghana: Kwaebibirem Municipality and Atiwa West District to build the business case and action pathways for climate-smart development.

COLANDS is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) and is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU). GML is funded by the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development from the European Commission (DG DEVCO).

Global experts meet in Nairobi to advance landscape restoration in Africa

Finding solutions to meet the challenge of landscape restoration in Africa, where almost 50 million hectares of land is degraded each year, is a complex challenge requiring an innovative, coordinated, international response, says a top forestry expert who will speak at an upcoming conference in Nairobi.

Over 800 multi-sector stakeholders from across Africa and around the world will meet in Nairobi, along with at least 30,000 people online, at the Prospects and Opportunities for Restoration in Africa Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) at UN Environment headquarters in Nairobi later in August.

“Africa’s landscape must be restored to ensure the natural resource needs of the continent’s rapidly expanding population will one day be met, but there is no silver bullet,” cautioned Robert Nasi, director general of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), co-coordinator of GLF with UN Environment and the World Bank.

The event will highlight many current landscape restoration initiatives and help set the stage for many more, demonstrating how countries are building on political will through actions on the ground to tackle land degradation.

Although annually Africa loses about 2.8 million hectares of forest, an area roughly the size of Saudi Arabia, the continent shows immense potential for landscape restoration. In total, two thirds of the continent’s land mass is degraded, according to World Resources Institute.

“Africa’s population growth protections are one key aspect of the challenge,” said Erik Solheim, executive director of UN Environment, who will speak at the Nairobi event. “Another is that many parts of the world will be looking to Africa for food production. The key challenge is therefore how do you provide for job creation and increased food production, and protect the environment? The answer is of course proper land-use planning.”

Local communities have restored more than 5 million ha of degraded landscapes across the continent, while more than 20 nations have pledged to restore 100 million ha of forest by 2030 through the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100).

At GLF Nairobi 2018, delegates representing governments, international and grassroots organizations, the financial and private sector, indigenous communities and youth will draw upon these initiatives to pave the way forward in making forest and landscape restoration a reality.

Dialogues will take the shape of discussion forums, plenaries, online webinars and Landscape Talks, similar to TED Talks, while exciting side events, exhibitions and scientific report launches will celebrate Africa’s work in restoration and inspire action across sectors.

The event offers invaluable opportunities for stories and interviews related to restoration and environmental concerns. In addition to Nasi and Solheim, other key speakers include: Wanjira Mathai, chair of the Green Belt Movement; Hindou Ibrahim, National Geographic explorer and advocate for indigenous knowledge and rights; officials from environmental and forestry ministries across Africa, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Rainforest Alliance and many more.