Development of policy recommendations and management strategies for restoration of dryland forest landscapes

GONZÁLEZ-ESPINOSA, M; PARRA-VÁZQUEZ, MR; HUERTA-SILVA, M.H.; RAMÍREZ-MARCIAL, N. ; ARMESTO, J.J.; BROWN, A.D; ECHEVERRÍA, C.; FERGUSON, B.G. ; GENELETTI,D.; GOLICHER, D.; GOWDA, J.H.; HOLZ, S.C.; IANNI, E.; KITZBERGER, T.; LARA, A.; LÓPEZ-BARRERA,F.; MALIZIA,L. ; MANSON, R.H.; MONTERO-SOLANO, J.A. ; MONTOYA-GÓMEZ,G. ; ORSI, F.; A.C. PREMOLI, ; J.M. REY-BENAYAS, I. SCHIAPPACASSE, C. SMITH-RAMÍREZ,G. WILLIAMS-LINERA, A.C. NEWTON

Principles and Practice of Forest Landscape Restoration: Case studies from the drylands of Latin America.

IUCN Publications Services

Lugar: Gland; Año: 2011; p. 307 - 352

Forest landscape restoration typically involves the conciliation of interests of multiple stakeholders. As with other landscape-scale approaches, its ecological complexity spans several scales across both time and space (Levin, 1992; Young et al., 2005; Cash et al., 2006). Yet its practice and eventual success depends also on a number of complex human dimensions whose interactions develop over long periods of time (Higgs, 1997; Bradshaw, 2002; Naveh, 2005; Kanowski, 2010). It is probable that ecosystem goods and services provided by restored forests will eventually benefit not only local populations, but those located a considerable distance away (Buckley and Crone, 2008). On the other hand, someone has to pay for forest and rarely are local financial resources available over the time required to support restoration initiatives until signs of success are evident. As with most rural development actions, forest restoration projects usually require agreements on long-term use of consolidated land properties that involve local communities, grassroots groups, governmental agencies, urban social organizations,and others (Weiss, 2004). Forest landscape restoration should aim for legitimacy and avoid undemocratic approaches that lead to local and regional conflicts, which have limited the success of many conservation initiatives in developing countries (Lele et al., 2010). This chapter focuses on the development of public policy recommendations for forest landscape restoration, as this is probably the most crucial single issue that may affect the successful application and future practice of forest restoration in our study areas.