Forest and landscape restoration: Toward a shared vision and vocabulary

Step back from the forest and step up to the Bonn Challenge: how a broad ecological perspective can promote successful landscape restoration

“…To reach a level where we differentiate between win‐win scenarios and trade‐off situations requires concerted interdisciplinary research. A possible best practice here could include larger scale landscape planning, with a mosaic of different land uses and habitats in an area (Tong et al ; Jonson ; Chazdon & Laestadius ), but with each land use having been assessed for optimum ecosystem service outcomes. A science‐based approach could include a set of embedded experiments at landscape scale (Gellie et al ).…”

“…A key issue that needs to be adequately addressed within the Bonn Challenge is how best to deal with the multiple goals of FLR projects, their inherent multifunctionality, and how they deliver different ecosystem services. Systematic and integrated assessment of the collective benefits of FLR in terms of biodiversity, livelihood, and climate mitigation outcomes (Chazdon & Laestadius ; Mansourian ) will provide a better basis from which to adaptively manage action on the ground. Holistically assessing performance outcomes is an area that therefore urgently needs concerted attention and investment of resources (Suding ; Perring et al , ; Chazdon et al ).…”

“…Explicit consideration of the overall framing of the Bonn Challenge and engaging in an open discussion of its implications for restoration practice on the ground is particularly important due to the predominance of tree‐planting and forest restoration in FLR (Chazdon & Laestadius ; Veldman et al ). We see a continued focus on trees as a blind spot to the true potential for restoring biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and improving local livelihoods in a whole range of different habitats and biomes (Seddon et al ).…”

“…Despite these modifications, the current programmes behind the Bonn Challenge, FLR, seem, by definition, to treat the restoration of other habitats as secondary (e.g. Chazdon & Laestadius ; Chazdon et al ; Mansourian et al ). While forests will certainly remain important to achieve the aims of the Bonn Challenge in many regions around the world, there is enormous potential to be inclusive and implement restoration in a wide range of biomes and thus mitigate climate change and reverse biodiversity loss in the best possible way for each particular geographical region and landscape.…”

Soil Chemistry Following Afforestation of Barren Coastal Soils in Southern Guam Does Not Conform to that of Continuously Vegetated Surfaces

“…In contrast, a range of approaches was employed to interpret that natural forces created and sustained the widespread Guam savanna grasslands prior to human arrival [18]. A parallel global debate exists concerning calls for tree-planting to restore lands devoid of tree cover [19] and the need to protect and conserve the world's grasslands and savannas by not planting trees [20]. Use of exotic graminoids that are tolerant of the badland scars to reduce erosion [21] may be more in line with international restoration goals that call for integrity with historical land use during recovery efforts.…”