The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR and World Agroforestry (ICRAF) joined forces in 2019, leveraging a combined 65 years’ experience in research on the role of forests and trees in solving critical global challenges.
Researchers with CIFOR-ICRAF argue that multiple, linked approaches should be used to address the wide range of challenges facing restoration of landscapes.
‘The first thing anyone wanting to restore landscapes should know is that there is no silver bullet,’ said Susan Chomba, head of the Reversing Land Degradation in Africa by Scaling-up Evergreen Agriculture project and a social scientist with World Agroforestry (ICRAF), speaking at a virtual conference by Kew Gardens, UK, 24–26 February 2021. ‘Tailoring restoration approaches is needed to suit each context. For example, the needs of pastoralists will be different from crop farmers; the poorest farmers will be limited by different factors from wealthier farmers; the needs of women will be different from men and; of course, dryland and tropical conditions obviously require different approaches. In short, what is needed is to empower women financially through gender-responsive value chains.’
Anja Gassner, leader of the Harnessing the Potential of Trees on Farms for Meeting National and Global Biodiversity Targets project and science advisor to the Global Landscapes Forum, added that governments needed to remove barriers to growing trees on farms otherwise restoration would be harder to sustain.
‘Farmers will select species for increased productivity and income that usually don’t contribute to biodiversity and are often exotics,’ she explained. ‘If we want farmers to be partners in restoration, we need to select indigenous tree species that match what farmers want. And we need to review forest regulations that were originally designed to protect those trees; the importance of disincentives cannot be understated. Some species that have no direct benefits for farmers but are important for biodiversity can be grown in niches but farmers need to be compensated for their labour and their land. Performance-based incentives are needed, ones that go beyond “payment for ecosystem services”. There is real potential for the reintroduction of endangered tree species in working land but it needs well-designed programs with innovative incentives.’
Manuel R. Guariguata, CIFOR's principal scientist on tropical forest management and restoration, agreed, arguing that policy should be seen as multi-dimensional.
‘Harmony of the dimensions determines success or failure,’ he said. ‘We know we have to sow seed, plant seedlings, manage a patch of forest but harmony with other sectors is critical. Restoration targets are being pledged but there’s usually poor alignment between sectors. Another issue is flow of information from local to national: there are many bottlenecks, not just for data but what sort of data is collected. Information for sound decision-making can lead to policy changes but this is not being sufficiently addressed.’
The Global Tree Knowledge Platform helps with information flows. It was created by Roeland Kindt and team and is a collection of linked databases, guidelines, R packages, maps and other decision-support tools.
World Agroforestry (ICRAF) is a centre of scientific and development excellence that harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment. Knowledge produced by ICRAF enables governments, development agencies and farmers to utilize the power of trees to make farming and livelihoods more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable at multiple scales. ICRAF is one of the 15 members of the CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. We thank all donors who support research in development through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund.