An ambitious research initiative across 9 countries is seeking to identify exactly how trees contribute to a healthier and more sustainable environment.

The Sentinel Landscape Initiative involves scientists from 6 international research organizations and will analyze landscapes in 20 countries on 3 continents. It will make use of a wide range of methods, from household surveys to soil sampling, from vegetation inventories to satellite imagery, reports an article in the Forests News blog of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

“What we hope to achieve is to find out when trees in landscapes lead to better livelihoods, better nutrition, better income, happier people,” says Anja Gassner, leader of the Sentinel Landscape Initiative and researcher at the World Agroforestry Centre.

Gassner explains that the initiative is looking beyond an ecosystem approach which has traditionally been focused on conservation and biodiversity. Landscapes are “where we as humans interact with the environment, where we shape the environment and the environment shapes us.”

A ‘sentinel landscape’ is one that is monitored over time for changes and how these changes impact on the environment and livelihoods. The term ‘sentinel’ comes from medical science where it refers to clinical indicators used to monitor health over time.

The sentinel landscapes to be studied through this initiative are: Borneo – Sumatra; Central Africa Humid Tropic Transect; Mekong; Nicaragua – Honduras; West Africa (includes Niger Basin in southeast Mali and Volta Basin in Burkina Faso, northern Ghana and northern Togo); Western Ghats in India and the Western Amazon (Peru, Bolivia and Brazil).

Within each of these landscapes, 4 specific sites will be monitored using a standardized methodology to gather livelihood, environmental and institutional data.

The initiative will also look at the effects of global trade and value chains on landscapes through studying additional landscapes that deal in common commodities of timber and oil palm.

“If we can actually quantify what are the environmental and institutional constraints that enable or disable people to value trees in forests and on the farms, then we can give recommendations to policymakers to enable local people as well as politicians to harvest the best benefit out of those trees in landscapes,” concludes Gassner.

Read the full story: How are trees good for us? ‘Sentinels’ may hold the answer