Posted on February, 01 2007

Experiences compiled from the WWF Network during a study tour of Spain and Portugal, June 2006.

In 2000, WWF collaborated with IUCN (and other conservation and development groups) in defining forest landscape restoration (FLR) as “a planned process that aims to regain ecological integrity and enhance human wellbeing in deforested or degraded landscapes”.

To test the practical application of the FLR concepts, WWF set itself the task of establishing a series of forest landscape restoration projects around the world, both to achieve practical conservation gains in important and degraded ecosystems and to enhance human wellbeing in some important ecosystems, and also to learn more about how restoration within a broader scale context might be achieved in practice.

In June 2006, some of the key figures involved in implementing forest landscape restoration came together for a study tour in Spain and Portugal, to exchange experiences, discuss what is and is not working, compile some of the lessons and identify future challenges.

The study group included participation from ecoregion programmes including the Atlantic Forests (Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay); Borneo Lowland and Montane Forests (Indonesia); East African Coastal Forests (Kenya and Tanzania); Greater Annamites (Vietnam); Madagascar Moist Forests; Mediterranean Forests (Morocco and Portugal); New Caledonia Dry Forests; and the Yangtze Basin (China); and a representative from Forestry Commission Scotland.

The publication starts by summarising the key lessons identified by the group, then discusses each in more detail, and ends with some key conclusions. Recommendations are made on the way forward for implementation of forest restoration at a landscape scale, designed to guide forest practitioners, conservationists and policymakers alike.