A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by the universities of Exeter and Oxford found that forest restoration benefits humans, improves biodiversity, and tackles climate change.
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Restoring forests is sometimes viewed in terms of “trade-offs,” meaning it frequently concentrates on a particular objective like sequestering carbon, fostering the environment, or sustaining human lives.
Nevertheless, “integrated” solutions would simultaneously provide over 80% of the advantages in all three categories.
It was also shown that this strategy would disproportionately assist socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.
The researchers employed a concept known as Nature’s Contribution to People (NCP), which emphasizes a comprehensive link between restoration and benefits to humanity, including equity.
It examined the advantages of native forest regeneration in appropriate locations not currently covered by trees, applying this to a large part of India.
Restoration projects sometimes have a narrow focus, which can lead to trade-offs. For example, if you focus on carbon storage, you might plant particular tree species and fence the forests off to protect them. If you focus on biodiversity, you might manage forests for particular species, like the emblematic Bengal tiger or Asiatic elephant. If you focus on human livelihoods, you might plant species that provide housing materials and fuelwood for cooking.
Dr. Trisha Gopalakrishna, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Exeter
She added, “The philosophy you choose would dictate your choices. Unsurprisingly, our study shows that plans with one NCP in mind tend not to deliver the others. However, we were surprised and pleased to find that an ‘integrated’ plan can deliver all three remarkably efficiently.”
By omitting regions like grasslands and agricultural land, the researchers created maps representing 3.88 million hectares of potential forest restoration area using an optimization technique.
The findings demonstrated that, on average, single-objective plans produce 93.9% of the societal NCP, 89.9% of the biodiversity value NCP, and 83.3% of the climate change mitigation NCP that integrated forest restoration plans (aimed at multiple goals) deliver.
Dr. Gopalakrishna explained why this occurs: “Integrated plans create a multifunctional landscape, with connectivity so people and animals can thrive.”
According to the study, the proportion of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals affected by integrated spatial plans is 38–41%, which is higher than the proportion of these individuals in India.
“Many countries, like India, have committed to very big goals on climate and the environment. The blueprint we have developed provides an approach to design conservation policies, specifically ecosystem restoration activities. It would be useful to know if our findings hold true in other countries using different types of ecosystem restoration plans and focused on different benefits,” Dr. Gopalakrishna stated.
Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development funded the study.
Journal Reference:
Gopalakrishna, T., et. al. (2024) Optimizing restoration: A holistic spatial approach to deliver Nature’s Contributions to People with minimal tradeoffs and maximal equity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.2402970121