Tree planting has been widely touted as an inexpensive way to meet multiple international environmental goals for mitigating climate change, reversing landscape degradation and restoring biodiversity restoration. The Bonn Challenge and New York Declaration on Forests, motivated by widespread deforestation and forest degradation, call for restoring 350 million ha by 2030 by relying on forest landscape restoration (FLR) processes. Because the 173 million ha commitments made by 63 nations, regions and companies are not legally binding, expectations of what FLR means lacks consensus. The frequent disconnect between top-level aspirations and on-the-ground implementation results in limited data on FLR activities. Additionally, some countries have made landscape-scale restoration outside of the Bonn Challenge. We compared and contrasted the theory and practice of FLR and compiled information from databases of projects and initiatives and case studies. We present the main FLR initiatives happening across regional groups; in many regions, the potential need/opportunity for forest restoration exceeds the FLR activities underway. Multiple objectives can be met by manipulating vegetation (increasing structural complexity, changing species composition and restoring natural disturbances). Livelihood interventions are context-specific but include collecting or raising non-timber forest products, employment and community forests; other interventions address tenure and governance.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.201218

Forest landscape restoration: state of play.

Research Highlights: There is a problem of forest seeds quality assessment and grading afield in minimal costs. The grading quality of each seed coat color class is determined by the degree of its separation with a mobile optoelectronic grader. Background and Objectives: Traditionally, pine seeds are graded in size, but this can lead to a loss of genetic diversity. Seed coat color is individual for each forest seed and is caused to a low error in identifying the genetic features of seedling obtained from it. The principle on which the mobile optoelectronic grader operates is based on the optical signal detection reflected from the single seed. The grader can operate in scientific (spectral band analysis) mode and production (spectral feature grading) mode. When operating in production mode, it is important to determine the optimal engineering parameters of the grader that provide the maximum value of the separation degree of seed-color classes. For this purpose, a run of experiments was conducted on the forest seeds separation using a mobile optoelectronic grader and regression models of the output from factors were obtained. Materials and Methods: Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) seed samples were obtained from cones of the 2019 harvest collected in a natural stand. The study is based on the Design of Experiments theory (DOE) using the Microsoft Excel platform. In each of three replications of each run from the experiment matrix, a mixture of 100 seeds of light, dark and light-dark fraction (n = 300) was used. Results: Interpretation of the obtained regression model of seed separation in the visible wavelength range (650–715 nm) shows that the maximum influence on the output—separation degree—is exerted by the angle of incidence of the detecting optical beam. Next in terms of the influence power on the output are paired interactions: combinations of the wavelength with the angle of incidence and the wavelength with the grader’s seed pipe height. The minimum effect on the output is the wavelength of the detecting optical beam. Conclusions: The use of a mobile optoelectronic grader will eliminate the cost of transporting seeds to and from forest seed centers. To achieve a value of 0.97–1.0 separation degree of Scots pine seeds colored fractions, it is necessary to provide the following optimal engineering parameters of the mobile optoelectronic grader: the wavelength of optical radiation is 700 nm, the angle of incidence of the detecting optical beam is 45° and the grader’s seed pipe height is 0.2 m.

Grading of Scots Pine Seeds by the Seed Coat Color: How to Optimize the Engineering Parameters of the Mobile Optoelectronic Device

Mapping, validating, and interpreting spatio-temporal trends in post-disturbance forest recovery

In the face of the global COVID-19 recession, countries are looking at stimulus packages to kick-start their stalled economies. The recovery from the COVID-19 crisis also coincides with a critical opportunity to fight against ecosystem degradation and climate change. In this opinion article, I put in perspective that by investing in ecological restoration, governments do not have to choose between economic priorities and environmental concerns. First, I describe the restoration economy and give real-world examples of how investing in restoration activities can simultaneously ease pressure on the environment and create immediate jobs and revenues. Then I suggest that to obtain political attraction, a successful restoration strategy will require a triple-bottom-line approach to ensure that in addition to environmental objectives, stakeholders integrate socioeconomic outcomes in decision-making. Finally, I conclude that a new economic approach that prioritizes investment in our ecological capital will necessitate transdisciplinary policies to build bridges across the different silos of the economy and the environment.

Renée Lapointe

Papers

Scaling up forest landscape restoration in Canada in an era of cumulative effects and climate change