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Enhancing Resilience Through Forest Landscape Restoration: Conceptual Framework November 2017

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Enhancing Resilience Through Forest Landscape Restoration: Conceptual Framework November 2017 IUCN/Ali Raza Rizvi Discussion Paper Enhancing Resilience through Forest Landscape Restoration: Conceptual Framework November 2017 This document is the second in a series intended to (1) identify and highlight the contribution of forest landscape restoration towards enhancing landscape resilience, as well as the resilience of communities dependent on forests (and the ecosystems services they provide); (2) promote understanding within the resilience community of how forest landscape restoration can enhance resilience; and (3) help build a better case to communicate restoration benefits in climate policy processes and mechanisms (e.g. adaptation, disaster risk reduction, co-benefits, etc.) This guidance aims to help both forest landscape restoration and resilience practitioners and other stakeholders to mainstream considerations of resilience into forest landscape restoration planning, implementation and assessments, such that forest landscape restoration approaches and practices contribute to enhancing socio-ecological resilience of whole landscapes and the communities that depend on them. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of IUCN. IUCN acknowledges the support of the KNOWFOR program, funded by UK aid from the UK government. This publication has been made possible in part by funding from the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). Suggested citation: Baig, Saima; Rizvi, Ali Raza and Mike Jones. 2017. Enhancing Resilience through Forest Landscape Restoration: Conceptual Framework (Discussion Paper). IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. 13 pp. Additional review and inputs provided by Angela Andrade, Elmedina Krilasevic, Chetan Kumar, Salome Begeladze, Maria Garcia Espinosa, and Katherine Blackwood. 2 Key messages The Conceptual Framework will be pilot tested in select sites in order to streamline forest landscape restoration contribution to enhancing resilience, to gather evidence from the field, and to highlight any gaps in data and knowledge. Resilience benefits from forest landscape restoration will be maximized when: (1) Ecosystem services and their state in the landscape are understood by actors in the landscape, (2) Pressures and drivers of change in the landscape are identified, (3) Restoration goals in a landscape take into account the needs of vulnerable communities, and (4) Future changes from climate change and other drivers are considered. FLR inherently increases resilience, but we must go a step further and inform forest landscape restoration practice and policy makers how to maximize resilience benefits. 1. Introduction Climate change has contributed towards a sharp increase in natural catastrophes. Other anthropogenic pressures such as resource degradation and depletion, rapid urbanization, unsustainable development, and conflicts have exacerbated the situation, with the result that human populations are increasingly vulnerable to these destabilizing factors. There is thus a need to enhance the resilience of people and ecosystems, which does not simply mean enabling the system to bounce back from a disruption but also to build the capacity for a system to survive, adapt, and flourish in the face of turbulent change and uncertainty (transformative resilience).i Forests are unique ecosystems with varying rates of primary productivity, containing extensive biodiversity. Many complex processes take place at multiple vertical levels starting from the soil up to the canopy. Furthermore, they are comprised of multiple ecosystems across landscapes. For human communities dependent on them to be resilient, it is essential that forests themselves are resilient. This means that they should be able to not only recover from extensive damage but also adapt and evolve as a response to disruptions and new conditions. Therefore, careful conservation and sustainable management is required to ensure that the goods and services they provide are available to users. This can be achieved through the application of forest landscape restoration, an approach that can contribute to enhancing the resilience of forests, forest landscapes, as well as the communities dependent on them. ii 3 2. A framework for integration Forest landscape restoration can implicitly and explicitly enhance the resilience of forest ecosystems and the human communities dependent on them, by providing a framework to address the social, environmental and political drivers that underpin change and transcend management boundaries. It is a problem solving multi-sectoral approach, bringing together a diversity of stakeholders from various areas, to resolve issues that encompass social, political, cultural, ecological, and economic aspects. iii ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Forest landscape restoration is the long-term process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes. It is about “forests” because it involves increasing the number and/or health of trees in an area. It is about “landscapes” because it involves entire watersheds, jurisdictions, or even countries in which many land uses interact. It is about “restoration” because it involves bringing back the biological productivity of an area in order to achieve any number of benefits for people and the planet. It is “long-term” because it requires a multi-year vision of the ecological functions and benefits to human well-being that restoration will produce although tangible deliverables such as jobs, income and carbon sequestration begin to flow right away. iv ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Restoration of forest landscapes can enhance water resources, maintain biodiversity and increase carbon sequestration. Restoration activities can be targeted towards increasing forest cover, improving the hydrological cycle, increasing the amount of water available, and regulating surface and groundwater flows, while maintaining and improving water quality. Biodiversity conservation in forest landscapes can ensure that their productivity is maintained, thus contributing to food security through NTFPs (non-timber forest products; such as fuel, fodder, honey and fruit), animal protein and other products. Well-designed and effectively implemented forest landscape restoration approaches can further contribute to resilience by reducing poverty - if they have built in incentives for communities to manage forests sustainably. A variety of forest products such as timber, fiber and bioenergy can increase rural incomes. Agro-forestry and wooded areas can also contribute to income in times of stress. Forest landscape restoration options can also contribute to livelihoods from recreation and tourism, and importantly, payment for ecosystem services can increase regional economic stability and provide funds for conservation. While these increase adaptive capacities of people, carbon sequestration contributes towards mitigation goals. Mangrove and riverine forests decrease disaster risks by providing coastal protection and protection from floods, soil erosions and sandstorms. Ensuring an enabling institutional and governance environment, with appropriate stakeholder participation (including gender integration) are important aspects of forest landscape restoration.v Table 1 highlights forest landscape restoration principles as defined by the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restorationvi, and how they result in enhancing socio-ecological resilience. These principles can be used as guidelines to ensure resilience integrated forest landscape restoration. 4 Table 1: Forest landscape restoration contribution towards enhancing resilience Forest landscape Contribution towards resilience restoration Principles Landscape focus Entire landscapes are restored, including a mosaic of interdependent land uses across the landscape, such as protected forest areas, ecological corridors, regenerating forests, agroforestry systems, agriculture, well-managed plantations and riparian strips to protect waterways. This means using an integrated approach that lowers the risks and vulnerabilities of ecosystems and human populations. Restore functionality of landscape Through ecosystem restoration/ rehabilitation, afforestation and reforestation, providing a habitat for biodiversity, contributing to soil and water conservation, preventing flooding and soil erosion in order to deal with the impacts of current and future climate change and other disruptions, landscapes can be made functional. Thus contributing to enhanced human wellbeing, including through the improved provision of ecosystem services. Provide multiple benefits Enhance a multitude of ecosystem goods and services, adding to people’s livelihoods, food and water security, and risk reduction etc. depending on the objective of the interventions. These are important objectives for a resilient community. Forest landscape restoration can be an implementing vehicle for multiple global objectives in the sense of promoting multi-purpose cost-effective interventions for addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, food and water security, poverty, and thus has a more strategic nature in the sense of cost-effective allocation of resources for interventions that have the potential for delivering multiple benefits. Implement a number of strategies Reforestation,
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