The first study documenting the performance of Nothofagus nitida planted seedlings

Facing rapid loss of biodiversity as a consequence of climate change, Chile has formally pledged to restore 600,000 ha of native forest by 2035. This effort, however, has not considered the amount and quality of native plants required to meet this pledge. Thus, we examined data collected during the annual, government-conducted census of small- and medium-sized nurseries from central Chile, which account for 78% of the nation’s total plant production, to assess if current production is sufficient to meet Chile´s restoration needs. We coupled this with data collected during our series of ongoing research projects to determine if nurseries are currently meeting minimum seedling quality standards based on morpho-physiological attributes. Our four-year analysis (2016–2019) shows that the number of native seedlings has increased by only 4%, but because only 19% of nursery managers have training, just 29% of all seedlings meet quality criteria for restoration. Thus, under the current rate and quality of plant production, meeting restoration pledges desired by the year 2035 would not be achieved until 2181. This timeline can be accelerated through an urgent expansion of nursery space, implementation of a continuous program for technology and knowledge transference, and strong support through governmental policies. 

2030 National Plan for integrated wildland fire management

Restoring the Earth - The next decade

The restoration of tree cover influences water availability. Many people — some experts, too — believe incorrectly that greater tree cover has an invariably negative impact on local water availability. Where do these beliefs come from?

The authors identify over 6M ha of priority areas for restoration in Colombia, targeting the restoration of 31 (75 %) of the country’s endangered ecosystems.

This working paper presents a set of sustainable practices for the Brazilian agriculture in the short and long-terms, that contribute to the provision and maintenance of ecosystem services, conservation and restoration of biomes, and more resilient low-carbon productive systems that are more adapted to current and future impacts from climate change.

The rapidly expanding network of roads into the Amazon is permanently altering the world’s largest tropical forest. Most proposed road projects lack rigorous impact assessments or even basic economic justification. This study analyzes the expected environmental, social and economic impacts of 75 road projects, totaling 12 thousand kilometers of planned roads, in the region.

This report presents a package of tools, principles and guiding questions that can be used to develop new or assess existing inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms (ICMs) for forest landscape restoration (FLR). This study also presents a package of tools, principles and guiding questions that can be used to develop new or assess existing ICMs for FLR.

Sustainable food production requires approaches that reconcile agricultural production with the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. This paper's results, reviewed by Initiative 20x20, suggest that the simultaneous delivery of multiple ecosystem services may require land-use pathways that combine land sparing and sharing approaches, including restoring currently degraded land. The analysis can inform integrated land-use planning initiatives where, historically, the supply and demand for agricultural commodity production have been the single dominant driver for the current landscape configuration.