Goals and Targets of Forest Landscape Restoration

Abstract

• Attempts by the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry to “restore” Imperata grasslands by planting trees failed because local people had no use for the trees (they belonged to the foresters) but they made extensive uses of the grasslands. The grasslands provided fodder for their cattle and grass for roofing. • Attempts to plant spruce forests to restore the degraded moorlands of northern England and Scotland were opposed by amenity and conservation groups because the moorland scenery had come to be accepted as “natural” and “beautiful” and it was the habitat of rare birds. • Government attempts to restore tree cover on the uplands of Vietnam were opposed by local people because the types of trees planted by the government were not the ones that local people needed or could use. • Government-sponsored tree planting schemes in China have denied local people access to medicinal plants and have damaged the habitats of rare plants and animals in the dry mountainous areas of South Western and Western China. • Attempts to restore pristine nature in degraded areas in the United States are opposed by some conservationists who consider that such artificially restored areas can never have the value of a pristine landscape. 14 Goals and Targets of Forest Landscape Restoration