Abstract
Driven by various initiatives and international policy processes, the concept of Forest Landscape Restoration, is globally receiving renewed attention. It is seen internationally and in national contexts as a means for improving resilience of land and communities in the face of increasing environmental degradation through different forest activities. Ethiopia has made a strong voluntary commitment in the context of the Bonn Challenge—it seeks to implement Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) on 15 million ha. In the context of rural Ethiopia, forest establishment and restoration provide a promising approach to reverse the widespread land degradation, which is exacerbated by climate change and food insecurity. This paper presents an empirical case study of FLR opportunities in the Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia’s largest spans of degraded and barren lands. Following the Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology, the study categorizes the main types of landscapes requiring restoration, identifies and prioritizes respective FLR options, and details the costs and benefits associated with each of the five most significant opportunities: medium to large‐scale afforestation and reforestation activities on deforested or degraded marginal land not suitable for agriculture, the introduction of participatory forest management, sustainable woodland management combined with value chain investments, restoration of afro‐alpine and sub‐afro‐alpine areas and the establishment of woodlots.
Highlights
The global discourse on Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) has its roots in the 1980s but only recently grew to a global movement
Following the Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology, the study categorizes the main types of landscapes requiring restoration, identifies and prioritizes respective FLR options, and details the costs and benefits associated with each of the five most significant opportunities: medium to large-scale afforestation and reforestation activities on deforested or degraded marginal land not suitable for agriculture, the introduction of participatory forest management, sustainable woodland management combined with value chain investments, restoration of afro-alpine and sub-afro-alpine areas and the establishment of woodlots
A milestone was in 2011 when the German government and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) invited global leaders already engaged in the Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR) to participate in the first Bonn
Summary
The global discourse on Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) has its roots in the 1980s but only recently grew to a global movement. Aichi target 15 and REDD+ (A mitigation approach for the land use sector negotiated in the context of the United nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; REDD+ stands for reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conservation of existing forest carbon stocks, sustainable forest management, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.). On this basis, the Bonn Challenge was initiated as an informal high-level policy dialogue that sought to foster large-scale implementation on the ground. In considerable areas of remnant forests exist, which comprise the priority landscapes
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