Abstract
Efforts to address erosion and land degradation in steeplands of many countries have largely relied on revegetation. The policy responses to this issue are many and varied as have been their successes. Revegetation efforts tend to occur when it is realised that deforestation, mountain land erosion, and flooding of rivers are linked. Using the Southern Prealps region in France and the East Coast North Island region of New Zealand as ‘study sites’, past and current revegetation efforts to address steepland degradation were compared. Both areas have similarities in geology, geomorphology and types of erosion processes (shallow landsliding and gullying). Landscape responses to large-scale erosion and subsequent reforestation have been similar between France and New Zealand though major reforestation occurred in France more than a century before that in New Zealand. Attempts to control sediment production in headwater regions reinforces the view that conditions controlling the evolution of channel response (through time and space) to a change in sediment supply are complex. While there is a consistent sequence of responses in channels and on hillslopes to reforestation efforts and the direction of changes may be anticipated, the magnitude and timing of those responses are not. The key lesson for future management and policy development arising from these studies is that erosion-control efforts that are aimed at producing basin-scale impacts will require targeting of areas where the proposed land use change or intervention will have the most beneficial influence on reducing sediment supply to river channels.
Highlights
Efforts to address erosion and land degradation in steeplands of many countries have largely relied on revegetation
The first written reports that pointed out the linkage between deforestation and erosion in the mountains dated back to the early 19th century (Dugied, 1819; Surell, 1841), but the French administration did not start to take erosion into consideration until the first strategic transport infrastructures were established in the mountains (see Mather et al (1999) for an historical and socio-political account)
The political decision to engage an ambitious programme of reforestation in the Alps was made in 1860, with the promulgation of the first law for the reforestation of mountains – the Restauration des terrains en Montagne (RTM) Act
Summary
Efforts to address erosion and land degradation in steeplands of many countries have largely relied on revegetation. Revegetation efforts tend to occur when it is realised that deforestation, mountain land erosion, and flooding of rivers are linked. Efforts to address erosion and land degradation in steeplands have largely relied on revegetation – reforestation (of former forests) or afforestation (of other land) – and rehabilitation or ground bioengineering (i.e. use of plant materials for soil protection and slope stabilisation with or without mechanical methods; Schiechtl and Stern, 1996). The policy responses to this land degradation issue are many and varied as have been their successes. Revegetation efforts began in earnest in the 1860s when it was realised that deforestation, mountain land erosion, and flooding of rivers were linked (Dugied, 1819; Surell, 1841)
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