Scaling up forest landscape restoration in Canada in an era of cumulative effects and climate change

Abstract

While the global restoration movement is rapidly gaining momentum, understanding the concept and benefits of forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is paramount to safeguarding the natural capital of Canada's forests. In the face of increasing cumulative effects, we investigated the opportunities for scaling up FLR efforts in Canadian forests. The pace of industrial natural resource extraction developments (logging, agriculture, mining, and energy sector), and their overlapping in time and space with the impacts of climate change have resulted in ecosystem function and services alteration, as well as changes in natural disturbance regimes (e.g., wildland fire and pests). These dramatic and synergistic changes to environmental, socio-economic and cultural values occurring in the landscape need to be considered in land use planning but are highly variable and uncertain. We suggested that adding FLR to the land use agenda could offer a clear pathway to transform degraded landscapes into functional landscapes that deliver co-benefits and livelihoods to multiple land users. Supported by existing policies, the practices and goals of FLR initiatives dovetail with Canadian national conservation priorities such as national woodland caribou recovery as well as the development of Indigenous protected areas and nature-based climate solutions. At the international level, involvement in FLR initiatives such as the Bonn Challenge could advance Canadian climate change and ecosystem degradation commitments identified in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals as well as in the Convention on Biological Diversity. To inform policymakers and practitioners, we suggested key collaborative actions to move towards a national restoration framework. Given competing land uses and values, a successful FLR strategy will require a multi-stakeholder governance approach supported by the different levels of government as well as other land users including extractive industries and Indigenous communities. Assessing socio-economic trade-offs around planning, funding, implementing, and monitoring restoration efforts is also crucial.