Rewilding Must Help Damaged Forests To Work Symbiotically With Nature – CleanTechnica

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Did you know that reestablished forests — revitalized through planting and seeding — rarely manage to fully replicate the rich ecosystems of natural forests?  Forests support all kinds of life, such as insects, flora, fauna, humans, and microbes. Compromised woodlands have an innate capacity to regrow and flourish — if humans keep their hands out of the process. That indigenous method to let nature heal itself without human interference, called rewilding, has gained recent momentum, as it encourages biodiversity to thrive.

There is so much more to rewilding than simply planting trees.

Between 2010 and 2020, the net loss in forests globally was 4.7 million hectares (11,613,952 acres) per year. However, deforestation rates were much higher — around 10 million hectares of forest are cut down each year, according to the UN FAO. This damage has led to biodiversity loss, increased flooding, and more disease outbreaks as people and animals come into closer contact. For example, razed stretches of the Amazon and other forests across Brazil are incorporating a dangerous new technique — chemical deforestation — instead of chainsaws to clear the forest.

Such massive deforestation means that these crucial lifelines for people and the planet are at the forefront of the climate crisis.

More than one-third of the world’s tree species are threatened with extinction, according to the first comprehensive assessment of trees by the world’s leading scientific authority on the status of species. The findings, released this week by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, are especially distressing when considering the vast array of life that trees sustain. The IUCN Red List now includes 166,061 species, of which 46,337 are threatened with extinction.

Around the world, the biggest threats to trees are agriculture and logging, followed by urbanization, says Emily Beech, head of conservation prioritization at Botanic Gardens Conservation International, a nonprofit group that led the research now included in the Red List.

The National Forest Foundations explains that reforesting US National Forests is not as simple as placing a seed in a hole, covering it with soil, and hoping it grows. The process is more complicated, especially considering that the Forest Service has a backlog of 1.3 million acres of land in need of reforestation. That will take eight years at least to address.

Forest restoration has been a central feature of sustainable forest management for many years, right? Carbon sequestration and management are at the core of current forest science debates. Reforestation is often considered the best way to absorb carbon emissions from human activities. So why would foresters and conservationists need to resort to rewilding when they are already addressing huge tracts of land? It seems like mere semantics, as it can be said that good work is already being done to save the planet’s forests.

However, 45% of new reforestation projects are just single species plantings. In the context of carbon credits, only 12% of reforestation projects involve more than 10 tree species. This monoculture approach attracts fewer birds and bees, inhibits biodiversity revitalization, lessens carbon capture potential, increases soil solidification, invites tree diseases, and introduces invasive species.

The language of rewilding has considerable potential to bring forest managers and climate advocates closer together through shared goals.

The Nuances of Rewilding Forests

Rewilding can provide a beginning place from which foresters — who are much more than commercial- or production-oriented — can demonstrate and explain their long-standing conservation efforts and achievements. It can refresh analysis of and debates around systems approaches that can infuse the ecological complexity and autonomy demanded by rewilding.

A sustainable reforestation project takes lots of planning and analysis of its environment and ecosystem — a delicate melange of continent, terrain, air, soil, and the local climate. The key is that an emphasis on nature’s autonomy and a nature-led approach to forest restoration through rewilding offers both potential and challenges to forest science and management. In order to plant effectively and, above all, guarantee long-term growth, the right species must be selected for planting, depending on the nutrients available on site.

We’ll all been compelled by the plant-a-tree movements — well-intended, minimal donations required, seemingly lots of benefits. As Yale e360 chronicled, though, many of these high-profile programs aimed at planting billions of trees have real inherent issues. A growing number of scientists are warning that these massive projects can wreck natural ecosystems, dry up water supplies, damage agriculture, and push people off their land.

And the individual trees need constant maintenance and intense monitoring during their early lives and again as the years go by to assure growth and prevent risks. Conditions must build in forest balance so that past companion plant and animal biodiversity can return and flourish.

Case Studies in Rewilding

Instead of carefully manicured lawns, some of London’s green spaces are returning to their wild state. No longer is a manicured ambiance sought; instead, in response to concerns over climate change and plummeting biodiversity, rugged and sometimes scraggly wildflowers, organic gardens, and other projects that include restoration of wetlands, meadows, and ancient woodlands are underway. In sum, 41 areas are under replanting, as well as studies to create wildlife corridors to connect sites of importance in nature conservation that help native species in decline. The Rewild London Fund, launched by the city in 2021 as a part of this effort, has helped pay for these endeavors.

Britain’s King Charles III supports the effort. He’s such an advocate, in fact, that he has dedicated part of his Sandringham Estate as a model of what can happen when formerly cultivated lands are restored to their original, natural state. It’s an expensive financial commitment that is dedicated to reestablishing human co-existence with the natural world.

Ecologi invests in climate projects all around the world, including peatland restoration in India and biogas electricity in Thailand. They also plant trees on a large scale in Madagascar, Mozambique, and Nicaragua with their partners, Eden Forest. One of Ecologi’s biggest focuses is mangrove planting in Madagascar; mangroves can absorb up to four times more carbon than other tree species and are also good at self-propagating.

In the book Treewilding, Jake Robinson advocates for growing forests, which means understanding the native species and how they connect to local wildlife and communities. Indigenous knowledge and long-term care for young trees are crucial for successful forest restoration, Robinson argues. He points to two successful treewilding restoration projects that are worthy of notice.

• The “Great Green Wall” has the goal of growing a massive belt of trees across the Sahara Desert. This project has already planted millions of trees since 2007, but it faces financial challenges.
• Another initiative, the Gondwana Link in Australia, reconnects isolated forest patches, helping wildlife populations mix and boost genetic diversity.