Forest restoration projects are one of the best ways to balance our ecosystem. Forest restoration generally refers to bringing back its natural state after the destruction.
It is also considered reforestation, where you plant various species to enhance the natural beauty. It is necessary to increase productivity, ensure a healthy environment, and strengthen the forest’s life.
Our earth’s terrestrial land has been degraded so harshly. So to protect the environment and prevent different kinds of natural calamities like floods, landslides, soil erosion, and so on, forest restoration is required.
Forest restoration is a technique for conserving natural and artificial landscapes. People use many methods and approaches to preserve natural vegetation.
Forest restoration is not all about planting trees; but it is also about ecological balance. Nowadays, many countries are starting different projects for restoring the forest to protect the natural environment.
Some of the projects with their impacts on the environment are explained here:
Table of Contents
1. The Great Green wall – Africa
The African Union launched a project in 2007 known as the great green wall to create new life to the landscape of Africa.
The nation started this project to convert the deserted land of Africa into a clean, green, and healthy environment.
The great green wall is about planting trees, which would be more than 8,000 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide to cross 11 African countries.
Africa has a bad experience of climate change, so to balance the climate, the great green wall projects were established and would be contributing a lot.
The Sahel and Sahara region of Africa had been adversely affected. Droughts severely destroyed them, and there was a significant loss of fertile soil.
At the beginning of this project, Africa had thought to convert 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.
But in 2020, only 4% of the targets, i.e., just 4 million hectares, was achieved according to the United Nations Status report, which is not good news as the progress rate seems to be slow.
Africa would get a completely new habitat and a new environment if the Union completed the project within 2030. Though the project is funded by the World Bank, the EU, and the United Nations, lack of money is responsible for slowing the tasks according to UN status report.
If the people of Africa are self-motivated to conserve their land and get more financial support, the great green wall projects can reach on time, and Africa would be contributing much to our ecosystem.
2. Eden forest Restoration Projects – Nepal
Terai is a low-lying land or plain area in Nepal, which lies at the foot of the Himalayas. People can observe many green forests, grasslands, and different landscapes in the plain terai.
Eden forest restoration project is one of the forest conservation projects of the terai region, which mainly includes three districts, i.e., Chitwan, Nawalparasi, and Jhapa.
The Edan project began in Nepal in 2015 to enhance the people’s livelihood and restore the destructed land structures.
Tree sisters have supported Edan since 2017. The project focuses not only on the environment but also on providing a good employment opportunity to the local people. They are encouraged and engaged in doing different kinds of forest restoration programs like plantations.
The approach includes a goal to plant 100,000 trees annually, which will give a fruitful result in balancing the ecosystem. People can plant the trees in barren land at a distance of 2 meters for each tree based on the approach.
Eden is a project launched to plant trees and save lives. It mainly focuses on poverty elimination by conducting programs and giving life to the environment, species, humans, and animals.
About 81% of the population in Nepal lives in rural areas, and most of them belong to not well-off families where they depend on hunting and poaching to run their livelihood.
If the populations are provided with a job opportunity to rescue the forest area, they can save the ecosystem and preserve the natural beauty.
3. Karnataka Forest Restoration Projects – India
For the last ten years, Bandipur of Karnataka has started forest restoration projects to provide a healthy habitat to wildlife.
People are working to conserve the fauna and flora of forests and have supported the restoration of 1,000 hectares of forests.
The project has helped the villagers and local community uplift their livelihood by providing employment opportunities.
Many natural calamities and anthropogenic activities degraded the landscape and forests area. The Karnataka projects approach helps restore such degraded regions and give new life to the surroundings.
The project is also focused on indigenous people living near the forest area. People have involved traditional beliefs in the approach so that indigenous people would be motivated to protect and restore the forest area.
4. Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact – Brazil
Forest and landscape restoration are the essential factors required for recovering degraded and destroyed areas and the habitat of wildlife and human beings.
Brazil has committed to restoring 15 million hectares of Atlantic forest by 2050. Research on the Atlantic forest of the country shows that the nation restored 740,000 hectares of the native forest between the years 2011 and 2015.
The project’s motive was to motivate public and private institutions to restore and preserve biodiversity.
Though Brazil lost 80% of the forest over 20 years, the Atlantic forest restoration has made rapid progress by restoring the degraded and destroyed landscapes.
The projects aim to reach the target soon by active public participation. The Atlantic’s forest restoration approach would help promote economic development, conserve biodiversity, reconnect native forest, and build livelihood resilience.
5. Borneo Orangutan Forest Restoration Project – Indonesia
Asia’s largest tropical rainforest lies in Indonesia, which fires and other calamities have degraded for the last 40 years. In 2015, a significant loss occurred due to forest fires where 266 hectares out of 1,800 hectares were burned.
The Orangutan forest restoration project was launched with the motive of long-term forest management and protecting the natural habitat of wildlife.
The Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation is a partner of the project, which supports protecting Bornean Orangutans and forests area.
There were tree planting activities started in 2007 in the forest. The tree plantation program covered an area of 40,000 meters square in the past, and there is a hope to increase the scope to 100,000 meters square by 2021.
The final management and care work is expected to be completed by 2026. This project is valuable as it helps you reduce global warming, protect natural species and animals, enhance the forest’s carrying capacity, and balance the ecosystem.
6. Choco – Darien Forest Restoration Project – Colombia
The Afro-Colombian communities have faced massive biodiversity loss due to natural calamities like floods.
The Chocó-Darien forest restoration project in northwestern Columbia consists of tropical rainforests responsible for carbon balance, ecosystem balance, and society.
The project protects protected 13,465 hectares of tropical rainforest. The restoration approach includes ecological balance, food security, and forest restoration and protection training.
Various tree plantation projects are helping to reduce deforestation, which includes 14 projects activities responsible for reducing 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
The project has helped protect 15 endangered plant species and 142 endangered animal species which means you can see the successful work and clean environment shortly.
Through the project, Afro-Colombian communities can get 40 full and part-time employment opportunities.
7. Pakistan’s Tree Tsunami Project
The tree Tsunami project is the reforestation project of the Pakistan province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was started in 2014.
The initiative was so well that the region planted 1 billion trees after a year. It was appreciable that it reached 350,000 hectares of tree plantation in 2018.
The restoration project is an ambitious project supported by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
The impact of climate change in Pakistan is vulnerable. People face many environmental problems like floods and droughts.
The tree Tsunami project is a boon to the people of Pakistan if it reaches its target of 10 billion tree plantations by the year 2030.
This project can help the people by providing jobs, reducing carbon emissions, and balancing the ecosystem.
8. Dry forest project – Peru
Peru has lost much of its forest due to deforestation, urbanization, and climate change in the last few years.
The Dry Forest landscape project began in 2018 in the La Libertad department, northern Peru, a four-year project. The motive of the dry forest project is to restore the dry forest and protect the environment.
The sustainable development of Peru is possible with the conservation and restoration of tropical dry forests.
You can find employment opportunities and stop deforestation if the dry forest project is implemented well and the target is reached on time.
9. Multifunction forest restoration – Cambodia
A Multifunction forest restoration project was initiated to protect the degraded forest and preserve the natural beauty in Cambodia.
This project aims to restore 50 hectares of natural forest under the management of local communities through the Community Forestry System.
The activities involved in projects are nursery establishment, seedling production, nursery experiment, phenology studies, etc.
The multifunction forest restoration projects also help improve local communities’ livelihoods through access to timber and non-timber forest products.
Further, the nurseries have become a source of income for community people. Similarly, the project contributes significantly to reducing carbon emissions, providing fresh air, and overall ecological balance.
10. Congo Basin Rainforest Project – Democratic Republic of Congo
The support for the project of Congo basin rainforest gives you the reduction of carbon emission by contributing healthier environment.
The Congo basin forest is located in Central Africa, covering an area of 180 million hectares. The project area is home to many wildlife species.
This project helps in community development, economic support, and forest protection and restoration. This project protects 740,000 acres of tropical forest, reducing carbon emission by 100 million tons over 30 years.
The Congo basin project is an environmentally friendly project which protects endangered forest animals and supports the forest communities’ ethical, spiritual and traditional values.
Conclusion
The successful restoration of forest project provides a wide range of uses not only to restore the forest quantity and quality, but it also helps provide food security, employment opportunity, and uplifting the lifestyle of local community people.
The restoration project also helps reduce carbon emission, global warming and protect biodiversity—most of the approaches in the project focus on bringing back the natural processes that enhance forest productivity.
(Last Updated on November 17, 2021 by Sadrish Dabadi)
