The Forest Landscape Restoration Handbook

This book is the first comprehensive, practical treatment of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR). FLR provides a complementary framework to sustainable forest management and the ecosystem approach in landscapes in cases where forest loss has caused a decline in the quality of ecosystem services.

'This book has been written by a team of experts from a wide variety of institutions... The result is by far the most comprehensive and easy to understand treatment of FLR yet written.' ACHIM STEINER (DIRECTOR GENERAL, IUCN) AND MANOEL SOBRAL FILHO (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ITTO), FROM THE PREFACE Forest loss and degradation have caused a decline in the quality of ecosystem services around the world. But fixing the problem takes more than just planting trees; practitioners increasingly realize that a landscape approach is essential. This handbook, authored and edited by international authorities in the field of forestry, is the first practical guide to using forest landscape restoration (FLR) to repair the damage done to forest lands by poor land management practice. Using research backed by respected institutions such as ITTO and the World Conservation Union (IUCN), it explains how to increase the resilience of landscapes and the communities they support through FLR. The main aim of FLR is not to re-establish pristine forest, even if this were possible; rather, the objective is to make landscapes more resilient and thereby keep future management options open. It also aims to support communities as they strive to increase and sustain the benefits they derive from land management. This book explains the concept of FLR and guides the reader through the steps that must be taken to put it into practice. It is an indispensable aid for practitioners in all aspects of forestry and natural resource management. Published with ITTO and IUCN

Introduction * What is FLR and How Does it Differ from Current Approaches? * Building Support for FLR * Applying an Adaptive Management Approach in FLR * Understanding the Landscape Mosaic * Understanding Forest Landscape Dynamics * Applying a Stakeholder Approach in FLR * Identifying Site-level Options * Site-level Restoration Strategies for Degraded Primary Forest * Site-level Strategies for Managing Secondary Forests * Site-level Rehabilitation Strategies for Degraded Forest Lands * Site-level Strategies for Restoring Forest Functions on Agricultural Land * Scenario Modelling to Optimize Outcomes * Monitoring and Evaluating Site-level Impacts * Getting Started * Bibliography, Glossary, Index

Jennifer Rietbergen-McCracken is a freelance researcher and writer/editor based in Geneva, Switzerland, who specializes in conservation and sustainable development. She is co-editor of Economic Instruments for Environmental Management (2000) and Environmental Valuation (2000). Stewart Maginnis has worked in sustainable forest management and community forestry for many years in Africa, Latin America and Europe and now heads the Forest Conservation Programme of the IUCN in Switzerland. He is co-editor of Forests in Landscapes (2005). Alastair Sarre is a freelance writer and editor on forestry and the environment based in Adelaide, Australia. For ten years he was editor of the ITTO , a newsletter dedicated to the conservation and sustainable management of tropical forests.