Drivers of success in collaborative monitoring in forest landscape restoration: An indicative assessment from Latin America

Despite growing global attention on forest landscape restoration (FLR) as an integrated approach to enhancing environmental and human well-being, the potential for leveraging monitoring to catalyze learning and improve management outcomes is not being fully realized. We assessed the extent to which collaborative monitoring, a process that embraces cross-scale multi-level actors and interactions in the collection and use of information, is considered across FLR projects in Latin America by applying a diagnostic of 54 “success factors” scored from 1 (factor not in place) to 5 (factor fully in place). Responses were collected from 36 projects across 12 countries. Although respondents generally understood monitoring as crucial to FLR success, local participation scored as insufficient. Several of the lowest-ranked success factors related to training for local people in the use of tools, forms and technology for data collection, and to interpreting data to promote understanding of management outcomes. The most notable finding related to the paucity of networks or entities to leverage information into knowledge-sharing and learning opportunities from the top-down and the bottom-up. Our results provide a preliminary indication of how to promote collaborative monitoring approaches in the context of FLR projects in Latin America. First, it requires enhanced integration among academics, local communities and governmental and non-governmental organizations. Second, it requires a minimum level of harmonization with current policy and normative forest conservation and restoration instruments. Finally, it needs bridging organizations or individuals to share results and learning as well as dedicated resources for information infrastructures to facilitate knowledge sharing

Seeding resilient restoration: an indicator system for the analysis of tree seed systems

Achieving multi-million-hectare commitments from countries around the world to restore degraded lands in resilient and sustainable ways requires, among other things, huge volumes of tree planting material. Seed systems encompassing all forest reproductive material (e.g., seeds, cuttings, stakes, and wildings), are key to ensuring that sufficient planting material with a diverse range of suitable species, adapted to local conditions and capable of persisting under a changing climate, is available for restoration projects. The ideal structure of a seed system integrates five components: seed selection and innovation, seed harvesting and production, market access, supply and demand, quality control, and an enabling environment. We propose 15 indicators to evaluate these key components and trial them by assessing national seed systems in 7 Latin American countries. We conclude that the indicators enable a straightforward assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of national seed systems, thus assisting governments to identify key areas for improvement and opportunities for horizontal learnin