The ‘Missing Middle’: Landscape Restoration’s Greatest Challenge

The world urgently needs to restore huge swaths of land to meet the demand for ecosystem services and is targeting 350 M Ha by 2030 under the New York Declaration on Forests and the Bonn Challenge. Tremendous resources - financial, human and other - are needed at international, national, sub-national and local levels. International mobilization has been great so far. National awareness and commitments are also robust. Many excellent local success stories have also been reported. However, for scaling up and implementing restoration, a critical mass of involvement of sub-national governments, local NGOs, CBOs, academia, and enterprise is needed. So far, evidence of engagement of this key cohort is thin, and this missing meso level engagement may well be restoration’s number one challenge. This is what this policy brief seeks to address

A joint stocktaking of CGIAR work on forest and landscape restoration

Despite the high level of political engagement and the wide range of organizations involved in restoration projects from local to global levels, beyond some success stories, restoration is not happening at scale. To address this issue, three CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) – Forests, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA); Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) and Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) – decided to bring together their expertise in a joint stocktaking of CGIAR work on restoration. This publication illustrates with concrete examples the powerful contribution of forest and landscape restoration to the achievement of most, if not all the 17 sustainable development goals. It can be used to support the design of future restoration activities, programs and projects. We hope that this document will help upscale restoration efforts and deliver enhanced impact from our CGIAR research

Transforming climate science into usable services: The effectiveness of co-production in promoting uptake of climate information by smallholder farmers in Senegal

Does the provision of weather and climate information services (WCIS) enhance farmer’s use of forecasts in informing farm decisions? This paper assesses the effectiveness of the Multi-disciplinary Working Group (MWG) – a WCIS co-production initiative in Senegal in influencing farmers uptake of weather and climate information (WCI). WCIS are increasingly gaining importance and widely touted as critical in helping farmers adapt to climate variability. While there have been various WCIS initiatives producing and translating climate data into tailored information and knowledge in different parts of the world, there is hardly any rigorous evidence assessing their effectiveness in improving uptake. In this assessment, we use innovative survey methods and apply rigorous analytical approaches that control for self-selection bias to establish causal linkages between the MWG and use of WCIS. Our findings indicate that MWGs are positively associated with farmers’ awareness, access and uptake of WCI resulting in farm management responses depending on the type of information used. The presence of MWGs generally increases farmer’s awareness of WCI by 18%, access by 12% and uptake by 10%. Furthermore, use of seasonal forecasts is generally associated with a higher proportion of farmers using improved seed, fertilizers and manure, but negatively with crop diversification within MWG locations. This suggests that participatory approaches in the provision of tailored climate information and advisory services can lead to higher uptake and use among farmers in informing farm management responses for better adaptation to climate change. We highlight lessons for improved evaluations of WCIS in future

Predicting aboveground forest biomass with topographic variables in human-impacted tropical dry forest landscapes

Topographic variables such as slope and elevation partially explain spatial variations in aboveground biomass (AGB) within landscapes. Human activities that impact vegetation, such as cattle grazing and shifting cultivation, often follow topographic features and also play a key role in determining AGB patterns, although these effects may be moderated by accessibility. In this study, we evaluated the potential to predict AGB in a rural landscape, using a set of topographical variables in combination with indicators of accessibility. We modeled linear and non-linear relationships between AGB, topographic variables within the territorial boundaries of six rural communities, and distance to roads. Linear models showed that elevation, slope, topographic wetness index, and tangential curvature could explain up to 21% of AGB. Non-linear models found threshold values for the relationship between AGB and diffuse insolation, topographic position index at 19 × 19 pixels scale and differentiated between groups of communities, improving AGB predictions to 33%. We also found a continuous and positive effect on AGB with increased distance from roads, but also a piecewise relationship that improves the understanding of intensity of human activities. These findings could enable AGB baselines to be constructed at landscape level using freely available data from topographic maps. Such baselines may be of use in national programs under the international policy Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation

From Tree Planting to Tree Growing: Rethinking Ecosystem Restoration Through Tree

Every year, millions of dollars are spent on tree-based landscape restoration activities. Over the last five decades, there are few success stories of such interventions and even those do not match the anticipated objectives for which the resources were spent. News articles that announce planting campaigns of millions of seedlings are common. Despite all this, in many countries, vegetation cover has not improved due to poor seedling survival rate. This makes the return on investment low. The objective of this paper is to highlight the main underlying challenges that need to be tackled to make restoration through tree-based interventions successful. Numerous challenges hamper the success of project-supported public tree growing schemes. 1) Often tree planting is stated as the ultimate objective of the intervention; when that objective should instead be tree growing. Performance indicators are often the number of trees planted or area planted, not the number of trees grown, or the area of land covered with grown trees. 2) Most projects operate on a short time frame (1-3 years) while many tree species (e.g. native trees in many African countries) need more time to sufficiently grow. 3) Emphasis on the right trees, for the right place and the right purposes, is very weak. 4) Even in projects of adequate duration emphasis on after-planting management is often limited. 5) There is lack of tree tenure to formally transfer the management of planted trees to local communities who reside in the landscapes over a long period of time. Tackling these challenges and changing mindsets is crucial if restoration through tree-based interventions is to yield the intended outcomes of reversing ecosystem degradation

Haptoglobin and Sickle Cell Polymorphisms and Risk of Active Trachoma in Gambian Children

BACKGROUND: Susceptibility and resistance to trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness, have been associated with a range of host genetic factors. In vitro studies of the causative organism, Chlamydia trachomatis, demonstrate that iron availability regulates its growth, suggesting that host genes involved in regulating iron status and/or availability may modulate the risk of trachoma. The objective was to investigate whether haptoglobin (Hp) haplotypes constructed from the functional polymorphism (Hp1/Hp2) plus the functional promoter SNPs -61A-C (rs5471) and -101C-G (rs5470), or sickle cell trait (HbAS, rs334) were associated with risk of active trachoma when stratified by age and sex, in rural Gambian children. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In two cross sectional surveys of children aged 6-78 months (n = 836), the prevalence of the clinical signs of active trachoma was 21.4%. Within boys, haplotype E (-101G, -61A, Hp1), containing the variant allele of the -101C-G promoter SNP, was associated with a two-fold increased risk of active trachoma (OR = 2.0 [1.17-3.44]). Within girls, an opposite association was non-significant (OR = 0.58 [0.32-1.04]; P = 0.07) and the interaction by sex was statistically significant (P = 0.001). There was no association between trachoma and HbAS. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that genetic variation in Hp may affect susceptibility to active trachoma differentially by sex in The Gambia

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

An Exploratory Study of Cost-Benefit Analysis of Landscape Restoration

Owing to the increasing demand for restoration globally and limited resources available, there is a need for economic analysis of landscape restoration to help prioritize investment of the scarce resources. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is a commonly applied approach in the economic analysis of landscape restoration as well as for strategizing and prioritizing resource allocation. However, despite the growing number of studies and projects on restoration globally, studies on cost-benefit analysis of landscape restoration are relatively few. A systematic review of the cost-benefit analysis of landscape restoration was conducted to understand the extent and coverage of existing studies, as well as gaps. After a comprehensive search and filtering of the studies, 31 that met the various guidelines of CBA of landscape restoration were identified. These are distributed across different regions globally, with the majority of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The CBA studies reviewed were conducted for different types of restoration options/strategies including; reforestation and afforestation, agroforestry, biofuel agroforestry, participatory forest management, establishment of woodlots, sustainable land management practices, natural regeneration, assisted natural regeneration, mangrove restoration, clearing of invasive alien species, and restoration of urban and buffer areas. A larger proportion of the studies focused on agroforestry, reforestation and afforestation. For some restoration options, all the studies conducted reported positive net present value (NPV); agroforestry (8), soil and water conservation (5), mangrove restoration (3) and alien vegetation clearing (3). However, for some of the restoration strategies, several studies reported negative NPV: in reforestation and afforestation, the number of studies that reported positive NPV (4) was equal to those that reported negative NPV (4). In terms of accounting for benefits accruing from restoration, majority of the studies accounted for the use values only (either direct use or indirect use or both), and only around 16% accounted for non-use values. This is because non-use values and some of the indirect use values are not easy to quantify since they do not have a market price. Accounting for the total economic value of a project is particularly useful for large-scale restoration initiatives where the benefits accrue to the broader public beyond the targeted stakeholders. Similarly, for cost components, relatively few studies accounted for the opportunity cost component. This is probably because it is often difficult to estimate this cost since it is not a direct cost and for some land uses the opportunity cost may be negligible, especially if the land is highly degraded. Further still, some restoration projects fail to account for maintenance and monitoring costs since they view restoration as a one-time cost activity, as opposed to a continuous activity where maintenance and monitoring costs are significant. Future costbenefit analysis studies ought to account for all the benefits and cost components attributable to restoration; otherwise, profitability of restoration projects could either be over- or understated. Similarly, lack of reliable data owing to poor data-keeping during the restoration period also affects CBA results. This requires data over several years, and most projects do not keep such records. Hence, even for ex-post CBA evaluations, a lot of predictions and assumptions are involved in data generation. Thus, there is need to adopt standardized methods of data prediction if the results are to be comparable across different restoration projects that would guide decisions in the allocation of funds. An ongoing project, ‘The Economics of Ecosystem Restoration (TEER)’ aims to “offer a reference point for the estimation of costs and benefits of future ER projects in all major biomes, based on information from comparable initiatives on which data are collected through a standardized framework”

Assessing sustainability of swidden systems in the tropical forest margins.

Edição dos abstracts do 24º IUFRO World Congress, 2014, Salt Lake City. Sustaining forests, sustaining people: the role of research