The Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration, World Resources Institute, South Dakota State University, and International Union for Conservation of Nature, just released a new map of global reforestation opportunities, arguing that 1.5 billion hectares of totally destroyed or degraded forests worldwide could be restored. Instead of the usual depressing map showing the rapid rate of global deforestation, this new visual could help local governments and community groups see how renewing their forest landscapes could create both local and global value.

While the network's new map doesn't plot exact sites for restoration, it does indicate the wider "landscapes where restoration opportunities are more likely to be found." In addition, the map isn't prescriptive about the types of mixed-use forest and community opportunities of the reforestation tactics that could be used. Still, the team finds that the 1.5 billion hectares of deforested and degraded forest lands are "either wide-scale or mosaic type (an area almost equivalent to Russia). About two thirds of the potential is on deforested lands; the rest is in degraded forests and woodlands." There are also additional opportunities in the world's croplands.

The group is right that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reforestation on a massive scale. Local governments, community and environmental groups, and landowners must reach agreement on how reforestation will proceed if large-scale, expensive, and time-consuming projects are to succeed. Decisions must be also made about the mix of uses if agriculture or grazing is going to coexist with reforested areas. Furthermore, the team sees opportunities in "mixed-use mosaics," found in projects like Sheep Head's Farm in New Zealand. 

The primary value reforestation provides is to slow the rate of climate change. In fact, even Freeman Dyson, a noted climate change skeptic, has argued that increased global temperatures could be reduced by planting one trillion trees (see earlier post). Many of these could be replanted as rural, suburban, or even urban forests. While a trillion new trees may be hard to reach, the UN Environment Program has succeeded in registering more than seven billion new trees for its global tree-planting campaign and is calling for 13 billion new trees to be planted by the end of 2011. However, it's not clear if UNEP is also including trees planted from Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects. 

Renewed forests also mean healthier and more resilient landscapes and communities (see more on the benefits of green infrastructure). As many project have already demonstrated, restoring forest landscapes has a ton of other benefits, including increased biodiversity, greater resiliency to environmental change, and improved local economic and social sustainability.

In some developing countries, massive deforestation for grazing or agriculture has been a relatively recent phenomenon, meaning if sites cleared for agriculture were let go, they could return to forests again relatively easily. The idea is to prevent the permanent degradation of forests, which has already occured in industrial and urban North America and Europe and many parts of the developing world.

Read the article, see a larger map, and check out more forest restoration resources. Also, see Mongabay's comprehensive coverage of REDD+, a global program that provides financing for reforestation projects.

Image credit: Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration, World Resources Institute, South Dakota State University, International Union for Conservation of Nature. December, 2010