The chapter synthesizes the findings of the 11 chapters of this book and situates them in current debates on forest restoration and related literature. It explores forest restoration histories and trends; summarizes projections of what can be expected of future forest restoration; discusses the goals, costs, and actual and potential social, economic, and environmental benefits of forest restoration; and estimates how likely it is that benefits will be achieved in practice. The chapter deliberates on international, national, and local restoration governance, including how international restoration governance takes shape, how it relates to other international processes, and how it links to national and subnational forest restoration governance. The chapter, furthermore, discusses fairness and justice of local level governance. It ends by summarizing the major challenges of forest restoration and suggests how they might be overcome, reflecting on the best ways to translate the global restoration project into feasible pathways of doing restoration in a just and sustainable manner.
Tag: history
Forest flickers of history. Early modern woodland restoration and how it shapes postmodern options
Forest or land restoration in general features large on current environmental agendas. Multiple examples exist of past efforts to restore tree cover. Forest restoration proliferated in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe, but it has been pursued in multiple locations around the world and during different historical periods. This chapter reviews past forest restoration efforts and their outcomes in Japan, Germany and Poland, the United States, and in colonial territories until the mid-20th century. A forest restoration legacy can be recognized by the imprints on contemporary forest landscapes. Some early forest restoration controversies have their counterparts in 21st-century forest restoration debates.