Restoration: Projects in Asia-Pacific

Building on years of experience

Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region already have years of experience in forest restoration initiatives that have been led by local people.

In India and Nepal particularly, the promotion of joint forest management (community/government) has empowered local people to better manage their forest resources, including restoration activities where needed.

Time to scale-up
In many cases however, these activities need to be scaled up to form part of a broader solution. In addition to improving livelihoods, this can also provide important links between remaining patches of forest, which is essential for survival of key species such as tiger and rhino.

Ambitious reforestation plans afoot
In a number of countries, government reforestation policies have been introduced in an attempt to reverse the ongoing forest loss in the region, estimated at 1.3 million ha annually (FAO, 2005). For instance, China aims to double its forest cover to 26% of its territory by 2050; Vietnam is promoting a "5 Million Hectare Reforestation Programme" by 2010, to reach a forest cover of 43% of its territory; and Indonesia has launched a Forests and Lands Restoration Initiative which aims to restore 300,000ha of forest per year.

Ensuring policies translate into clear benefits
While these are encouraging signs, past experience has shown that all too often such schemes often fail completely, or result in little or no benefit to biodiversity or human livelihoods in the area concerned.

Therefore the challenge for WWF is to work with thrse governments and other stakeholders to influence the implementation of these policies in order to ensure these key benefits do result from the restoration of the functions that the forests provide, as well as an increase in tree cover.