Restoration: Projects in Europe and the Middle East

Bringing back the right kind of forests

The European region shows an annual net increase in forest cover of more than 0.6 million hectares. However this hides the fact that a significant area of mixed natural forest have been cleared and replaced with monoculture plantations, meaning a considerable loss of forest quality, and negative impacts on biodiversity and livelihoods.

Go for quality
Therefore the WWF European/Middle East Programme (which also covers North Africa) is working to improve and restore forest quality of critical forest ecosystems.

In some areas this means restoring species of commercial value to previously logged over forests, working with plantation companies to enhance the biodiversity values in plantations and adjacent areas, or restoring the linkages between fragmented patches of semi-natural woodland.

Rehabilitating forest areas and the lifestyles that rely on them
In other cases the priority may be to re-create "wilderness" areas, or restore forests that have a more natural mix of species after a major fire event, such as in the Mediterranean regions. Another key priority is the restoration of cork oak woodland landscapes in the Mediterranean and North Africa and the livelihoods of the people that have traditionally lived there.

Keeping a close eye on the impact of EU policies
Policy work is another key focus of attention, including the potential impacts of recent EU policy changes which may be potentially both positive and negative. On the one hand these may provide huge opportunities for forest restoration with large areas of land coming out of agriculture, but at the same time other policies may provide obstacles to sustainable restoration practices, or support conversion to other land uses that may also threaten existing forest areas.

Through its forest restoration work in the Mediterranean (Morocco and Portugal), and the Lower Bulgarian Danube Islands, WWF is working to address some of the political challenges as well as develop on the ground restoration initiatives.