A Tool for Comparing Alternative Forest Landscape Restoration Scenarios

Abstract

The benefits derived from forest landscape restoration depend on its scale and spatial distribution. Although it is comparatively easy to address many of these spatial issues when a single manager or landowner has control of large land areas; the task is more difficult in larger landscapes with many landowners and external stakeholders. A laissez-faire approach is one solution, where policies encourage any kind of restoration and the outcome is left to chance. A more effective approach is where priority is given to restoration at more strategically located sites. We describe here a simple tool that allows stakeholders to compare the advantages and disadvantages of alternative landscape restoration scenarios and identify restoration priorities. The tool is conceptually simple. The purpose of using it is to help stakeholders see the consequences of various restoration options. We envisage the tool being used as part of a participatory planning workshop to assess restoration options across a landscape that applies conservation principles. The existing landscape is represented on a GIS-based map that shows existing land uses and vegetative cover including areas of secondary forest, undisturbed forest and land used for productive and less-productive forms of agriculture. Areas to be restored are “painted” onto this map. Because restoration has economic consequences as well as ecological changes, not all outcomes will be of equal interest to each stakeholder and we use indices to evaluate these changes. To illustrate the use of the scenario analysis tool and area prioritisation methods we describe its application in a case study in Northern Thailand in the Upper Mae Sa Valley of Doi Suthep-Pui National Park near the city of Chiang Mai.