RESUMEN
Effectively implementing landscape-scale forest restoration on the ground is particularly challenging. Available decision-support tools particularly lack the ability to comprehensively incorporate biophysical, social and institutional dimensions in a spatially explicit manner from the pixel to the whole landscape. In order to contribute to fulfilling this gap, this paper has two major objectives. The first is to present a spatially explicit decision-support tool for mapping Forest Restoration Vocation (FRV) that includes socio-economic and institutional aspects in forest landscape restoration. The second is to discuss the ways in which the FRV has been applied in the Brazilian decision-making context. The FRV was used to prioritize areas for three different restoration modalities: assisted natural regeneration (passive restoration), forest plantation with native trees to conserve biodiversity and forest plantation for agroforestry systems (active restoration). The FRV is already being adopted as a planning tool to invest R$ 1.2 billion (approx. US$ 300 million) to restore 40,000 ha in the Rio Doce, Brazil-an area corresponding to 0.05% of the area of watershed. Due to the high level of degradation of the basin, there is a need to restore 1.6 Mha via forest plantations in riparian Areas of Permanent Preservation (APPs) while 30% of APPs can be effectively restored using natural regeneration. The FRV can be effective for gauging progress and monitoring forest restoration implementation metrics across the landscape and through time. There are however still problems in effectively assessing if the investment in forest restoration will generate impact in the long term and deliver the ecosystem services society depends on.
RESUMEN
Land abandonment is an important process for the European Union, which primarily occurs in less productive, remote and mountainous areas with unfavourable conditions for agriculture. Future management directions of these abandonment areas are under debate, with increasing calls to adjust policies to the local characteristics, including the promotion of rewilding and the management of succession of larger areas of less-productive land. While there is an increase in studies focusing on the environmental impacts of land abandonment, there are few studies that focus on the perceptions of abandonment by different user groups, even though an understanding of local perceptions, opportunities and trade-offs associated with changing land management is crucial for landscape-related policies and planning measures. In a case study in Northern Portugal, we used a combination of statements, photograph rating exercises and open questions to assess the perceptions of local inhabitants, visitors and experts regarding land abandonment and their preferences of different possible trajectories after abandonment. The results show that all user groups have a negative response towards abandonment and associate it mainly with negative emotions and the loss of heritage and traditions. The assessment of the different abandonment stages and outcomes clearly yielded different preferences and explanations, which can be used as input for finding a common ground for landscape management, reducing conflict and as a starting point for a more spatially targeted and nuanced management approach.