The Wildlife Corridors Programme

The first step to recovering forests is preventing external degradation (i.e. invasive grasses, fire and cattle that could eat the young seedlings) from hindering tree development. Fencing has been regarded as essential when restoring forests surrounded by pastures and effectively keeps cattle away from seedlings.

Paradox

However, cattle can also be useful during the restoration process as they eat and therefore suppress invasive grasses. Like with many things, the dose makes the poison, or – in this case – the remedy. Practitioners have been increasingly testing controlled cattle release on restoration areas. The fact that cattle actually prefer the grasses to native seedlings, helps their case.

Perfect mix

In the near future, we might find the perfect mix of using and excluding cattle for forest restoration.

Towering above restoration

The relationship between forests, water and climate is complicated. To understand how forest restoration impacts water and climate processes, WeForest is participating in a new flux tower experiment, led by ESALQ from the University of Sao Paulo, and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD). The tower is being built in the middle of a 30-hectare experimental restoration forest in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, located in the Sao Paulo state.                                                 

Flux towers measure the exchange of water, energy, and carbon (CO2) between forests and the atmosphere, allowing scientists to make predictions of how forests will respond to a changing climate and how a land-use change like deforestation will impact global climate change.                                                                                         

Linking tree diversity to ecosystem functioning

The experiment will analyze the relationship between tree diversity and ecosystem functioning. The effects of tree species composition, drought and soil fertility on water and carbon cycles will be studied over the course of several years. Measuring water and carbon fluxes over the entire ‘life history’ of a growing forest - from the bare ground before planting to a mature forest - will help to understand the role of tree species diversity on ecosystem water and carbon cycles. This aids us to discover which species of trees and which combinations of species could maximize the benefits for water and carbon sequestration and how each species will respond to increasingly frequent drought events due to climate change.                                

Understanding the ecological effects of our restoration work              

The resulting data will help us understand carbon and water cycles in WeForest’s restoration sites and other restored areas of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. It will allow improvement of our restoration and management techniques which will maximize the benefits for water and climate.

Links:

• August 2019 progress report Brazil