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Forest Restoration Program
This program area arose out of our ongoing efforts at reforestation with native species from our forest nursery and includes Forest Corridors and Forest Futures (our Adopt a Plot project.) Since our program areas overlap, forest restoration will in the very near future become an important component of our project on Payment for Environmental Services, with its emphasis on reforesting river banks and around springs. As in all our program areas, this includes a strong element of raising environmental awareness, and capacity building.
The great majority of tropical forests
rely on animals (birds, insects, bats etc) to pollinate
their flowers. Conversely many fauna species depend on the
existence of specific plant species for their nutrition.
Many cash crops follow this pattern, too.
Tiny midges and thrips pollinate
rubber and cocoa; bees and others of the Hymenoptera order
pollinate passion fruit and cucurbits, flies pollinate
cashew, mango, nocturnal moths and bats pollinate calabash,
kapok and balsa trees, and hummingbirds pollinate wild pineapples. |
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Objective:
- To devise alternative land management schemes which make conservation
of the rain forest more economically attractive than its destruction.
The focus will be on:
- Providing more protein in pastures while maintaining soil
fertility by investigating the potential of planting certain
tree species in pasture to provide more protein;
- Improving coffee production by maintaining soil fertility
on the slopes;
- Analyzing the capacity of existing eucalyptus plantations
to act as cover for the introduction of native species;
- Evaluating the effects of native leguminous tree species
on soil fertility and fodder productivity potential.
- Determine the potential for reconstituting forests by the
use of forest corridors. Define a methodology for this, based
on farmers needs as well as the technical requirements of such
corridors, (what species of trees should be used, how and where
they should be planted, how they can contribute to the farm economy,
etc);
Activities
- Development of agroforestry systems: use of native species as shade in coffee, interplanting rapid growth exotics with native trees, use of trees in pasture, planting coffee or fruit trees in forest fragments;
improving soil fertility of hillside coffee plantations by incorporating trees in the plantations
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Determine the potential for reconstituting forests by the use of forest corridors. Define a methodology for this, based on farmers' needs as well as the technical requirements of such corridors, (what species of trees should be used, how and where they should be planted etc);
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Analyzing the capacity of eucalyptus plantations to act as cover for the introduction of native species;
Outcome:
- Appropriate technology for the incorporating of trees into
agricultural and pastoral activities;
- Low cost technology for constituting forest corridors
Research Opportunities:
Projects:
- Forest Corridors
- Forest Monitoring
Tools:
Click here to see our research papers on this topic.
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