Research Area: Forest Restoration

 The natural balance of forests and productive land use needs to be restored, in such a way that the demands from productive farming and forest conservation no longer conflict.. 

Background:   We must devise ways that allow the forest to contribute to their sustainable livelihoods. We need to determine how agriculture can be linked with forest management by combining the use of natural forest trees with agricultural production. Use of native species as shade in coffee, inter planting rapid growth exotics with native trees, use of trees in pasture, planting coffee or fruit trees in forest fragments are some of the alternatives we aim to investigate.

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
• 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);
• 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

Papers:

Forest Corridors: