Global Forest Restoration: A Review
A review of the concept of forest restoration, as well as individual reviews of the various ecological, technical, and socio-political factors relevant to the WWF Global 200 major habitat types. (August 1999)
Executive Summary
August 1999
The World Wildlife Fund has identified over 200 ecoregions (the Global 200 ) recognized for their high conservation priority, and calls for concentrated conservation planning in these regions. Not surprisingly, forested ecoregions constitute the majority of the Global 200.
Humans associate a wide array of values with forests. Historically, human interaction with forests has been predominantly destructive. Among the most important of these include:
- (1) conversion due to urbanization, agriculture, ranching, and mining,
- (2) commercial exploitation of timber and wood pulp,
- (3) local exploitation for firewood,
- (4) human-altered disturbance regimes (e.g. fire),
- (5) introduction of exotic species, and
- (6) construction of infrastructure facilities - particularly roads.
Consequently, long-term forest conservation depends, at least in part, on large-scale forest restoration. The purpose of this report is threefold:
- (1) Discuss the concept of forest restoration from a conservation biology perspective.
- (2) Outline the ecological characteristics, technical constraints, socio-political and economic influences, and overall restoration principles relevant to the Global 200 major habitat types and associated realms.
- (3) Place forest restoration within the larger context of worldwide forest conservation.
For more information, please contact Jim Strittholt (email: stritt@consbio.org).
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Download the introduction of the report in PDF format . (1,968 KB, 10 pages)
Download the Global 200 reports in PDF format . (7,628 KB, 50 pages)
Download the literature cited in PDF format . (1,197 KB, 8 pages)
Download the color platesfor the report
