Presentations on ecological restoration (2025) at Restory Workshop and ERA-India's Restoring Natural Ecologies Conference

Rainforest Restoration Lessons from two biodiversity hotspots Divya Mudappa & T. R. Shankar Raman Jhum fire, Teirei Dampa Tiger Reserve, Mizoram 20 March 1995 On the wider implications NCF’s restoration journey Tropical forest restoration context Cultural values 4 Carbon sink and storage 3 Climate and hydrology 2 Biodiversity wealth 1 Restoring tropical forests: global context 94% of global deforestation and half (254 Mha) of global tree cover loss this century was in the tropics Tropical forests by area (FAO 2020): 24% intact | 46% fragmented | 30% degraded Tropical forests: a litany of threats 2 Logging Industrial and infrastructure expansion Agriculture and plantations Fragmentation Edge effects and degradation 1 3 4 5 7 Invasive alien species Extreme weather events Wildfires 6 8 The Anthropocene... By the end of the century, the world’s remaining tropical forests will be left in a fragmented, simplified, and degraded state. …Most of the rest will be “the living dead” – tiny remnant populations of plants and animals hanging on with no future. ~ Simon Lewis And the Eremocene... Such is likely to be the world of 2100—if present trends continue. The most memorable heritage of the twenty-first century will be the Age of Loneliness that lies before humanity. ~ E. O. Wilson, The Future of Life Recovery Distance to Protected Area Planting not needed Planting needed Assessing recovery Of form (e.g., trees / grasses) Of diversity (e.g., multispecies communities) Of function (e.g., seed dispersal / carbon) Of relationships (e.g., stewardship / interactions) Rainforest restoration in two biodiversity hotspots Photo: Kalyan Varma - reviving tropical forests to conserve biological diversity Western Ghats Himalaya Indo-Burma Sundaland The Anamalai landscape Rainforest fragment Eucalyptus Tea monoculture Coffee Settlements, roads Degraded site ` ...and get the right species into the right place Finding the right benchmark at the landscape scale Restoration Protocols Assisted Natural RegenerationFramework species Maximum diversity Native Plant Nursery ● Vital infrastructure for ecological restoration: ●Rainforest trees, lianas, palms, including threatened and endemic species ● Seeds and seedlings to be responsibly and ethically sourced ● Collected from roads and trails (avoid forest interiors) ● From multiple parent trees ●Year-round collection Very crucial Retain existing native plants during weed removal 2004 2004 2025 Reference ecosystem (Benchmark site) Restored sites Un-restored or naturally regenerating sites Tree density Species richness Carbon storage sdsd Biodiversity recovery: rainforest birds Number of rainforest bird species Benchmark rainforest Restored Un-restored Canopy cover Tree diversity Carbon storage 40% 35% Recovery 80% 50% ? ? ? ? 100% Natural regeneration Long way to go... The first golden rule of reforestation Because we get only a semblance of the original... Protect existing natural ecosystems first! Western Ghats Himalaya Sahyadri Malenadu Nilgiris Anamalais Pakke Restoration in the Nilgiris landscape (since 2024) Vegetation type ● Southern montane wet temperate forests (shola - grasslands) ● Tropical evergreen forests ● Tropical moist deciduous forests/Tropical dry deciduous forests Ecoregion ● South Western Ghats Montane Rain Forests ● South Western Ghats Moist Deciduous Forests Benchmark ● Shola fragments ● Melur Slopes Reserved Forests Restoration in the Malenadu landscape (since 2019) Vegetation type ● Mid-elevation Tropical Wet Evergreen Forest Ecoregion ● North Western Ghats Montane Rain Forests ● North Western Ghats Moist Deciduous Forests Benchmark ● Kabbinale Reserved Forest ● Recovering old-logged rainforests in Kadamane Estate Research and monitoring Training and outreach Motivations | Finding purpose ● A deeply held notion that we’re at least doing something (however small) to push back against the tide of ecological destruction ● Nurseries as a space for nurturance and hub for training ● The work, efforts, successes, and learnings of others in our community ● The spirit, energy, and dedication of our teams and colleagues ● The encouragement and efforts of our partners ● The satisfaction of watching sites recover and wildlife using them ● Continuously learning about restoration through observation and research, and sharing those learning with the wider community Challenges | Benchmarks ● Protected Areas/RFs used as benchmarks may have been logged or disturbed ● Ecoregions require finer classification ● Selecting the right benchmark in biphasic ecosystems (shola – grassland, deciduous – evergreen formations) ● Benchmark sites themselves are in flux, esp. due to climate change Challenges | Working with partners ● How to involve landowners & businesses ● Local community involvement requires settling of land tenure and resource rights ● Forest Departments – target-driven and often not based on ecological restoration principles ● Even the most sincere partners can be unreliable at times as they balance multiple (and sometimes shifting) priorities, causing disruptions, delays, and uncertainties ● Then there are of course many less sincere but important and unavoidable partners Challenges | Funding ● Sustained multi-year funding for nurseries and long-term restoration ● How to present and defend our restoration philosophy and approach in the language that funders, stakeholders, and even other practitioners are increasingly using – what is in it for the people? ● CSR funding has been great in terms of enabling us to think on a larger scale, but having to frantically chase targets that funders prioritize (trees planted, hectares restored) is limiting our room for trial and error, learning, reflection, improvement, and quality Courtesy: Deedee12345a CC0, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons Challenges | Scaling ● Quantity versus quality ● Workforce unavailability for weeding and planting ● Poor accessibility of sites, damage by wildlife ● Compounded by climate change ● Local efforts by civil society can help scale restoration Restoration Collective Implications for policy and green missions Photo: Kalyan Varma Reforestation: bringing some kind of forest cover back to earlier forested land Afforestation: planting trees on open, non-forest lands that never had forest earlier Restoration and regreening ◆ Ecological restoration ◆assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed ◆ Regreening ◆enhancing greenery by increasing forest or tree cover in different land use types Large numbers of alien and invasive species continue to be grown, distributed, and planted (subabul, Senna sp., Neltuma) Important to diversify native species and Avoid/minimise non-native species Many open natural ecosystems are destroyed by planting trees! Large-scale tree planting is wasteful and failing (work of Manshi Asher, Pushpendra Rana, Forrest Fleischman, Vijay Ramprasad, and others) Photo: Kalyan Varma What to avoid | Fads old & new Seed balls, record-breaking tree planting ... makes news not forests ●Poor survival (chasing wrong targets and metrics) ●Inappropriate species in planting mix (lack of investment in supporting infra – native plant nurseries) ●Risk of invasion ●No evidence supporting efficacy (e.g., seed balls) Ecology and environment ◆Attuned to local conditions ◆Better for biodiversity / wildlife ◆More likely to succeed ◆Better for hydrology/water ◆Better for climate resilience Mudappa & Raman 2007, 2010; Raman et al. 2009; Mudappa et al. 2014; Osuri et al. 2019 Society and economy ◆Less wasteful of public funds ◆Integrates people’s participation ◆Livelihood opportunities for IPLC ◆Aesthetic and recreational benefits ◆Improved well-being and mental health Ecological restoration – a better approach Thank you! ● NCF colleagues: Aparajita Datta, Sana Huque, Sirumai Khusiali, Anand Osuri, Vijay Kumar, Rohit Naniwadekar, Aruna Skaria Gamuz, Srinivasan Kasinathan, Gopana Nanda Kumar, Kshama Bhat and many others ● State Forest Departments: Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh ● ERA 2025 organisers for inviting us to deliver the plenary and the ERA SC and community ● Numerous local partners in each location (too many to list here, but we’re deeply grateful to all) ● Other funders who supported various aspects of our work ● Arvind Datar, Venky Muthiah, TR Rajagopalan, Rohini Nilekani