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Finally, there is growing awareness that landscape restoration
measures are an indispensable tool in the fight against the twin
ills of poverty and environmental degradation. The vicious cycle
of land degradation, low yields, poverty and expansion of the
agricultural frontier into marginal grasslands and forest lands can
be broken through natural forest regeneration programmes, tree
planting, and numerous other locally-appropriate land manage-
ment techniques. According to a recent global assessment, up to
two billion hectares of lost or degraded forest landscapes could be
restored and rehabilitated worldwide. (Restoration does not mean
returning land to its hypothetical ‘original’ state, but rather regen-
erating functional, locally adapted ecosystems, in which forests
and agriculture are sustainable and able to coexist.) If even a frac-
tion of those areas were to be restored to functional and productive
ecosystems, they could help deliver a ‘triple win’ by improving
rural livelihoods and food security, increasing climate resilience,
and helping mitigate greenhouse gases – while taking pressure
off pristine forests.
The World Bank has seen this promise materialize in many coun-
tries. In China for example, the Bank supported over the course
of a decade one of the world’s largest erosion control programmes
which has returned the devastated Loess Plateau to sustainable
agricultural production, improving the livelihoods
of 2.5 million people and securing food supplies in
an area where food was sometimes scarce in the past.
The project encouraged natural regeneration of grass-
lands, tree and shrub cover on previously cultivated
slopelands. Replanting and managed grazing regimes
allowed the perennial vegetation cover to increase from
17 to 34 per cent between 1999 and 2004. Terracing
not only increased average yields, but also significantly
lowered their variability. Agricultural production has
changed from generating a narrow range of food and
low-value grain commodities to high-value products.
It is estimated that as many as 20 million people have
benefited from the replication of the Loess Plateau
approach throughout China.
In Viet Nam, a coastal wetlands protection and
development project (1999-2007) demonstrated
that it is possible to reduce pressure on coastal
mangrove ecosystems, while improving the liveli-
hoods of coastal communities who have witnessed
a resurgence of aquatic resources such as crabs and
clams. Planted and protected by local communities
Landscape restoration measures are an indispensable tool in the fight against poverty and environmental degradation
Image: Flore de Préneuf/World Bank