Spatial Distribution and Drivers of Forest Restoration Reversals and Successes

Benzeev, Rayna, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Meg Mills-Novoa, at University of California Berkeley, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist to investigate spatial distribution and drivers of forest restoration. Forest restoration is one of the most effective strategies to capture carbon and counteract the emissions causing global environmental change. Despite their great promise and opportunity, many forest restoration projects to date have failed to achieve their stated objectives, particularly for the long term. This project determines the drivers of short-term versus long-term restoration. By providing feedback on the monitoring of forest restoration goals, this research will provide recommendations to improve the longevity of forest restoration efforts, with implications for forest-based environmental solutions in the US and across the globe. Focusing on restoration reversals—restored forests that were later deforested (within 5-10 years)—and restoration successes—restored forests that remained forested for the long term (a minimum of 10 years), this research examines the long-term outcomes of forest restoration efforts at the local scale. By conducting biome- and property-scale geospatial analyses, this research determines the spatial hotspots of forest restoration reversals and successes. Drawing upon spatial, political, and socio-environmental literature of forest change, this project evaluates the drivers of restoration reversals and successes across the biome, community, and property scales. This project advances scholarly knowledge in three key ways. First, the substantial literature on forest restoration has remained focused on where or why forest restoration occurs with less attention to the long-term outcomes of such initiatives. This research project will generate much needed knowledge on the drivers of restoration reversals and successes. Second, by integrating data across multiple scales, this project analyzes how the drivers of forest restoration vary across local to regional scales in a socio-environmental system. The property-scale analysis has been particularly neglected in the geospatial understanding of forest restoration and local dynamics have been neglected in understanding restoration reversals and successes. Third, this project will integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches by combining geospatial science, political ecology, and integrated socio-environmental systems theory. A geospatial analysis will enable the identification of forest restoration hotspots to focus on for qualitative data collection. The interpretation of the patterns of geospatial analysis will be enriched by a better understanding of the underlying processes (i.e., socio-political and economic drivers) of forest restoration. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.