Planting and replanting: Continuity and change over four decades of forest restoration in Himachal Pradesh, India
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Societal Impact Statement India has a long history of planting trees to restore ecosystem services providing an opportunity to evaluate long‐term ecosystem restoration processes. We show that these programs have shifted over time in response to public demands as well as through changes in the government's vision for forests. These shifts point towards opportunities and limits for political responsiveness in the design and implementation of restoration programs. Independent evaluations have shown that the tree planting programs we study often fail to achieve their goals, raising questions about their benefits, and risks from positioning tree planting as a panacea for social and environmental problems. Summary Aims: Interest in forest restoration has increased in recent years with the goal of increasing carbon storage, protecting biodiversity, and improving the delivery of ecosystem services to aid rural livelihoods. However, there is little systematic analysis of how this trend relates to broader histories of landscape interventions. Methods: We analyze a dataset comprising 36 years of government plantation records from the forest department of the Indian Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh. Findings: Restoration‐oriented tree planting peaked in the 1980s and 1990s with heavy domestic funding. Counter to dominant policy narratives, most plantation programs did not formally involve the participation of local people and were not funded by donors or carbon markets. Over time, planting shifted away from commercial timber species towards a more diverse set of native broadleaf species, reflecting local preferences for the production of firewood, fodder, and other non‐timber forest products and ecosystem services as well as changing conceptions by government agencies about what and who a forest is meant to serve. Over time, the number of programs sponsoring tree planting has proliferated, reflecting the ways that tree planting has been framed as the solution to a growing number of problems, ranging from poverty alleviation to climate adaptation. Conclusion: The current global focus on forest restoration and nature‐based climate solutions represents a reframing of long‐existing policies and programs in this region. As with past policy changes, restoration practices are likely to be influenced by long‐term histories, entrenched practices, and local political influences.
Source: Plants People Planet
DOI: 10.1002/ppp3.10639
Authors: Forrest Fleischman, Pushpendra Rana, Harry Fischer, Vijay Guleria, Rajesh Rana, Vijay Ramprasad
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,180
Awards: G1294761379, G1574127642, Clinical and translational studies on cancer related fatigue in palliative care. Focus on vitamin D and the immune system., G3192371386, Building synergies between biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and rural prosperity through community forest governance, ARTIFICIAL AFFORESTATION PROGRAMS ARE EMERGING AS IMPORTANT POLICY INTERVENTIONS GLOBALLY TO INCREASE CARBON SEQUESTRATION YET THERE HAS BEEN LITTLE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE IMPACTS OF AFFORESTATION PROGRAMS ON THE LIVELIHOODS OF FOREST DEPENDENT PEOPLE. AFFORESTATION PROJECTS DO NOT SIMPLY IMPROVE ECOSYSTEM SERVICE PROVISION AS WIDELY ASSUMED; THEY REPLACE OTHER LAND-COVER TYPES SUCH AS GRASSLANDS SAVANNAS OR DEGRADED FORESTS THUS CHANGING THE MIX OF GOODS PROVIDED BY THESE ECOSYSTEMS. DEPENDING ON THE SPECIES PLANTED AND THE SUCCESS OF THE PLANTATION AFFORESTATION MAY INCREASE THE AVAILABILITY OF TIMBER AND FUELWOOD WHILE DECREASING AVAILABILITY OF FODDER AND SOME NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS. LIVELIHOOD IMPACTS WILL DEPEND ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE GOODS AND SERVICES TO DIFFERENT HOUSEHOLDS THE AVAILABILITY OF ALTERNATIVES AND THE CAPACITY OF HOUSEHOLDS TO RESPOND. AS A RESULT PLANTATIONS MAY IMPROVE THE LIVELIHOODS OF SOME HOUSEHOLDS WHILE HURTING OTHERS PARTICULARLY THOSE DEPENDENT ON NON-FOREST RESOURCES PRODUCED ON LANDS CONVERTED TO PLANTATION. BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE EFFECTS OF PLANTATIONS ON LIVELIHOODS IS CRUCIAL FOR DESIGNING POLICIES THAT MAXIMIZE THE POSITIVE BENEFITS AND MITIGATE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF AFFORESTATION.WE PROPOSE TO STUDY THE IMPACT OF AFFORESTATION PROGRAMS IN INDIA A COUNTRY IN WHICH AFFORESTATION EFFORTS ARE EXTENSIVE ON THE LIVELIHOODS OF THE RURAL POOR. WE WILL DO SO BY COMBINING RECENT GOVERNMENT DATA ON AFFORESTATION WITH LONG-TERM ESTIMATES OF AFFORESTATION BASED ON NASA SATELLITE DATA AND HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS IN 140 VILLAGES WITH VARYING LEVELS OF EXPOSURE TO AFFORESTATION. IN APRIL OF 2016 WE OBTAINED GOVERNMENT RECORDS FOR ALL 2252 PLANTATIONS MADE BY THE STATE FOREST DEPARTMENT IN THE KANGRA DISTRICT OF THE WESTERN HIMALAYAN STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH BETWEEN 2005-2015. WE WILL COMBINE THIS DATA WITH GROUND-TRUTHING IN A SUBSET OF THESE PLANTATIONS. WE WILL CONDUCT LAND-COVER/LAND-USE CHANGE (LCLUC) ANALYSIS BASED UPON USE OF AN ADVANCED IMAGE END MEMBER ESTIMATION ALGORITHM AND SPECTRAL UNMIXING/ENDMEMBER MAPPING. THIS WILL ALLOW US TO DETECT AND DIFFERENTIATE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SMALL PLANTATIONS USING HISTORICAL LANDSAT DATA. WE WILL CONDUCT HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD SURVEYS IN A SAMPLE OF 140 VILLAGES WHICH HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO DIFFERENT TYPES OF PLANTATIONS. COMBINING ESTIMATES OF AFFORESTATION ACTIVITIES WITH HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOOD DATA WILL ALLOW US TO ESTIMATE USING REGRESSION AND PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING TECHNIQUES THE IMPACTS OF AFFORESTATION ON THE LIVELIHOODS OF HOUSEHOLDS WITH DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS. THESE ANALYSES WILL ALLOW US TO DEVELOP GUIDELINES WHICH WILL HELP INDIAN POLICY-MAKERS DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT PLANTATION PROGRAMS THAT ALIGN THE IMPERATIVE FOR CARBON SEQUESTRATION WITH THE NEEDS AND INTERESTS OF THE POOR., G6442914518, G712881263, Can community forest governance improve rural prosperity and well-being from forest restoration?, Institutional networks and self-organized adaptation: Tracing the democratic architectures of climate response
OpenAlex ID: W4407418595