Responses to LEDD in forests & shrubland: general

2012-06-18T11:00:37+00:00

Authors: Agostino Ferrara, Claire Kelly, Geoff Wilson, Guiseppe Mancino, Luca Salvati

{xtypo_alert}Editor's note: Text source D311, section 4.4{/xtypo_alert}

Responses to LEDD in forests & shrubland are categorised as physical/technological; economic; social; institutional/legal; research; and educational/communication. Table 1 below, shows responses to LEDD in forests & shrubland environments.

Table 1. Example of classification scheme for Responses to LEDD in forest/shrublands.

THEMATIC TYPE (NATURE OF INTERVENTION)	INSTITUTIONAL ORIGIN OF THE RESPONSE
THEMATIC TYPE (NATURE OF INTERVENTION)	Planned – direct – formal (No action, prevention, mitigation, adaptation, restoration/rehabilitation)	Unplanned – Informal (No action, negative, indirect positive)
Physical/ technological	Examples SLM measures (detail), infrastructure works, reforestation, etc. Reconstitution of degraded forests (prevention – restoration/rehabilitation) Reforestation (prevention – restoration/rehabilitation) Reforested areas management – re-naturalization (adaption -restoration/rehabilitation) Soil erosion protection (mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation Grazing control (prevention – mitigation- restoration/rehabilitation) Landslides protection (prevention – mitigation- restoration/rehabilitation) Forest fires protection practices (prevention) Direct actions and prevention against processionary and scolytus outbreaks (prevention - mitigation- restoration/rehabilitation) Hydraulic forestry (prevention - mitigation- restoration/rehabilitation)	Examples Informal SLM measures, Autonomous land use change (conversion/modification), infrastructure works, settlements, tourism facilities, forest fires, etc. Land use change (indirect positive; negative) Increase in plant cover of degraded areas (indirect positive)
Economic	Examples Resources pricing (water, etc.) Financing schemes Voluntary measures (eco-labelling, EMAS, etc.) Research funding Supporting of sustainable agriculture (prevention – mitigation) Supporting of sustainable management and improvement of forest areas (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation)	Examples Introduction of new economic activities (e.g. tourism), change in economic activities Increase of touristic activities (indirect negative)
Social	Social policy measures (concerning employment, unemployment, businesses, social services provision, etc.) Seasonal employment of forest workers (prevention – restoration/rehabilitation)	Land abandonment, migration, change of occupation, etc. Land abandonment (negative; indirect positive) Change of occupation (indirect positive; negative)
Institutional/Legal	Examples All types of policies, laws, strategies, etc. Spatial (land use) plans, NAPs, BAPs, development plans, etc. Formal land rights Management Plan of SCI (Site of Community Importance) (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation) Forestry laws (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation) Forestation Plans (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation) Fire Protection Plans (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation) Forest Management Plans (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation) Sustainable land management (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation) Land desertification protection (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation) Land use change (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation)	Examples Informal institutions, spontaneous collective action Informal land rights Customary rules Informal arrangements NGOs
Research	Examples Environmental Sensitive Areas and Land desertification protection (prevention – mitigation - restoration/rehabilitation)	Examples Informal research
Education/Communication	Examples Environmental awareness raising campaigns, environmental education, communication	Examples Informal awareness raising by NGOs, education, communication

Source: Author, based on WP7 (LEDDRA internal document 2011)

In the table, Physical/technological responses include, for planned activities, all direct forestry practices (reconstitution of degraded forests; reforestation; reforested areas management – re-naturalization) aimed at forest stand reconstitution through silvicultural practices, and at the reforestation of new areas to prevent land and ecosystem degradation as well as the actions and measures used to prevent soil degradation processes, forest fire protection, grazing control, etc. The unplanned responses include land use change as the result of regional changes in climate regimes, or socio-economic modifications. In both cases, it is possible to consider indirect positive responses in the case of positive ecosystem or socio-economic feedbacks. At the same time, negative responses may also be expected. Negative responses are generally related to extensive agricultural and silvicultural exploitation of environmental resources, leading to a general degradation of soil properties (organic matter content and soil water holding capacity), but also to soil erosion and desertification processes.

Reforestation, reconstitution of degraded forests and reforested area management represent measures provided for by the main forest policies and thus they may be considered as institutional/legal responses. Furthermore these policies and forest management plans represent responses to the main LEDD issues affecting forest and shrubland, including forest productivity decline; ecosystem fragmentation; water stress and phytosanitary deterioration of forest cover.

The economic planned responses category includes the financial tools provided by local administrations for sustainable forest and agriculture management. Economic unplanned responses are generally related to the financial incomes derived from other activities such as tourism development, related to the improvements of local socio-ecological conditions.

Social planned responses relate to the seasonal forest workers employed in the forest sector for the activity of:

Reconstitution of degraded forests;
Reforestation stand tending;
Reforested areas management oriented to the re-naturalization;
Direct actions and prevention against processionary and scolytus outbreaks (phytosanitary thinning and burning of processionary nest)
Forest fire protection (thinning and cleaning, realization and maintenance of firebreaks; maintenance of forestry road networks for fire control etc.)

Social unplanned responses include land abandonment as a consequence of the socio-economic crisis of the primary sector, such as small farms, for example. Another type of response in this category is change of occupation and migration to urban or industrial areas. These responses dramatically affect rural areas with land degradation processes (soil erosion, slope stability, desertification risk) due to the abandonment of any forestry or agricultural practices. Nevertheless in some cases, land abandonment provides indirect positive effects such as natural forest cover expansion and reduction of forest fragmentation.

An example of institutional/legal responses can be seen in forest policies such as the Forestation, Fire Protection and Forest Management Plans, as well as all regional laws related to forests. These aspects will be further elaborated in the next phases of the project.