Conflation of reforestation with restoration is widespread

Abstract

The Bonn Challenge was launched by the German government and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2011 with the goal of restoring 350 million ha of degraded and deforested landscapes by 2030. Although there is acknowledgment that forest landscape restoration (FLR) promoting tree planting should not cause the loss or conversion of open, nonforested ecosystems (i.e., they should not be afforested) (1), concerns have been raised that the focus on tree-based restoration combined with misclassification of grassy ecosystems could lead to misplaced restoration and destruction of intact, ancient ecosystems (2). Yet, the potential scale of the issue, or whether concerns are playing out in practice, are unknown. To understand the potential scale of tree planting in savannas and grasslands, we examined restoration pledges under the African Forest Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and on-the-ground projects, finding that tree planting is widespread across nonforest systems.