Lessons learned and success of initiatives to rehabilitate degraded forests in Guangdong Province, China

Abstract

The rehabilitation of degraded forests is widely recognized, with a consensus that technical, economic, environmental and social factors must all be considered in practice. Rehabilitating degraded forests has been being one of the Guangdong Provincial Government's most important priorities. Several successful efforts and a holistic approach have been made to rehabilitate the degraded forest landscape and increase forest cover. This paper assesses the characteristics of eight rehabilitation initiatives identified in Guangdong Province, their outcomes and influencing factors, and sustainability of technical, social–economic, long-term management and financing factors using a literature search and 22 case studies obtained by means of questionnaires and interviews. The case studies help to elucidate implementation activities and outcomes on the ground. The objective of this paper is to draw strategic lessons for sustaining and guiding current and future efforts both within China and elsewhere in the world.

Keywords:

• forest rehabilitation
• rehabilitation efforts
• forest sustainability

Acknowledgements

The study was funded by the CIFOR research project of ‘Review of Rehabilitation Initiatives – Lessons from the Past’ (http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/rehab/). The authors would like to thank the interviewees from the Guangdong Forestry Bureau, local forestry bureaus, forest farms, forest departments in townships and village, project managers, private company executives, individual investors and local communities in case study sites for their invaluable contributions.