Narratives Across Scales on Barriers and Strategies for Upscaling Forest Restoration: A Brazilian Case Study

Abstract

Several countries worldwide have committed to forest and landscape restoration (FLR) through ambitious pledges in numbers of hectares to be restored. As the implementation of these commitments happens within countries, different actors from global to local scales must negotiate the “what, where and how” of specific forest restoration projects. We interviewed actors at national, state and local scales to gather their narratives regarding barriers and strategies for upscaling forest restoration and compared the narratives among them and with those that prevail in the global literature on FLR. We based the local scale in four Atlantic Forest landscapes. We classified the narratives gathered according to three discourses commonly used in environmental policy arenas: (1) ecological modernization, advocating market solutions; (2) green governmentality, with its emphasis on technocratic solutions; and (3) civic environmentalism promoting governance. Brazilian legislation with its mandate of forest restoration in private lands appeared as the main restoration driver in the interviews. However, when political will for enforcement weakens, other strategies are needed. An ecological modernization narrative, around increasing funding, incentives, market and investments, prevailed in the narratives on barriers and strategies for all actors from the global to the local scales. Similarities nevertheless diminished from the global to the local scale. The narratives of national actors resembled those found in the global literature, which emphasize strategies based on increased capacity building, within a green governmentality narrative, and governance arrangements, a civic environmentalist narrative. These narratives appeared less at state scales, and were almost absent at local scales where forest restoration was perceived mostly as a costly legal mandate. Similar narratives across all actors and scales indicate that a focus on improving the economics of restoration can aid in upscaling forest restoration in Brazilian Atlantic Forest landscapes. However, discrepant narratives also show that inclusive governance spaces where the negotiation of FLR interventions can take place is key to increase trust and aid implementation.

The role of incentive mechanisms in promoting forest restoration

“…Similarly to ecological aspects, the lack of funding is widely recognized as a crucial constraint for restoration [65] but was cited as a constraint for only 5% of the studies. It is possible that this aspect may have been overlooked in the studies included in our review, as we included only on-the-ground studies on initiatives already implemented or under implementation; potential restoration projects that were not implemented due to insufficient funds were likely not to be reported in the literature and represent a bias in our study.…”

Forest landscape restoration: state of play

“…from policymakers and government agencies to local communities and households). Technical capacity is critical for up-scaling restoration interventions based on research or pilot projects to the landscape scale [ 280 , 281 ]. This has been apparent in the top-down BC commitment process where land area targets are made apparently overlooking local constraints [ 245 ].…”

A comprehensive framework for vegetation succession

“…Generally, top‐down effects are stronger than bottom‐up ones because of asymmetries in power, knowledge, capital, and influence (Giller et al, 2008). Often, actors operating at different levels are interested in different ecosystem services (Figure 2, arrows 10) (Schweizer et al, 2019). Local land users and groups are mainly interested in production services (such as agriculture, timber, and non‐timber forest products), in the regulatory services that underpin it (i.e., healthy productive soils and water availability), and in the cultural services as certain landscapes provide them with a sense of belonging.…”