1. PARTNERS: Understanding the socio-ecological processes that shape tropical reforestation
Robin Chazdon
University of Connecticut
Tropical Forests in a Connected World:
Collaborative Solutions for a Sustainable Future
Yale ISTF 2017

3. How do we guide forest transitions to achieve better environmental and social outcomes?

4. Reforests can take many forms
Each of these different “modalties” of reforestation has different social, political, and economic drivers and each has different outcomes for livelihoods, biodiversity, and ecosystem services.
Coffee agroforestry in India. Photo credit: Shonil Bhagwat.

5. Establish stable and effective governance
Interdisciplinary research provides insights into how to achieve better reforestation outcomes
Establish stable and effective governance
Match approaches to biophysical conditions
Enabling conditions
Recognize, legitimize, and balance social and cultural frameworks
How do we guide/promote/ensure forest transitions to achieve better environmental and social outcomes? Need enabling conditions
Need suitable biophysical conditions
Need suitable social and cultural conditions
Need suitable financial conditions
Need effective policy frameworks
Need to achieve food security
Need long-lasting changes in all sectors of society

6. Establish stable and effective governance
Interdisciplinary research provides insights into how to achieve better reforestation outcomes
Establish stable and effective governance
Ensure food security and well-being
Match approaches to biophysical conditions
Enabling conditions
Develop effective policy frameworks
Recognize, legitimize, and balance social and cultural frameworks
How do we guide/promote/ensure forest transitions to achieve better environmental and social outcomes? Need enabling conditions
Need suitable biophysical conditions
Need suitable social and cultural conditions
Need suitable financial conditions
Need effective policy frameworks
Need to achieve food security
Need long-lasting changes in all sectors of society
Provide lasting economic incentives

7. Interdisciplinary and International Research Network
Scholarly syntheses and reviews
Linking researchers with practitioners and organizations at local and global scales
Frameworks for policy and research
Policy outreach
Over 300 registered members representing 43 countries
Educational outreach

8. Steering Committee & Leadership
Thomas Rudel, Rutgers Univ.
Michael Willig, UCONN

9. Organizational Partners

10. Introductory workshop May 2014: Frameworks for integrating social and ecological drivers of reforestation in the tropics
Social and ecological drivers of tropical forest transitions
Socio-ecological resilience in tropical landscapes
Interactions between climate variability and reforestation
Challenges of tradeoffs and synergies in different reforestation scenarios
Policy and land use implications of forest concepts and definitions
Social and ecological drivers of tropical forest transitions
Socio-ecological resilience in tropical landscapes
Interactions between climate variability and reforestation
Tradeoffs and synergies among different reforestation scenarios
Policy and land use implications of forest concepts and definitions

11. Second workshop Nov. 2015: Making it happen: Motivating and enabling forest restoration and regeneration
Spatial prioritization of natural regeneration
Economic incentives for natural regeneration restoration
Governance frameworks for forest regeneration and restoration
Certification and restoration value chains
Corporate responsibility and public-private partnerships.

12. SESYNC Pursuit: Social dimensions of reforestation pathways in the tropics
PARTNERS, IFRI/FLARE, CIFOR, ICRAF, CATIE, RECOFTC
April 2016: Reforests, rural lives, and livelihoods
April 2017: Governing forest and landscape restoration
April 2018: Indicators and tools to monitor restoration

13. Results and impact: Scholarly publications

14. Workshop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

17. Some works submitted or in progress ….
Ecosystem service transitions: The ecological dimensions of forest transitions (submitted)
Market motivations for engaging in forest and landscape restoration (submitted)
Priority areas for restoration in the world’s tropics and subtropics (analysis in progress)
Developing a certification framework for forest and landscape restoration in the tropics (WeForest/PARTNERS/IPÊ)
Forest trade and illegal logging as drivers of forest transitions (workshop in May 2017)

18. Results and impact: Educational modules
Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP) of the American Museum of Natural History
Open access teaching modules
Social and ecological trade-offs in tropical reforestation
Forest transitions, biodiversity and livelihoods in tropical landscapes
Forest transitions and rural livelihoods in tropical landscapes

19. Challenges associated with building collaborations among different sectors
Timelines, schedules, and priorities of academics and NGOs often conflict
Moving beyond scholarly publications; need to reach out to practitioners and partners in different countries (i.e. Natural Regeneration Partnership)
Fostering an appreciation for research into high-level restoration partnerships (i.e. Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration, Collaborative Partnership on Forests)

20. Questions for discussion
Should interdisciplinary and international research and educational networks such as PARTNERS become “institutionalized?” If so, how?
How can our research products become more integrated into regional and global restoration initiatives and policy making?
How can research synthesis be channelled into new impactful interdisciplinary research initiatives with implications for policy and practice?
Robin Chazdon @partnersrcn