Forest Restoration

Forest ecosystem restoration on this scale has never been done before so will require the development of new techniques and approaches. The first rule of forest restoration is to prevent further degradation and our initial efforts have been focused around this. Whilst this remains an ongoing battle, our progress to date allows us to now turn our attention to practical restoration. In developing our forest restoration strategy for Harapan Rainforest we are very fortunate in having help and guidance from one of our project partners, the Forest Restoration and Research Unit (FORRU) at Chiang Mai University, Thailand. FORRU has many years experience in the restoration of degraded habitats and have quite literally 'written the book' on 'How to Plant a Forest'. We have already translated this book into Indonesian and are now adapting FORRU's framework species approach to our particular conditions. At a macro level we have been using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), satellite imagery and ground-truthing to identify and classify the different forest areas within Harapan Rainforest based on habitat cover and species composition. This will be used to identify which forest areas are suitable for specific forest restoration approaches. The four planting strategies are:


1. Harapan Rainforest tree nurseryTo leave the area untouched for natural regeneration (where an area already has a good diversity of species and vegetation cover)
2. Assist in natural regeneration (cut back certain species to allow others to grow)
3. Enrichment planting (where certain species groups are missing, particular tree species will be planted to create a more diverse habitat)
4. Planting of specific framework species (this is the method developed by FORRU for severely damaged areas whereby a selection of framework species, chosen for their attractiveness to a wide range of seed-dispersing animals and for their ability to quickly create a microclimate supportive of natural regeneration by other species, are planted).

At present, the forest restoration team is involved in a variety of tasks including:

1. Harapan Rainforest tree nurseryDeveloping the skills and capacity needed for the future.
2. Carrying out an inventory of tree species and recording their abundance within Harapan Rainforest.
3. Monitoring the phenology (fruiting and flowering times) of tree species in different areas of the forest.
4. Collecting seeds for planting in the nursery.
5. Maintaining and monitoring seedlings and saplings within the nursery.
6. Planting saplings from the nursery into selected plots within the site.

We hope that the techniques for large-scale forest restoration which will be developed over the coming years at Harapan Rainforest will become a working example of good ecosystem restoration and management for use throughout Indonesia and globally.