How can we increase reforestation on this poor benighted planet? A good start is to see what lessons we can draw from places where reforestation has already happened naturally rather than as an intended result of deforestation policy. We’ll look at New England and Vietnam. In New England, deforestation followed the shift from farming to manufacturing in the 19th century. Land that had been farmed reverted to forests and people moved to locations where goods were produced and transported, especially along rivers, canals and rail lines. A lot of the countryside was simply abandoned in the process.
In Vietnam, policy changes leading to the strengthening of property rights and the development of markets for agricultural products contributed to the intensification of agriculture on the most suitable land and a decline in less productive areas, which subsequently reverted to woodland. In the 1990s, new land-tenure laws designed to improve agricultural productivity allowed households to own forested lands and sell forest products from their land. This change in policy encouraged private stewardship and expansion of forested areas. Strengthened property rights meant smallholders could let land remain as forest without the risk of having it “colonized” by others. Thus policies to reduce food scarcity in a country with limited land and an exploding population led to significant reforestation.
Two lessons here: 1) less land for agriculture, more land for forests; and 2) stronger property rights, more incentive to maintain and expand forests.
References:
Meyfroidt, P. & Lambin, E.F. 2008, "The Causes of the Reforestation in Vietnam", Land Use Policy, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 182-197.
Pfaff, Alexander (2007) From Deforestation to Reforestation in New England, United States. In World Forests from Deforestation to Transition? Volume 2 of the series World Forests pp 67-82