REACT
Financiado
Regreening Africa with natural regeneration
The challenge. With 65% of agricultural land in Africa degraded, the need to effectively scale up restoration is evident. Natural regeneration (NR) is a promising restoration solution that depends on vegetation regrowing from seed...
The challenge. With 65% of agricultural land in Africa degraded, the need to effectively scale up restoration is evident. Natural regeneration (NR) is a promising restoration solution that depends on vegetation regrowing from seed or tree stumps, without the need to plant trees. However, we do not know what regenerates where and what benefits it may bring. What we do know comes from ecological studies on secondary succession that exclude human influences. This informs restoration poorly since people continuously use, manage and control NR. Aims. This study aims to 1) evaluate how NR develops over time and what benefits it brings, to 2) explore the optimal social-ecological conditions for NR-based restoration, and 3) predict the current and future NR restoration potential across Sub-Saharan Africa.Approach. Recent scientific breakthroughs in succession ecology and on-the-ground restoration developments offer exiting opportunities to gain new mechanistic insights into NR dynamics. I will: 1) Monitor woody vegetation in 150 unmanaged and managed agricultural fields across three ecoclimatic zones in Kenya. 2) Measure plot-level environmental and social variables that affect species performance. 3) Employ a trait-based approach to evaluate the relative importance of different regeneration mechanisms and consequences for multiple ecosystem functions. 4) Scale up mechanistic insights using large datasets and identify regional drivers of NR abundance, functional composition and diversity. 5) Predict climate change effects on NR and map current and future NR restoration potential across Sub-Saharan Africa.Impact. I will develop a mechanistic social-ecological framework for NR by integrating social dimensions into ecological theory, which allows to predict how NR contributes to restoration and where it may need to be complemented with tree planting. This is vital for effectively scaling up restoration during the current UN decade on ecosystem restoration.
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Duración del proyecto: 59 meses
Fecha Inicio: 2024-01-01
Fecha Fin: 2028-12-31
Fecha Fin: 2028-12-31
Línea de financiación: concedida
El organismo HORIZON EUROPE notifico la concesión del proyecto el día 2024-01-01
Línea de financiación objetivo
El proyecto se financió a través de la siguiente ayuda:
ERC-2023-STG:
ERC STARTING GRANTS
Cerrada
hace 2 años
Presupuesto
El presupuesto total del proyecto asciende a
1M€
Líder del proyecto
WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY
No se ha especificado una descripción o un objeto social para esta compañía.
Perfil tecnológico
TRL
4-5
Perfil tecnológico
TRL
4-5