Dry Forests by IUCN Masumi Gudka and Jonathan Davies, International Union for the Conservation of Nature
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single tree in a dryland landscape can hold as much importance to the survival of an entire dryland ecosystem as a patch of forest can in a humid landscape. A few individual trees are often the pillars to the survival of many of the inhabitants and ecosystems in the drylands. In some indigenous communities in dry regions of the world, one tree is owned by several families, signifying the high value placed on this resource. Usually, a tree is the link to a plethora of biodiversity, becoming an ecosystem in itself. Dryland trees are the key ingredient in supporting the environmental processes and social functions found in the mosaic of habitats and ecosystems that collectively make up the dryland areas. But the trees in drylands often do not reach above 5 meters, one of the criteria defining forests. As a result, extensive tree clusters in the drylands are invisible on forest maps because they fall outside the typical forest definition. Consequently, dryland forests have been largely disregarded as important ecosystems—even if they account for 42 percent of all tropical forests. Dryland trees can be sparse, but tree density and height can also be comparatively high. Irrespective of their densities and heights, dryland trees and dry forests play important, but often underestimated, roles in dryland livelihoods and ecosystems. How drylands are defined also varies among organizations and governing bodies, which affects how and where their development is addressed. For our purposes, “drylands” encompass
not only dry subhumid, semiarid and arid areas, but the hyperarid areas. In short, it includes all dry areas and deserts. Deserts are ecosystems in their own right, with highly specialized cultures and biodiversity that are unique to them. The misconception that deserts are wastelands and should be “restored” to a state similar to humid forests inadvertently leads to their degradation, for instance, by planting of alien invasive species to “green” the drylands. However, man-made deserts, like those of Inner Mongolia, which were once productive areas in the days of the great Genghis Khan, can and need to be restored. The term desertification is also misleading because it conjures up images of increasing or advancing deserts. In reality, desertification is the process of land degradation in the drylands, which leads to the loss of productivity. The cases highlighted in this magazine highlight many ways to control desertification using soft technologies, like the tree planting in China’s Future Forests Programme or FADE’s sand fixing of desert dunes in Nigeria. Desertification can also be tackled through effective land use planning and sustainable natural resource management by local communities. It is crucial to encourage governments to support bottom-up mechanisms to reverse or mitigate land degradation and incorporate these mechanisms into policy and governance systems.
L and for Life . FORESTS
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