A recent study in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science shows why community engagement in forest restoration is a win-win game. The research documents a three-decade-long land restoration project on a 28-hectare (71-acre) slope of India’s Western Himalayas, in the state of Uttarakhand. The local communities in the surrounding villages cultivated a forest, with the help of researchers, and are now reaping the fruits of their collective effort. Before rehabilitation, the slope was inhabited by shrub species, dotted with the occasional longleaf Indian pine (Pinus roxburghii), a native tree that spread through monoculture cropping for resin and timber during British colonial rule. This landscape was prone to wildfire, which led to degradation. A team of researchers from the G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment (GBP-NIHE), an arm of the environment ministry, launched the restoration project in 1992. Now, according to the study’s authors, the land supports rich biodiversity, including more than 160 bird species, more than 100 butterfly species, and many medicinal plants, providing livestock fodder, medicine and livelihoods for the residents of surrounding communities. The researchers named the site “Surya-Kunj,” or “Sun-Grove,” in a nod to the famous Katarmal Sun Temple, located about 12 kilometers (7 miles) away. A fire burns within a longleaf Indian pine (Pinus roxburghii) forest in Uttarakhand. Image by Ramwik via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Indra D. Bhatt, co-author of the study and director of the GBP-NIHE, said the Surya-Kunj site acts as a framework for large-scale forest restoration efforts in the Himalayas…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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