Restoration Advice
Planting a tree is easy. Restoring an ecosystem is hard. We’re here to help.
Do you need advice to address challenges in your restoration project? You’re not alone. Lot’s of projects need it.
Our team of restoration ecologists provide free, confidential advice.
We can address most challenges with a couple of zoom calls. If you present us with a really difficult problem, we may come to visit you on the ground to figure it out together.
Contact Us
Examples
Here are some examples of what other organisations have needed help with. Feel free to contact us with any of these – or entirely different – questions.Site Analysis
Only ecosystems that are forest under natural conditions should be reforested, in order not to destroy grassland ecosystems.
Is my site a deforested forest ecosystem or a natural grassland? We are happy to figure that out with you.
Restoration Method
Traditional planting? Applied nucleation? Farmer managed natural regeneration? Agroforestry? Direct seeding? Natural regeneration?
So many ways of restoring a forest. Which one is best for my site? We are happy to help you find the answer.
Species Selection
Usure which species you should plant at your site? Not quite clear how to analyse a target forest to define a species list? We are happy to help.
Project Review
Do you feel relatively confident that your project is running well but would like an independent pair of eyes to take a look and spot potential issues? We’re happy to review your project along our restoration standards and recommend improvements.Monitoring Program Set-Up
What’s the most important data to collect to monitor the development of my restoration site? How many monitoring plots do I need? How can I minimise the amount of work? Who can analyse my data for me? We are happy to help.
Advisory Team
Caxton Gitonga Kaua
Lead Restoration Advisor
Plant-for-the-Planet
Oscar Verduzco
Tropical Botanist
Plant-for-the-Planet
Dr. Peter Borchardt
Community-Based Restoration Specialist
CEN Centrum für Erdsystemforschung und Nachhaltigkeit Universität Hamburg
Oscar Perula
Planting Specialist
Plant-for-the-Planet
Anna Gee
Restoration Ecology PhD Student
Imperial College, London
Dr Fidel Chiriboga
Biologist, Ecologist, Environmental Scientist
Sara Lofqvist
Restoration Policy PhD Student
ETH Zürich
Julia Maschler
PhD Student researching Forest Carbon Sequestration
ETH Zürich
Request Advice
or
Contact advice@plant-for-the-planet.org
Empowerment & Restoration Research Park
Our advisory team is based out of our Research Park in Balam-Ku, southern Mexiko.Learn More
Interested in joining the team?
This is a relatively new project and we are looking for people with extensive restoration experience to support the team.Apply here
Essential Resources for Running a Forest Restoration Project
Start with…
Brancalion, P.H. and Holl, K.D., 2020. Guidance for successful tree planting initiatives. Journal of Applied Ecology, 57(12), pp.2349-2361.
Read
Holl, K.D. and Brancalion, P.H., 2022. Which of the plethora of tree-growing projects to support?. One Earth, 5(5), pp.452-455.
Read
Holl, K.D. and Aide, T.M., 2011. When and where to actively restore ecosystems?. Forest ecology and management, 261(10), pp.1558-1563.
Read
Holl, K.D., 2017. Restoring tropical forests from the bottom up. Science, 355(6324), pp.455-456.
Read
Di Sacco, A., Hardwick, K. A., Blakesley, D., Brancalion, P., Breman, E., Cecilio Rebola, L., Chomba, S., Dixon, K., Elliott, S., Ruyonga, G., Shaw, K., Smith, P., Smith, R. J., & Antonelli, A. 2021. Ten golden rules for reforestation to optimize carbon sequestration, biodiversity recovery and livelihood benefits. Global change biology, 27(7), 1328–1348.
Read
Trillion Trees Guide to Investing in Forest Restoration.
Read
Dig Deeper
Stanturf, J., Mansourian, S. and Kleine, M., 2017. Implementing forest landscape restoration, a practitioner's guide. International Union of Forest Research Organizations, 2017, pp.1-128.
Read
Holl, K.D., Luong, J.C. and Brancalion, P.H., 2022. Overcoming biotic homogenization in ecological restoration. Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
Read
Holl, K., 2020. Primer of ecological restoration. Island Press.
Read
Beatty, C.R., Cox, N.A. and Kuzee, M.E., 2018. Biodiversity guidelines for forest landscape restoration opportunities assessments (p. 10). Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
Read
Tropical Ecosystems
ITTO, 2020. Guidelines for forest landscape restoration in the tropics. ITTO Policy Development Series No. 24.
Read
Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration
Rinauldo, T., Muller, A., Morris, M. 2019.. Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) manual. A resource for project managers, practitioners and all who are interested in better understanding and supporting the FMNR movement. World Vision Australia, pp. 196
Read
Restoration Priority Areas
Strassburg, B.B., Iribarrem, A., Beyer, H.L., Cordeiro, C.L., Crouzeilles, R., Jakovac, C.C., Braga Junqueira, A., Lacerda, E., Latawiec, A.E., Balmford, A. and Brooks, T.M., 2020. Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration. Nature, 586(7831), pp.724-729.
Read
