Lessons learned from 25 years of operational large-scale restoration: The Sow-A-Seed project, Sabah, Borneo

E. Petter Axelsson and Kevin C. Grady and David Alloysius and Jan Falck and Daniel Lussetti and Charles Santhanaraju VairappanSanthanaraju Vairappan and Yap Sau Wai and Keiko Ioki and Maria Lourdes T. Lardizabal and Berhaman Ahmad (2024) Lessons learned from 25 years of operational large-scale restoration: The Sow-A-Seed project, Sabah, Borneo. Ecological Engineering, 206. pp. 1-15.

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Abstract

While restoration projects globally scale-up to meet the growing demand to restore degraded ecosystems, data on the long-term benefits of restoration are still rare. Here, we describe the lessons learned from the Sow-A-Seed project in Sabah, Borneo: a long-term and large-scale restoration project launched in 1998 with the aim to rehabilitate 18,500 ha of tropical rainforest degraded by logging and forest fires. The project was built from the ground-up, including establishment of essential infrastructure and knowledge creation via trial-and-error. Three restoration techniques were used depending on the level of degradation; 1) Assisted Natural Regeneration (weeding, climber cutting and selective girdling) to promote natural regeneration of late-successional species in the least disturbed forests, and; 2) Enrichment Planting in gap-clusters in moderately disturbed forests, and; 3) Enrichment Planting in rows (i.e, line-planting) throughout heavily degraded forests with no- or few late suc cessional tree species in the overstory. The project includes successful propagation of 92 native tree species including dipterocarps and fruit trees, and planting of over 5 million trees during the last 25 years. Long-term monitoring shows that the mortality rate of planted seedlings is ~15% per year up to 3 years, but decreases to ~2% between years 3–10 and 10–20. One of the largest trees, a Shorea leprosula planted in 1998, is now 74 cm in DBH and some planted trees have reached reproductive age and are contributing to natural regeneration. A range of wildlife including orangutans, elephants, hornbills and all five wildcat species in Sabah have been documented in the area. In 2015, the area was classified as a Class 1 protected forest, the highest level of conservation status in Malaysia, and removed from commercial forestry. We highlight that there is much knowledge to be gained by research dove-tailing with operational activities, and we encourage that the lessons learned from operational restoration are shared among practitioners and restoration ecologists. We present 8 key lessons learned from the Sow-a-Seed project.

Item Type:	Article
Keyword:	Large-scale reforestation Biodiversity conservation INIKEA Forest degradation Dipterocarpaceae Tropical forest restoration
Subjects:	Q Science > QK Botany > QK1-989 Botany > QK504-(638) Cryptogams T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering > TD1-1066 Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering > TD878-894 Special types of environment Including soil pollution, air pollution, noise pollution
Department:	FACULTY > Faculty of Tropical Forestry
Depositing User:	ABDULLAH BIN SABUDIN -
Date Deposited:	29 Nov 2024 12:29
Last Modified:	29 Nov 2024 12:29
URI:	https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/42041

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