Community-driven tree planting greens the neighbouring landscape

Abstract Nature-based solutions to climate change are growing policy priorities yet remain hard to quantify. Here we use remote sensing to quantify direct and indirect benefits from community-led agroforestry by The International Small group and Tree planting program (TIST) in Kenya. Since 2005, TIS...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Joshua Buxton, Tom Powell, John Ambler, Chris Boulton, Arwen Nicholson, Rudy Arthur, Kirsten Lees, Hywel Williams, Timothy M. Lenton
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:
R
Q
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/91891e8ae80744c1adf57b6c11788e22
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Abstract Nature-based solutions to climate change are growing policy priorities yet remain hard to quantify. Here we use remote sensing to quantify direct and indirect benefits from community-led agroforestry by The International Small group and Tree planting program (TIST) in Kenya. Since 2005, TIST-Kenya has incentivised smallholder farmers to plant trees for agricultural benefit and to sequester CO2. We use Landsat-7 satellite imagery to examine the effect on the historically deforested landscape around Mount Kenya. We identify positive greening trends in TIST groves during 2000–2019 relative to the wider landscape. These groves cover 27,198 ha, and a further 27,750 ha of neighbouring agricultural land is also positively influenced by TIST. This positive ‘spill-over’ impact of TIST activity occurs at up to 360 m distance. TIST also benefits local forests, e.g. through reducing fuelwood and fodder extraction. Our results show that community-led initiatives can lead to successful landscape-scale regreening on decadal timescales.