Tropical forest policy and restoration practice related to climate change mitigation and role of secondary forests

Description of impact

None yet, from Charlotte Smith's specific research, but the significance of this research is being increasingly acknowledged. However, there is now more tangible impact on the tropical forest restoration practice of the company Rainforest Builder. Healey is a member of its Science Advisory Board (see Activities). This draws on a much wider range of Healey's research and accumulated expertise in forest restoration. This has specifically influenced the new Best Practice Guidelines for their restoration practice. Rainforest Builder have put in the public domain that they are actively restoring forest (using these guidelines) in Ghana and Sierra Leone. They treat as confidential the area of restored forest and the other countries they plan to expand into - see notes below.

Description of the underpinning research

Smith, C.C., Espírito-Santo, F.D.B., Healey, J.R., Young, P.J., Lennox, G.D., Ferreira, J. & Barlow, J. (2020). Secondary forests offset less than 10% of deforestation-mediated carbon emissions in the Brazilian Amazon. Global Change Biology 26, 7006-7020. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15352
Smith, C.C., Healey, J.R., Berenguer, E., Young, P.J.,Taylor,B., Elias, F., Espírito-Santo, F. & Barlow, J. (2021). Old-growth forest loss and secondary forest recovery across Amazonian countries. Environmental Research Letters 16: 085009. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac1701
Smith, C.C., Barlow, J., Schwartz, N., Healey, J.R., Young, P.J. & Miranda, L. (2023). Amazonian secondary forests are greatly reducing fragmentation and edge exposure in old-growth forests. Environmental Research Letters 18: 124016. http://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad039e

Beneficiaries and reach of impact

Tropical forest and climate change policy makers, and practitioners in tropical forest conservation. Global but with foci in the Amazon and West Africa

General Notes

September 2023: Charlotte's first two papers continue to be well cited in strongly policy-oriented publications, but I have not come across any tangible impact beyond that.
Charlotte's third paper has the potential to generate impact with a different (biodiversity conservation) stakeholder segment: Smith, C.C., Barlow, J., Schwartz, N., Healey, J.R., Young, P.J. & Miranda, L. (2023). Amazonian secondary forests are greatly reducing fragmentation and edge exposure in old-growth forests. Environmental Research Letters 18: 124016. http://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad039e.  As an exemplar it has been cited in a policy document: https://www.theamazonwewant.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/PB-Restoration-en.pdf

Rainforest Builder has underway restoration of > 100,000 ha of forest, funded through carbon credits, and the success of this practice (underpinned by the scientific advice of Healey and other members of the Science Advisory Board), will have large scale material impacts on two of the global crises: climate change and biodivesity, livelihoods of rural poor in at least two African countries, and the growth of the company. 

Impact status	Potential
Category of impact	Environmental