Restoring degraded lands: Restoration strategies in India and the role of bamboo

In the UN decade for ecological restoration, global efforts to restore ecosystems have gained momentum. India has set afforestation and land degradation neutrality targets which focus on agroforestry and joint forest management approaches. However, a clear and comprehensive picture of restoration initiatives has not been produced. This includes a lack of context specific information on the approaches and interventions planned. This review addresses this gap in knowledge. We found that active restoration approaches dominated and involved planting and use of 337 different species of trees/shrubs/grasses across 172 sites. While the documented activities go back to 1883, an increasing number of cases have been published between 1990 and 2020. These projects have generally been implemented on fairly small areas of land, usually less than one km2. The most common drivers of degradation were mining, logging, lopping and grazing. The activities involved planting tree species, grasses and, sometimes, crops that had local use, economic value or could grow in harsh conditions. The use of bamboo was limited to 30 cases and 15 species, and their use was generally context or problem-specific. The reports often provide scanty information, with details missing of planting material source, frequency of fertilization and irrigation, and adaptive management. Negative outcomes have rarely been observed or reported. The assessment of ecological attributes, such as vegetation structure and soil physico-chemical properties dominate the studies. Most cases recorded at least one or two attributes after establishing plantations, but the duration of monitoring varied among studies. The involvement of local communities and other stakeholders has been limited to a few studies, with varying levels of engagement being reported. Poor documentation of the cases and lack of conceptual clarity present a significant gap in this field.