In Season 3 of Branching out: the forest podcast, we explore how scientists in IUFRO collaborate across disciplines to tackle emerging topics through Task Forces. We continue the Season with the Task Force on Post-Conflict Forest Landscape Restoration: Make "It Back Better" and will learn about impacts of armed conflicts on forests and people and major restoration challenges.

Host Gerda Wolfrum from IUFRO Headquarters and co-host Rodrigo Mendes, European Forest Institute (EFI), Finland, and IUFRO Communications Working Party Deputy Coordinator, spoke with Task Force co-leads Marine Elbakidze, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine, affiliated with SLU and Södertörn University, Sweden, and Stefan Peters, Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ) and University of Giessen, Germany.

Post-conflict forest landscape restoration is the process of restoring forests damaged by conflict while supporting community recovery, resilience, reconciliation, justice, and sustainable development through a comprehensive and adaptive recovery strategy. The Task Force seeks to provide scientific knowledge and innovative solutions for understanding the threats to and impacts on forest landscapes in post-conflict settings, thus supporting decision making. 

Marine Elbakidze, landscape ecologist by training, emphasized, "When we talk about restoring forests, we are not talking about restoring the trees alone. We are restoring the ecological functions that forests provide and that people depend on. We are talking about resources that can contribute directly to food security, household income and rural livelihoods."

Stefan Peters works a lot on natural resources, on environmental peace building, and looks at the topic from the social science perspective. He noted, "We must take into consideration not only the mid- and long-term impacts on livelihoods, but also those on cultural connections between humans and nature, especially in remote areas where Indigenous Peoples live."

A key message of the conversation is that post-conflict forest landscape restoration does not automatically mean making it back better. After a war, there is enormous pressure to rebuild quickly, but restoring quickly is not necessarily restoring well. We need to think not only about trees but also about soil, water biodiversity and future risks, and at the same time about the safe forest management and the recovery of institutions and communities. 'Making it back better' means using restoration as an opportunity to build more resilient forest landscapes, and more resilient relations between forests and people. 

Rodrigo Mendes concluded, "Understanding and addressing the impact of conflict on forest landscapes and their restoration is essential for protecting nature and ensuring that people can live and thrive in a healthy, secure and resilient environment."


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