Restoring African landscapes with indigenous food-bearing trees

Deforestation is a major problem across Africa. It is widely recognized that deforestation harms biodiversity, but tree loss also harms dietary quality, as nutritious fruits, nuts, seeds and leaves disappear from the landscape. More than $1 billion has been pledged for landscape restoration in Africa, but Emilie C. Vansant and colleagues report in a Perspective that many projects tend to focus on planting fast-growing, exotic tree species rather than native species. Such low-diversity plantations are vulnerable to pests, wildfires, drought and other extreme weather events, and introduced species can sometimes outcompete local vegetation. Their work is published in PNAS Nexus.