8 February 2010: The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has created a new website on assisted natural regeneration (ANR) of forests, an effective and low cost forest and biodiversity restoration and rehabilitation method.
ANR is especially important and useful in the face of climate change and the rapid loss of forests and their biodiversity. The new website explains that ANR aims to accelerate, rather than replace, natural successional processes by removing or reducing barriers to natural forest regeneration such as soil degradation, competition with weedy species and recurring disturbances. The website also lists benefits to ANR, including: regenerating forests cost-efficiently; providing job opportunities for communities; increasing biodiversity; providing hunting areas; and increasing carbon sequestration and carbon sinks. [The Website]