Towards a framework for targeting national-scale, native revegetation in Aotearoa New Zealand’s agroecosystems

Abstract

The incorporation of native, woody vegetation into New Zealand’s agricultural ecosystems offers a “nature-based solution” approach for mitigating poor environmental outcomes of land use practices, biodiversity loss, and the accelerating effects of climatic change. However, to achieve this at scale requires a systematic framework for scoping, assessing, and targeting native revegetation opportunities in a way that addresses national-scale priorities, supports landscape-scale ecological processes, and recognises that land use decisions are made at farm-scales by landowners. In this forum discussion, we outline the requirements for a spatial decision support system for native revegetation; we provide illustrations of national-, landscape-, and farm-scale components of this framework and outline a range of organisational, societal, and scientific challenges that must be addressed to enable effective and targeted revegetation across the country. Our primary motivation is to provide a focus for discussions among scientists, policy makers, hapū, iwi, landowners, communities, and other interested parties who are invested in restoring biodiverse and resilient agroecosystems.