Harmonization Approach to Spatial and Social Techniques to Define Landscape Restoration Areas in a Colombian Andes Complex Landscape

Abstract

Landscape restoration activities must be conducted through a transdisciplinary process, integrating social, economic, environmental, and governance aspects. Combining visions from the natural and social sciences is a challenge in highly complex territories, where unique ecosystem characteristics, economic processes, stakeholders of diverse nature, and different normativity converge. The harmonization of multiple techniques, such as multicriteria spatial analysis, expert knowledge elicitation, and social mapping, allows for an approach to defining landscape restoration areas in complex regions. This paper employs multiple techniques to define ecosystem restoration areas in a complex Colombian Andes landscape, integrating ecological and social components for sustainable development. We observed that areas of high and very high feasibility for ecological restoration, encompassing 179.5 hectares (4.84% of the study area), are predominantly located near primary forests. Although some areas have a low feasibility for conservation processes, they should not be disregarded as they still require protection. Landowners prioritize watershed and soil restoration as the most important landscape restoration activity due to their interest in improving water-related ecosystem services. This proposal enables the identification of areas with a higher restoration potential at the property level, facilitating prioritization and investment allocation for future implementation.