Nothofagus alessandrii forests in Chile 235
essential to assess invasion processes and the spatial and temporal attributes of fires (i.e. severity and size) at the land- scape level (Kattenborn et al., 2019; Fassnacht et al., 2021). In addition, the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems (Alaniz et al., 2019) can inform policy process and identify policy instru- ments that could improve ecosystem-level outcomes for biodiversity conservation (Keith et al., 2015). The use of complementary and integrated approaches at a national scale would facilitate the study of temporal ecosystem changes and generate landscape-integrated conservation and restoration strategies, including those that are pertinent to N. alessandrii stands. Thus, land-use planning and large-scale restoration are key to changing those landscape spatial characteristics that render areas vulnerable to human and natural disturbances. Programmes focused on the conservation ofN. alessandrii
forests at the landscape scale should receive high national pri- ority to prevent the disappearance of these ecosystems. Such programmes will need to design a more diverse, heteroge- neous and less flammable landscape through the conversion of 40–50% of industrial forest plantations in each 20,000– 50,000 ha watershed to native forests, including N. alessan- drii. This should also include the creation of 40–50 mwide buffer zones along streams and headwaters surrounded by exotic forest plantations and/or other productive uses. Converting these areas to native forests would introduce fire breaks as native forests are significantly less flammable than plantations and provide ecosystem services such as water provision, carbon sequestration, maintenance of soil fertility, recreation and habitat conservation. Such conversion would require large-scale restoration programmes designed and implemented through collaborations between the gov- ernment, timber companies, NGOs and other landowners. This could be part of the restoration at the landscape scale of 1 million ha, committed by Chile as a National Determined Contribution to the Conference of the Parties (COP25, Madrid 2019) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This landscape-scale restor- ation appears to be the only realisticway tomaintain sustain- able timber supply fromproductive forest plantations that are compatible with the conservation of N. alessandrii stands and other forest types, as well as the provision of ecosystem ser- vices under current and future fire regimes and the drying and heating trends associated with climate change. This land- scape restoration plan isambitious but probably the onlyway to ensure the survival of the remaining N. alessandrii stands and the re-establishment of stands in the historical distribu- tion of the species through restoration. The restoration pro- grammes should also create buffer zones (or fire breaks) around remnant N. alessandrii stands when surrounded by exotic pine plantations, to protect them from fire and inva- sion by exotic species. These buffer zones should be 40–50 m wide and covered by short native shrubs surrounded by 40–100 m of thinned and pruned plantations, to reduce
fuel load. These programmes should also create a financial foundation for the conservation, restoration and study of N. alessandrii stands, comprising public and private funding and led by stakeholders living in the Maule region, along with a strong outreach programme. A model for this kind of organization could be Corporación Alerce, which is dedi- cated to the conservation of Fitzroya cupressoides (alerce), a large, long-lived, threatened conifer in southern Chile and an iconic species that ismore abundant than N. alessandrii. At the stand scale, the most urgent actions are to control the post-fire regeneration of pines established in N. alessandrii stands and to remove large adult pines from these stands. Effective land-use planning and the implementation of res- toration and forest management strategies are priorities if we are to protect the Maulino forests and avoid the extinc- tion of N. alessandrii forest ecosystems.
Acknowledgements Research support was provided by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico, Fondo de Financiamiento de Centros de Investigación en Áreas Prioritarias, Centre for Fire and Socioecosystem Resilience, and Forestal Mininco S.A. through the Ecological Restoration and Recovery of Ecosystem Services project. We thank Mauricio Barría for field assistance, Alamiro Navarrete from Forestal Mininco S.A. for assistance in the res- toration project, Forestal Arauco S.A. for providing 5-m resolution digital elevation model products, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful critiques.
Author contributions Conception, design: MEG, MG, JL, CL, CB-R; data collection: MEG, MG, CB-R; data analysis, writing: MEG, MG, JL, CL, CB-R, AL, JSM; revision: all authors.
Conflicts of interest None.
Ethical standards This study abided by the Oryx guidelines on ethical standards.
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Oryx, 2023, 57(2), 228–238 © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605322000102
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