Presentation short abstract

We discuss the implications of lacking ecological monitoring in regional restoration projects, including potential unintended effects. We demonstrate how interventions shifted from exotic commercial trees to more native species, reflecting changes in socio-environmental and political contexts.

Presentation long abstract

Ecosystem restoration projects often involve the introduction or re-establishment of tree cover, but the ecological implications of restoration practices vary widely across interventions. Here, we discuss different aspects of land use changes and ecological indicators associated with regreening projects in Nigeria to understand the rationale and potential impacts on local ecology. We combine field surveys, stakeholder interviews, project documentation, and time series of satellite-derived vegetation data to question what drives changes in vegetation cover in the wake of projects in Kano, Katsina, and Jigawa during the past 50 years.

We discuss how projects historically focused on commercially valuable exotic trees, whereas native species have become more common in recent decades. Project goals have shifted from commercial plantations toward broader landscape management, climate change mitigation, and job creation, but the long-term ecological impacts remain relevant to be observed. We argue that decisions about landscape conversion and species selection both reflect and influence not only immediate project rationales but also the surrounding socio-environmental and political context. This indicates how these designs for environmental transformation not only pursue a specific version of ‘greenness’, including a projected land use, but also have potential wider ecological consequences, including unintended ones, that often remain underreported, especially in the wake of term-based interventions. These gaps indicate a risk posed by neglecting ecological monitoring of such efforts, raising concerns about their impacts on regional socio-ecological contexts.