About Diversity for Restoration (D4R) tool:

• It is developed with information on 237 socio-economically important native trees from the Western Ghats.
• It is devised by Bioversity International.
• The team from Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), with the help of Bioversity International, modified it to promote restoration programmes in India.

Features

• The researchers have claimed the tool will help improve the effectiveness of restoration programmes by providing manifold benefits to interested stakeholders while promoting sustainable development.
• The online tool precisely aims to help better decision-making and bring the best outcome for those plantation programmes.
• It could improve socio-ecological perspectives and help stakeholders in decision-making.
• The tool helps the user in identifying species that match their restoration objectives.
• It further helps identify species that can resist local stresses and adapt to evolving environmental conditions.
• It also helps pinpoint areas and regions to procure the seeds for the required species.
• The tool has information about 100 plant functional traits that have been considered to offer the best possible solution.
• Functional traits include information on economic and ecological uses from the tree species chosen for plantation.
• The tool informs the user whether the tree species offers timber, fruit, manure or other commercial benefits.
• It also informs if the tree is resilient to physiological stresses such as extreme high or low temperatures, salinity or acidity tolerance in the soil among others.
• The tool could also identify windbreakers - the trees can act as a barrier against high winds.
• The user can also know if the species offers better nitrogen fixing and whether it serves as a good pollinator for birds and bees.
• This tool is already being used in countries such as Malaysia, Ethiopia, Columbia, Peru, Burkina Faso, Cameroon etc.