Indicators for Equitable Restoration of Commons Through Invasive Species Removal in Central India

Abstract

Restoration of natural ecosystems often aims to benefit both people and nature by improving ecosystem functioning and supporting sustainable production and livelihoods. Lantana camara is a prolific invader of tropical dry forests, fallows and pasture lands that serve as common pool resources for indigenous people and local communities. Locally relevant and socially equitable restoration in L. camara affected areas needs accessible methods to map and monitor the species’ spread and integration of socio-economic data in planning. We developed an algorithm to detect and monitor L. camara in non-forested commons of a tropical dry forest-agricultural landscape in central India. To guide restoration planning, we mapped the extent of L.camara across land tenures and developed a spatially explicit indicator, the Resource Access Stress Index (RASI), that combined L.camara classification output with socio-economic variables. Of the three open-access remotely-sensed products we analyzed (Landsat-8, Sentinel-2 & -1 and Planet Basemaps), Sentinel-2 (& Sentinel-1) yielded the most accurate classification of L. camara and distinguished it from regenerating vegetation with similar spectral signatures to L. camara. Of the total L. camara affected area, 74% was in commons under government ownership (39% forest land and 35% Revenue Department), while 12% was within private land. The RASI assigned highest resource access stress rank to 48 out of 491 villages, providing insights about restoration prioritization. This study advances open access approaches and indicators to monitor and prioritize restoration of commons impacted by invasive plants and demonstrates how global restoration goals can be locally contextualized.

Keywords: Invasive alien species, Lantana camara, Non-forest commons, Land tenure, Remote Sensing, Locally relevant restoration