Planting and replanting: Continuity and change over four decades of forest restoration in Himachal Pradesh, India

Societal Impact Statement India has a long history of planting trees to restore ecosystem services providing an opportunity to evaluate long‐term ecosystem restoration processes. We show that these programs have shifted over time in response to public demands as well as through changes in the government's vision for forests. These shifts point towards opportunities and limits for political responsiveness in the design and implementation of restoration programs. Independent evaluations have shown that the tree planting programs we study often fail to achieve their goals, raising questions about their benefits, and risks from positioning tree planting as a panacea for social and environmental problems. Summary Aims: Interest in forest restoration has increased in recent years with the goal of increasing carbon storage, protecting biodiversity, and improving the delivery of ecosystem services to aid rural livelihoods. However, there is little systematic analysis of how this trend relates to broader histories of landscape interventions. Methods: We analyze a dataset comprising 36 years of government plantation records from the forest department of the Indian Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh. Findings: Restoration‐oriented tree planting peaked in the 1980s and 1990s with heavy domestic funding. Counter to dominant policy narratives, most plantation programs did not formally involve the participation of local people and were not funded by donors or carbon markets. Over time, planting shifted away from commercial timber species towards a more diverse set of native broadleaf species, reflecting local preferences for the production of firewood, fodder, and other non‐timber forest products and ecosystem services as well as changing conceptions by government agencies about what and who a forest is meant to serve. Over time, the number of programs sponsoring tree planting has proliferated, reflecting the ways that tree planting has been framed as the solution to a growing number of problems, ranging from poverty alleviation to climate adaptation. Conclusion: The current global focus on forest restoration and nature‐based climate solutions represents a reframing of long‐existing policies and programs in this region. As with past policy changes, restoration practices are likely to be influenced by long‐term histories, entrenched practices, and local political influences.